AT the Labour manifesto pow-wow yesterday, former Foreign Secretary Dame Margaret Beckett was asked by one brave reporter if she was embarrassed by the leak, or, indeed, if she was responsible for it. Peering at the hack disdainfully, she replied: "Oh don't be silly. I haven't seen the b****y thing, have I?"

THERESA May sure bangs about shoes, but the SNP's Mairi Evans has outdone her with a toe show for the latest Holyrood magazine. The Angus MSP reveals she’s a martyr to hammer toes, even taking off a shoe to confirm the bogging digits. "You see they curve around like that, see?" she says, over-sharing horribly. Unspun hears her poor interviewer has yet to recover.

NOT that Ms Evans is odd, you understand, although she also reveals she has a phobia of spiders, hates moths, is claustrophobic and keeps having nightmares about her and everyone she knows dying in tsunamis. “I’m transfixed by programmes about tsunamis - they’re fascinating, but also something that terrifies me.” Sounds fair. Just ask Scottish Labour.

THE SNP love bashing Tory MSP and Moray hopeful Douglas Ross over this second job as a referee. A “brazen” part-timer, they fume. Perhaps they should check SNP councillors first. After just scraping in last week amid a bunch of newbies, one Edinburgh veteran grumbled: “I will have to reflect on how much time and effort I am now going to commit to my role.” Who? The ironically named Norman Work.