Great friend, terrible foe? How Michael Ashcroft still steering the debate

If this week's tetchy exchanges between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak at PMQs proved one thing, it was the ability of the veteran businessman, donor and publisher Michael Ashcroft to set the political agenda.

- Kiran Stacey

While Starmer revelled in the publication of 10 Years to Save the West, which was written by the former prime minister Liz Truss and published this week by Ashcroft's Biteback Publishing, Sunak wanted to focus on another Biteback book - Ashcroft's own Red Queen?, a biography of Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Confronted by accusations over Rayner's tax affairs which were prompted by Red Queen? Starmer could not hide his irritation. "We have a billionaire prime minister and a billionaire peer, both of whose families have used schemes to avoid millions of pounds of tax, smearing a working-class woman," he said.

Starmer's comments have now provoked a demand for an apology from Ashcroft. But the writer and publisher could be forgiven for being quietly delighted at a political week dominated by his company's two most recent books.

"Biteback selects titles for which they believe there is likely to be a readership," Ashcroft told the Guardian. "The few years have been challenging for independent publishers but I am happy to say that this year Biteback is in the black and the future looks good."