Michael Gove (Steve Parsons/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Some were toasting new PM Rishi Sunak at the launch of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book The World at the Mandarin Oriental last night
Michael Gove arrived late and said he was “very pleased” about Sunak’s elevation to the top job. “I’m pleased Kemi and Suella were persuaded,” he added, of the two former leadership hopefuls who went on to back Sunak.
Ex-BBC presenter Emily Maitlis congratulated Gove, but he wouldn’t be drawn on a Cabinet comeback. “I’m still trying to write my very, very boring book,” he told us. It’s on Viscount Bolingbroke, a Tory who tried to overthrow the King. “But it may never get written.” Could he be busy again soon?
There too was Petronella Wyatt, left, an ex of Boris Johnson, who told us she once fell out with Johnson when she said his knowledge of history was “patchy”. Wyatt told us not to write off the ex-PM. “His luck comes in threes”, she said. Just like Prime Ministers...
Stuck in the middle, to the sound of Radio One
One hour and counting stuck in this BBC lift - I’ve been promised rescue teams are on the way but no sign of them yet pic.twitter.com/2REXSxlBfq
— Ben Brown (@BenBrownBBC) October 24, 2022
The BBC’s dodgy lifts struck again last night, as News at One presenter Ben Brown, pictured, was stuck between floors for three hours after his shift. Earlier, Brown had broken news of the new Prime Minister on air. Each lift plays a different BBC radio station, and he said the blaring Radio One was “starting to drive me mad” after a while.
A technician was stuck in traffic, adding to the ordeal. Other presenters and interviewees have been stuck before, so we asked the BBC press office if there were any renovation plans this morning. They told us the lifts are now fixed. But how long for?
Reading the runes of political upheaval
WITH events moving faster than a lettuce can wilt, it takes a brave scribe to write a political tome at the moment. Financial Times journalist Sebastian Payne must have watched Boris Johnson’s failed attempt at a comeback with some concern over the weekend: Payne’s The Fall of Boris Johnson is out next month, and would have needed some hasty revisions.
Meanwhile, a biography of Liz Truss by journalists Harry Cole and James Heale has had another name change. It’s now called Out of the Blue: The inside story of the unexpected rise and rapid fall of Liz Truss, with a release date brought forward two weeks. The original title referred to Truss’s “astonishing rise to power”. But Liz’s salad days are already over.
Hair today for a good cause
ACTOR Vicky McClure had fun at hairdresser Louis Byrne’s I Can, I Am and I Will event last night. The immersive experience mixes hairdressing with mental health help. Labour leader Keir Starmer was at the Pride of Britain Awards in Mayfair with his wife Victoria. Also there were Carol Vorderman and runner Sir Mo Farah, who did his Mo-Bot dance when we asked what he is working on. In Qatar, model Naomi Campbell launched her new Emerge initiative to help fashion start- ups with YouTuber Jackie Aina.
