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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The Oscars was always doomed to fail to live up to the drama of last year’s ceremony. In 2022, Will Smith stormed on to the stage to slap host Chris Rock after he took offence to the comic’s routine. But in Los Angeles last night, celebrities were on their best behaviour. Well, mostly. Step forward,
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Day five and the Gary Lineker row shows no sign of abating any time soon. The BBC has gone into meltdown; the Prime Minister has been forced to distance himself. Lineker’s show Match of the Day was shortened to a mere 20 minutes without commentary, with his co-stars boycotting the programme in ‘solidarity.’ Faced with
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Oh dear. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. After Gary Lineker was forced to ‘step back’ from presenting BBC’s Match of the Day over a tweet comparing the language used by the government with regards to its new Illegal Migration Bill to that ‘used by Germany in the 30s’, other presenters – from
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Today was the penultimate party hustings of the SNP leadership contest, this time with Glasgow party members quizzing the leadership contenders. Did they want to know about what the next leader of the SNP thinks about the constitution perhaps, or the race to save Scotland’s NHS? Not quite. Instead, it appears what really matters to
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It’s not a proper Tory bunfight until Nadine Dorries weighs in. The former Culture Secretary has never been shy to share her opinions and she has now weighed into the ongoing row about Gary Lineker and Match of the Day. ‘Lineker off air amid Twitter row’ roared the strap-line on Dorries’ flagship Friday show as
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Oh dear. It seems that the BBC press office has had a nightmare 24 hours, with not one but three blunders in rapid succession involving three of their biggest stars – Fiona Bruce, David Attenborough and Gary Lineker. The Lineker row has been dominating the headlines but it’s not the only row consuming the Beeb.
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Talk about an own goal. It seems that Gary Lineker’s increasingly aggressive anti-Tory tweets have got the multimillionaire into hot water with nervy BBC managers. Earlier this week, Lineker compared the language used by the government over its plan to tackle Channel crossings to ‘that used by Germany in the 30s’. Today it has been
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Given the ongoing leadership race, it’s easy to forget that the current SNP government isn’t the only devolved administration which is seemingly hell-bent on embarrassing itself. Over at Cardiff Bay, Welsh Labour are still merrily fiddling while its public services burn – as two incidents within the space of 24 hours have neatly demonstrated. First,
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It’s Rishi Sunak’s big moment today as he tries to cut a new deal with the French to stop the small boats crisis. The Prime Minister will meet with President Emmanuel Macron later today at the Elysee Palace alongside senior ministers in the first Anglo-French summit for five years. Such shindigs never happened under Sunak’s
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No red card for Gary Lineker, it seems. The Sun reports this afternoon that the outspoken TV presenter is staying put after comments he made comparing the rhetoric around the government’s new illegal migration policy to 1930s Germany. It appears Lineker has avoided even so much as a slap on the wrist, with a BBC
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There’s still nearly three weeks to go in the SNP leadership race and already the clown-car moments are clocking up. A new Ipsos Scotland poll is out today which shows that Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes neck and neck, with the pair on 33 per cent and 32 per cent respectively, followed by Ash Regan
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Another week and another Penny Mordaunt moment. The Leader of the House might not have won either of last year’s leadership contests but she’s positioning herself well for the next one with her forthright appearances in parliament. She used today’s Business Statement to take aim at the difference between ‘what Labour says and what Labour
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Oops. Has Suella Braverman accidentally reignited war with the civil service? On Tuesday, after the Home Secretary announced the details of her new Illegal Migration Bill, a triumphant email from CCHQ landed in the inboxes of Tory party members. ‘We tried to stop the small boat crossings without changing our laws,’ it declared. ‘But an
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Good old Alastair Campbell has been out and about today, showing just why he was once such a valued spin doctor. The onetime master of the dark arts has been vexed, nay outraged, over Tory MPs daring to question Gary Lineker’s decision to liken the government’s rhetoric on asylum seekers ‘to that used by Germany
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So. Farewell then. William Waldegrave. After fifteen years, the great panjandrum is retiring next year as Provost of Eton College in a move that The Spectator first predicted in May. In a letter sent to Old Etonians, Waldegrave declared that ‘the school is in very good health, and very well led by [Head Master] Simon
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Ding ding ding! The gloves were off last night as Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan entered the ring, for the first televised debate in the SNP leadership contest. In the end the debate wasn’t pretty, with Kate Forbes going for Humza Yousaf. In the cross-examination section of the debate Forbes launched into a
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A typically robust performance by Suella Braverman on Radio 4 this morning. The Home Secretary defended her plans to clamp down on small boat crossings, telling the Today programme that We are within the boundaries of the law but we are trying new arguments, we are testing novel interpretations of the law. But we do
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The remorseless rise of Lee Anderson continues. Having been named Tory deputy chairman last month – and then swiftly started a national conversation on bringing back hanging – the Red Wall Tory has today been named as the latest presenter in the constellation of stars that is GB News. In a statement, the ex-miner declared
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After Matt Hancock himself, it seems that the person who comes out worst from the lockdown files is Cabinet Secretary Simon Case. Hancock’s WhatsApps show Case accusing Boris of being ‘nationally distrusted’ and described some lockdown criticism as ‘pure Conservative ideology’. Hardly the model of civil service impartiality… And off the back of those revelations it seems
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Social media users were treated to a mysterious post this morning. Just before lunchtime, the Prime Minister tweeted out a stylish QR code featuring the number ‘10’ at its centre. The post – captioned ‘Innovation means growth’, along with a phone emoji – was entirely without context. Keen to figure out what ‘innovation’ and ‘growth’
