Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike
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Oh dear. Just when you thought the Greens could sink no lower on crime and justice, along came Zack Polanski yesterday with his take on the Golders Green stabbing. The ever-online left-wing leader thought it appropriate to share a post on X, criticising cops for kicking the knife-wielding Somalian attacker in the process of apprehending
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Back in February, Steerpike’s old friend Ed Miliband vowed to liberate Britain’s nuclear industry from the stranglehold of bureaucracy. Red Ed promised to take a sledgehammer to the ‘archaic rules’ holding back the construction of power stations across the land. He even admitted that Britain’s record on nuclear is diabolical on a global scale, with
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Many in SW1 have remarked that Kemi Badenoch has come on quite a bit since her early PMQs’ appearances. The Tory leader can now land a blow on television and can address the Commons with the confidence and clarity she lacked in earlier days. Significant progress, then. But alas, yesterday brought a reminder that live
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With a week to go before voters take to the polls, the race for victory is heating up. But it is not merely the familiar scramble over potholes, bin collections and municipal leisure centres that is exercising Westminster. The other contest – the one to replace Sir Keir Starmer – is acquiring a momentum of
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Wakey wakey! Whoooo remembers the United Kingdom Independence Party? Steerpike has fond memories of Ukip, Nigel Farage’s previous-but-one political vehicle which he then left to lead the Brexit Party back during the not-so-sunny days of Theresa May’s government. Along the way, a fair few Kippers have followed Farage on his journey and now ended up
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As a darling of the progressive commentariat, Gary Lineker is not usually one to let injustice pass unremarked. The former BBC star has become a tireless outrider for the Palestinian cause, devoting generous acreage on social media and in interviews to Gaza. On that subject, dear Gary has told us that ‘when I see some
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It has been a pretty grim day in Golders Green. Two Jewish men have been stabbed, with the Metropolitan Police formally declaring it a terrorist incident. Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have said they are ‘sickened’; Sir Ephraim Mervis, the Chief Raabi, warns that ‘today’s event proves that if you are
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As local elections loom ever closer, Britain’s intrepid party leaders have taken to the road to pitch themselves far and wide. Set-piece visits are a chance to show the Westminster elite really are down with the people. So who, in the run-up to next week’s high-stakes poll, has gone all guns blazing in the battle
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After Robert Jenrick’s (not entirely) shocking defection to Reform in January, Westminster’s eyes swiftly turned towards one of the Tory party’s new bright young things: Katie Lam. Would the 34-year-old MP for Weald of Kent pack her bags and follow her political chum across the teal Rubicon? Lam, widely regarded as a rising star on
Oh dear. Just when you thought a British ambassador to the US couldn’t possibly cause any more grief for Sir Keir Starmer, enter Christian Turner. Peter Mandelson set a high bar for humiliating Labour ministers, but the career diplomat – who took up post in February – has given the Dark Lord a run for his
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It’s a blockbuster day in parliament today. To kick things off, we had Philip Barton up pleading ignorance; to close the proceedings tonight we have a vote on a possible Privileges Committee probe. But in between we have Morgan McSweeney, the longtime bête noire of the Labour left, giving testimony on the appointment of Peter
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Whooooo remembers Sir Philip Barton? The lifelong diplomat spent an inglorious four and a half years in charge of the Foreign Office, most memorably taking 11 days to return from holiday, just as Kabul was falling to the Taliban. But having been pensioned off at the end of 2025, now old Phil is back in
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So. Farewell then to the last hereditary peers. Today marks the last day in parliament for most of the small rump who avoided Tony Blair’s purge in 1999. Ahead of the new King’s Speech next month, the end of this legislative session marks the end of hereditaries in the House of Lords: one of the
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It’s that time of year again. Spring is sprung and that means another bad set of local elections for an unpopular incumbent government. Cue much gnashing of teeth, plenty of wringing of hands and an endless stream of policy announcements from Labour caucuses fearing the future of their party. One particularly noticeable faction is the
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Up until now, the subject of the Prime Minister’s political survival has been an awkward question for any Labour MP. Privately, many concede that he is ‘done’; publicly their proclaim their faith in a man who is stretching their patience to breaking point. The number who have called on him to go can be counted
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Oh dear. For many years, there has been an iron rule of Labour broadcasting: when you’re in a jam, call Pat McFadden. Generations of underpaid, overworked press officers have come to respect the Paisley pugilist for performing media heroics on a scale equivalent to the Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River. Hordes
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Oh dear. It seems that Keir Starmer’s strategy has, er, backfired once again. Having spent yesterday afternoon declaring to all and sundry that he was shocked, SHOCKED to discover that Peter Mandelson might have been a wrong ‘un, it was left to Olly Robbins this morning to deliver his response. With the calm demeanour of
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Keir Starmer has not being having a good time of it in the Commons. Once again, the PM has been dragged in front of the House to explain why on earth he appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador – despite his well-publicised relationship with the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This time, the questions have been over
With its ruthless backstabbing, unscrupulous characters and long-suffering flock, there is much overlap between the politics of the Church of England and those of the United Status. But, as Donald Trump continues to infuriate Catholics by brawling with the Pope, it seems that the onetime primate of the CofE is determined to get in on
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Spin, spin, spin! That furious sound you can hear out of Westminster is Labour’s apparatchiks doing their damnedest to dig Keir Starmer out of yet another hole. The Prime Minister is accused of misleading parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Our Man in Washington. The Labour grandee failed his developed vetting clearance in
