ANDREW PIERCE: Wanted: Buyer for a £35,000 bronze of Rishi Sunak
Renowned transplant surgeon Nadey Hakim, who also happens to be a distinguished sculptor, has created a bronze of Rishi Sunak.
His previous works include a David Cameron bust which went for £90,000 at a Tory fundraiser. It now gazes down from the staircase at the Carlton Club, home of the Tory establishment.
In 2000, Hakim helped perform the world’s first double-arm transplant. His greatest triumph as a sculptor was presenting his likeness of Pope Francis to the pontiff: a photo of which has pride of place in his studio.
‘The Pope telling me he liked my sculpture is the nicest comment you could ever get,’ Hakim tells me.
A bronze bust of Rishi Sunak will be a 'collector's item', it's sculptor has said
Nadey Hakim, who is also a renowned transplant surgeon, has previously made statues of political figures including David Cameron and Boris Johnson (pictured)
But who on earth will want a £35,000 bust of the former prime minister? No one's goig to commission another statue of Sunak after Thursday's defeat, writes ANDREW PIERCE
But who on earth will want his £35,000 bust of the short-lived Tory premier? ‘It will be a collector’s item,’ says Hakim.
He’s right. No one’s going to commission another bust of Sunak now he’s presided over the Tories’ worst defeat in history.
Poll clear as mud for impressionist Bremner
Rory Bremner on X: ‘Exit poll predicting Labour Landslide. Ed Davey hoping for a LibDem Mudslide.’
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree (pictured, centre) went back to his day job after failing to win Mid Sussex for Labour, losing to the Lib Dems
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree went back to the day job after failing to win Mid Sussex for Labour.
The Lib Dems won after Corbynista rocker Billy Bragg urged a tactical vote for them to beat the Tories. Should be interesting if they meet next Glasto.
With Britain hosting a big summit at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, for 50 European heads of state this month, let’s hope Foreign Secretary David Lammy isn’t quizzed on his French history.
When on Celebrity Mastermind in 2009 he was asked which Marie won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903.
Newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy once incorrectly said that Marie Antoinette won a Nobel Prize for physics on Mastermind in 2009
He said Marie Antoinette, executed by guillotine in 1793. The correct answer was Marie Curie, a Polish-French physicist.
Is this Sir Keir Starmer’s first U-turn as Prime Minister? Labour’s manifesto talks of a retirement age of 80 for peers, to cut numbers in the House of Lords.
Yet, on his list of new peers announced last week is Dame Margaret Beckett, who served in Tony Blair’s Cabinet and stood down from the Commons in May. She is 81.
Let’s hope ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie doesn’t visit Labour-run Wales.
He posts: ‘How dim are the Welsh? Despite having the worst-performing education and health systems in the UK, they returned 27 Labour MPs, nine more than last time. Expect the country to become poorer, sicker and more stupid — if that’s possible.’
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie suggested the Welsh were 'dim' for returning 27 Labour MPs
Reynolds' U-turn on polls
As a keen young Labour MP, Johnny Reynolds tabled a Bill in 2015 demanding an end to the first-past-the-post voting system for general elections.
He told the Commons: ‘I make a plea today for not just a proportional voting system but a patriotic voting system, in which all parts of the country, and all shades of opinion, are treated equally and fairly.’
Before last week’s poll, Reynolds, now Business Secretary, was asked if he is still as fervent.
New Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds appears to have changed his mind on reforming Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system
‘If you look at constituencies up and down the country there really is only one... party that is competitive in all parts of the UK. That is the Labour Party which gives us a chance to form a government.’ I’ll take that as a no.
Maybe the Tories hoped for a miracle in Cardiff East by choosing Rev Beatrice Brandon, a C of E vicar, to fight the seat. She came a poor fifth.
Also an exorcist, she helps souls ‘feeling they may be haunted, cursed or possessed’ — like any of 250 Tories who lost their seats.
