The woke mob who run the National Trust are about to feel the heat of more scrutiny. Conservative MP Andrew Murrison is launching a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the National Trust next week in light of “the intense interest its recent activities have provoked throughout the country”.

Murrison is referring to the Trust’s report linking its properties – including Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill – to the UK’s colonial past. Murrison adds: “The Trust is a national treasure of which we should all be proud but it has to be accountable to those it was set up by Parliament to benefit. I hope the APPG will be of assistance.”

The Trust – which said that “sadly” it was not informed about the new group – is going through the properties named in the report to see if more research is needed, and said that it would be “delighted to engage with politicians who have an interest in our work”.

I wonder how long that will last.

Goodnight Mogg

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s generosity knows no bounds. The Leader of the Commons has disclosed that he organised a sleepover for a leading political journalist. Rees-Mogg’s entry in his ministerial register says he hosted an “overnight stay at the minister’s private residence” (a Grade II-listed Jacobean mansion in Somerset) for Sebastian Payne, who has just published a book on “levelling up”, in August last year.

Despite keeping an ironed set of pyjamas ready, I’m sad to report that I am still awaiting my invitation.

Return of the UK theme

Rule, Britannia! The BBC is looking at bringing back the UK Theme. BBC chiefs have told Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, that Radio 4 is “considering” reinstating the five-minute theme which woke up listeners at dawn from 1978 to 2006, despite a spokesman insisting there are no “current” plans.

The original was an arrangement of traditional British and Irish airs, including excerpts from Danny Boy, What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?, Scotland the Brave, Rule Britannia, Men of Harlech, Greensleeves and Early One Morning.

Mordaunt tells me she wants the BBC to develop a “modern UK Theme … that is perhaps more relevant to younger generations”.

She adds: “Much as I love What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?, there might be better tunes to include.”

Any ideas? Email me.

The art of leadership

Conservative Anna Firth, who won Thursday’s Southend West by-election, has a curious link to Margaret Thatcher. She is the niece of sculptor Shenda Amery, who famously made a bronze of Thatcher in her early days in Downing Street.

Amery, now 84, made two Thatcher bronzes as well as busts of John Major, Robin Cook, Betty Boothroyd and King Hussein of Jordan and is now offering to create one of Boris Johnson. “I have done three prime ministers and I would not mind doing a fourth,” she says.

Given the chaos in No 10, she’d better hurry up.

Chiles and Viner to tie the knot

Happy news for television and radio’s Adrian Chiles and Guardian newspaper editor Kath Viner, who have quietly got engaged, I can exclusively reveal. Chiles – who moonlights as a Guardian columnist, penning such gems as “Croatia has enchanting words for genitalia. Why doesn’t the UK?” – was for some years one of London’s most eligible bachelors, dating women such as the Labour MP Rosie Duffield and the comedian Catherine Tate.

I’m sure he will be very happy now he’s settling down. Congratulations to them both.

Farewell to a Telegraph great

Two hundred friends, family and former colleagues of former Daily Telegraph reporter Roland Gribben gathered in St Barnabas Church, Purley, yesterday for his funeral.

Roly – as he was universally known – worked in the Telegraph newsroom until he was 80, over five decades.

It could have been so different. When the makers of the 1965 Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came In From the Cold wanted a left-handed shorthand writer, Roly jumped at the chance for his big break. “How tall are you?” asked the producers. “Six feet, two inches,” said Roly. “We need someone shorter,” they said.

Hollywood’s loss was our gain.

Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope, the Telegraph’s chief political correspondent and the author of the daily Chopper’s Politics newsletter. You can reach him at peterborough@telegraph.co.uk