Hardcastle Ephraim
THE launch of The Kay Burley Show on Sky coincides with her becoming arguably the richest presenter in TV current affairs – as well as being the longest-serving, having been there since 1989. Miss Burley, 57, thought to earn about £300,000, had substantial shares in Sky, as well as those she loyally bought via the employee share buying scheme. They have rocketed in value after Sky’s £30billion sale to Comcast.
LABOUR’S Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer hopes to become party leader, says a source, ‘but his knighthood could be an obstacle’. Why so? ‘Because it was awarded, in 2014, for his role as director of public prosecutions, before he became an MP. Tony Benn disclaimed his hereditary title, Baron Stansgate, hoping to be Labour leader. He never made it.’
GLENDA Jackson’s successor as Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq, pictured, quotes the actress’s verdict on Jeremy Corbyn in a new book, The Honourable Ladies: ‘He’s got no more ability to lead a bloody party than to fly to the moon.’ Is it prudent of Tulip, 36, to repeat such a calumny?
JEREMY Clarkson, 58, informs fans: ‘Waited so long for the electric car I’m using this week to charge and I’m now too p **** d to drive it.’ Clarkson’s hostility to electric cars angers the industry. Motoring expert Quentin Willson has said, ‘Clarkson could kill the EV industry and millions of jobs’. Like Jeremy, too silly for words.
SHADOW Chancellor John McDonnell has ‘a bright brain and dark heart’, says political magazine Prospect. Adding that he has had two marriages, a brother who is a police chief superintendent (quelle horreur!) and that he trained to become a priest – an experience he described as ‘sado-masochistic Christianity… kicking the s**t out of you’.
EMILY Thornberry MP wooed Labour delegates by singing the ditty When Irish Eyes Are Smiling during an Irish Embassy reception. Gordon Brown’s former well poisoner, Damian McBride – now Miss Thornberry’s creature – comments obsequiously: ‘Blimey, I didn’t realise the boss had this in her locker. It’s left these Irish eyes a bit tearful!’
At 97, Prince Philip still suffers barbs about his allegedly roving eye. Flamboyant TV homestyle consultant Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen says he fears that Meghan might attract the duke’s attention, claiming: ‘He had a ferocious eye for ladies as my wife [Jackie, who runs his business] knows from experience.’ Do tell!
FILMING his Channel 5 North Korea documentary, Michael Palin discovered no one had heard of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. So he showed his female minder footage of the Fish-Slapping Dance – in which Palin and John Cleese hit each other with fish. He said: ‘She laughed quite a lot. Jolly people, the Koreans.’