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
There was a time when Boris backers accused Rishi Sunak of being in cahoots with Dominic Cummings, as part of a plot to bring down the former PM. However, the relationship has certainly cooled since such claims. In his latest Substack, Cummings accuses Sunak of having no grip on power, no governing plan, no serious
This week the government has been focusing its energies on small boats crossing the channel, with several new immigration announcements. The government aim was to fill the news vacuum over the summer and put pressure on Labour. How has Small Boats Week gone so far? Well, today both the Times and Mail led on the
Uh oh. Following a rowdy bust up with the SNP’s chief whip Brendan O’Hara, the party establishment has now chosen to expel Angus MacNeil MP. MacNeil, a close ally of former first minister Alex Salmond, was initially suspended after news of the fight broke, which saw him reportedly seethe ‘you’re a small wee man!’ at
Dear oh dear. Those pesky junior doctors strike again — literally. The fifth round of industrial action started this morning and will last until 7am on Tuesday. Junior doctors in England are demanding full pay restoration of 35 per cent – which they say accounts for a 26 per cent real terms pay cut plus inflation.
To say the SNP have a disastrous record on transport would be putting it lightly. The ferries don’t run on time (if at all), the mystery of the motorhome remains unsolved and the nationalists still haven’t dualled Scotland’s most dangerous road. Perhaps then it’s no surprise to hear that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and
Move over Nicola Sturgeon, there’s a new sheriff in town. The former SNP leader has faced criticism this week, after it emerged that her government splurged just under £10,000 on VIP airport services for her and her staff – despite foreign affairs being a reserved power. When it comes to taking the mickey out of taxpayers
Is Diane Abbott OK? A day after the independent MP hit out at Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson for his foul-mouthed comment about migrants, Abbott has again waded into the subject. This time, however, it is Abbott who is guilty of using a rude word: Abbott subsequently deleted the tweet, which was a reference
Oh dear. It’s ‘Stop the Boats’ week in 10 Downing Street as the government tries to set the news agenda over the long summer recess. There were early signs of success as Suella Braverman’s pledge to target ‘crooked‘ immigration lawyers ran across various news outlets along with plans to crackdown on migrant traffickers in Turkey.
Another day, another ridiculous revelation emerges about the Scottish government. This time, it’s civil servants who are in hot water for splashing taxpayers’ cash on laser tag, Swingers (no, not that kind) crazy golf and a trip to Edinburgh Zoo. Public cash was also used to foot a £375 bill at Brewhemia, dubbed Scotland’s ‘beer
It looks like trimming the fat isn’t going too well at the civil service, despite the government’s middling efforts. Between 2016 and 2018 the government capped pay rises for mandarins – and froze salaries entirely in 2021 to bring down the costs of the bloated public sector. New analysis from the TaxPayers’ Alliance though shows that
As if there aren’t enough questions about the SNP’s spending habits, it turns out the Nats have been using £55,000 of taxpayer’s money to fund their library collection. An investigation by Labour has unearthed some rather amusing revelations about the SNP’s reading list, not least that the party has been busy educating itself with books
Has Lee Anderson finally gone too far? Still reeling after finding out his son turned vegetarian at university (‘shocking, absolutely shocking’), the Tory party deputy chairman told the Express that illegal migrants who don’t want to be housed on barges should ‘f*** off back to France’. ‘I think people have just had enough’, he told the paper. ‘These people come across
Good old Sir Humphrey. Tories, Labour, Lib Dems – whoever is in power, he always seems to win. In recent years, there appears to have been a veritable explosion in the number of leaks in Whitehall and, with them, the inevitable Cabinet Office inquiries. In July 2022, one was launched by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case
Despite it being the SNP’s main political goal, Scotland came no closer to becoming an independent state during Nicola Sturgeon’s long tenure as First Minister. Still, for Sturgeon, the SNP being in charge had at least one perk – it allowed her to cosplay as a world leader on the global stage. Who could forget the jet
Can Matt Hancock sink any lower? Considering that only last year he lost the whip for abandoning his constituents to appear on I’m a Celebrity, and before that had his lockdown-busting affair exposed to the world, you would probably think not. Even so, the former Health Secretary has managed to once again plumb new depths,
Since the election date for next year’s London mayoral election was announced, Sadiq Khan has been putting on a show of confidence that his re-election is in the bag with his supporters pointing to polling that suggests Labour enjoy a 40-point lead in the capital. However, the Ulez expansion – which Keir Starmer blamed on
Another month, another resignation honours list. It was a row over Boris Johnson’s peerages that led to Rishi Sunak facing multiple by-elections last month – with one still to follow, should Nadine Dorries ever get round to quitting. But when it comes to Liz Truss’s honours list, the row is not so much about the vetting
Having previously been known simply as ‘that footy pundit off the telly’, over the past year Gary Neville seems to have been trying to manoeuvre his way into politics. The former Man Utd captain signed up as a Labour member, conducted a cringeworthy Q&A with Keir Starmer at last year’s party conference, and has consistently
Taylor Swift mania has hit Los Angeles this weekend as the best-selling songstress takes her sold out Eras tour to the Sunny State. It means local residents are on high alert that there is a chance they cross paths with Swift. So spare a thought for the young woman who headed to an early morning
Labour’s newest and youngest MP, Keir Mather, is fresh out of Oxford – and on a path to the very top of his party. But the 25-year-old, who overturned a 20,000-vote Tory majority to win the Selby and Ainsty by-election last month, shares more than his first name with his party leader and boss, Keir