Meg makes a mess of Harriet’s hopes

THE relentless drive by Harriet Harman, left, to succeed John Bercow as Commons Speaker – on what critics say looks like a ‘Vote for me, I’m a woman and I’m Labour’ manifesto – has hit a hitch. Dog hears that Meg Hillier, also a Labour MP and a woman, is poised to enter the race. ‘This will queer Harriet’s pitch something awful,’ sniggered a (male) Labour colleague most unsympathetically. CABINET Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill is up before Parliament’s national security strategy committee tomorrow but in his dual role as National Security Adviser – a post he has so far clung on to despite becoming head of the Civil Service. So the first question for MPs is obvious – just why haven’t you quit your old job yet? John’s late show clocked JOHN McDONNELL should watch his back. When Jeremy Corbyn excused McDonnell’s late-show at Shadow Cabinet because the Commons had sat into the small hours the night before, up piped the Shadow Chancellor’s deputy Peter Dowd to say: ‘I was working late too and I’m here on time.’ John, you have been warned. IF REMAINER David Gauke does quit his Cabinet job in protest at a no-deal Brexit, he can forget about one alternative career path – stand-up comedy. The dry-asdust Justice Secretary was asked to suggest a name for a new beer. His catchy reply? ‘Hop Along.’ Precisely what Brexiteer Tory colleagues would dearly like him to do. HERE’S one strike that even some Leftie Labour types are unsure about. Traffic wardens in Wandsworth, South London, have downed tools over lack of sick pay. ‘I don’t know whether to join them on the picket line or take advantage of the free parking,’ said one Labour MP.