John Pienaar

Theresa May's centre stage tonight - again - so's Jeremy Corbyn - again.

They're both facing questions and a live audience on the BBC's Question Time, leaders special programme.

They couldn't do all the talking themselves in this election but few other major politicians on either side are to be seen.

Conservative or Labour - the trusted circle of big players urged on air has been strikingly small.

Amber Rudd the Home Secretary's seen often. So's Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon. Brexit Secretary David Davis has been on a few times... then, very occasionally, Boris Johnson, and just one or two others.

It's really rather easy to see why Boris Johnson believes a hypothetical US request for British help in bombing Syria might be hard to turn down.

It's far less easy to see why a British foreign secretary might choose the early stages of a general election campaign to speculate on the matter aloud.

Like yesterday's storms, the campaign circus - the big name politicians - have moved on.

The by-elections in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central have left politics a little clearer than before.

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Could Jeremy Corbyn be replaced as Labour leader? And if so when?

Those whispered questions have been echoing between Labour MPs and party apparatchiks at Westminster for weeks, for months. But today the guessing game has risen to a new pitch.

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Two parliamentary by-elections, two weeks away.

Is Labour a sitting duck in its own heartland territory?

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"Jeremy Corbyn hasn't changed his mind about anything in 40 years," goes the mocking refrain.

It sounds scornful, and it's meant to. It's also unfair. Just a little, anyway.

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For one minister - an enthusiast for Brexit - it was very simple: "You're either on board, or you're not. He wasn't. We move on." The minister sounded rather cheerful.

So, Sir Ivan Rogers had gone because his face didn't fit. Now the way was clear for a true believer in the opportunities opened up by the vote to leave the EU.

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David Davis has moved to reassure British firms and universities their interests will not be needlessly harmed by migration controls after the UK leaves the European Union.

Facing questions for the first time from the cross-party Brexit select committee, Mr Davis emphasised it was his job to return control of immigration policy to British ministers.

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If Theresa May was seeking to ramp up UK-India trade in smiles, salutes and friendly rhetoric, she'd have a world class deal already.

The prime minister shared a long lunch, a long chat and two public platforms with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi and she's sure to spend more time in future cultivating a personal and economic relationship she sees as vital to British prosperity after Brexit.

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At 37,000 feet, above the roar of the engines propelling the prime minister's official RAF Voyager aircraft towards Delhi, Theresa May's verdict on the raging "Press v judges" dispute was heard loud and clear in the crowded cabin.

"I value the independence of the judiciary," she said. "I also value the freedom of the press."