Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Robbie Griffiths

Londoner’s Diary: Touring politicians on sticky wicket as crisis looms

Lords and Commons team: MPs tour Jamaica

(Picture: Caroline Dinenage Instagram)

IT’S alright for some: despite the gloomy economic news, a group of politicians are in Jamaica on a sponsored cricket tour. Conservative chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris and minister Nigel Adams, as well as Tory MP Caroline Dinenage and her husband, peer Mark Lancaster, are on tour with the Lords and Commons team.

Dinenage posted this snap and one with West Indies star Chris Gayle online. How the trip was funded is not clear but the team has been criticised previously for taking money from billionaire Sanjeev Gupta for a tour of Australia. The group’s whites sport a Commons logo and that of Virgin Atlantic, who told us they paid for flights. It seems not everyone is struggling to pay the bills.

Enough is enough

A NEW headache for Keir Starmer, as Labour MP Zarah Sultana has teamed up with union leaders Mick Lynch and Eddie Dempsey on a new campaign to combat the cost of living crisis. New group Enough is Enough are calling for a pay rise and energy bill cuts, among other policy ideas. Labour leader Starmer has been uncertain over whether his MPs should be supporting strikes. Enough is Enough is proving popular: it had so many sign ups yesterday its website crashed.

Actresses defend intimacy coordinators

(Invision/AP)

ACTOR Sean Bean says the vogue for ‘intimacy co-ordinators’ who help manage sex scenes on film sets can “spoil the spontanity” of how lovers behave in real life. But Marvel’s Jameela Jamil disagrees, saying sex scenes are like a “stunt”, and “nobody wants an impromptu grope”. American star Rachel Zegler said intimacy co-ordinators create safety for actors. She added: “Spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe. Wake up”.

Ibiza rocks

Party people decamped to Ibiza for concierge service Deliciously Sorted’s 20th birthday bash last night. Among the stars were actors Matt Smith and Sienna Miller, photograher Nikolai Von Bismarck and model Emilia Boateng. Smith, who is about to star in Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, recently complained that the show has too many sex scenes in it. Had he seen the original series?

Grease musical tribute

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

THE West End musical Grease has dedicated the rest of its run at the Dominion Theatre to Olivia Newton-John, who sadly died yesterday. The star played Sandy opposite John Travolta in the 1978 hit film. Posting online, the musical called her an “icon”.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.