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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At the beginning of the SNP leadership race, the two favoured candidates to succeed Nicola Sturgeon were Kate Forbes and Angus Robertson. Today the former has declared while the latter has declined to stand. But has Robertson decided to forego the race with a not-so subtle pop at his rival? Mr S couldn’t help but
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It seems that Boris Johnson’s interventions in the Sunday papers haven’t gone down too well with some members of his party. Tory grandee George Osborne appeared on the Andrew Neil Show on Channel 4 today to issue a scathing rejoinder to his longtime rival. The former chancellor questioned the sincerity of Johnson’s commitment to Northern
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A spectre is haunting Downing Street – the spectre of Boris Johnson. The former Prime Minister has been largely content to keep his head down in recent months, quietly cashing millions on the speaking circuit and preparing his Partygate defence. But today the ex-Tory leader has chosen to send a barely-concealed warning to his successor
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It’s the issue vexing millions of voters. Forget war, pestilence, famine – it seems the real horror facing the good people of Wales is… meal deals. Yes, that’s right: those fiscally prudent prandial packages are the real scourge bedevilling the Land of My Fathers. For the Welsh government in its infinite wisdom is mulling a
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If we hadn’t heard enough about ‘the Dumb Prince and His Stupid Wife’ – not Steerpike’s words – now South Park has dedicated an entire episode to mocking them and their faux pleas for privacy. Throughout the 20-minute episode, the long-running animated comedy’s writers really stuck the sword into Harry and Meghan, who have found themselves the
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Once, TikTok was the weapon of choice for any aspirant Tory. Whether it was Dehenna Davison lip-syncing or Nadine Dorries dancing at the Euros, the addictive video-sharing app was all the rage. But a recent string of revelations about its Chinese parent company ByteDance mean that is no longer the case. Alicia Kearns, the chairman
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Reading some of the tributes from English luvvies yesterday, you would have had no idea that Nicola Sturgeon was anything less than perfect. The great and the good in the media world were tripping over themselves to call her a stateswoman, praising her tone, grace and composure rather than her lack of substantive achievements. Still,
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Another day with more Starmer drama. Sir Keir yesterday told a press conference that Jeremy Corbyn will be barred from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election, a decision that hasn’t gone down very well with the magic Grandpa. Corbyn has now released an angry statement, accusing the man who replaced him as
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Where there’s death, there’s life. And the departure of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister after eight years means there’s a vacancy as top dog in the Scottish parliament. Who could replace her? One Panelbase poll conducted last week shows there’s an overwhelming favourite among the various pretenders: ‘don’t know’ took a whopping 69 per cent
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Oh, Jeremy Corbyn. The onetime Labour leader is this morning contemplating the end of his political career after his successor declared he would not be standing as a Labour candidate at the next election. At a press conference to welcome the Equalities Commission’s decision to take the party out of special measures for anti-Semitism, Sir
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Labour has been talking a lot about taxpayers’ money in recent days, following the release of their much-hyped ‘GPC files’ about government procurement cards. There’s been much criticism about the use of luxury hotels, fine art and branded merchandise. All good, worthy stuff. But in the interest of balance, Mr S thinks it’s worth reminding
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Partygate claimed many victims in Westminster, not least Boris Johnson’s premiership. But one consequence of the relentless focus on the shenanigans of 2021 meant that 2022 proved to be a far less festive occasion than some in the great ministries of state had hoped. Officials have grumbled to Mr S that there was a certain
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Ah parliamentary renovation: they talk of little else in the Red Wall. For more than a decade now, Westminster has been obsessed with the subject of our crumbling Commons, with staff forced to dodge falling masonry, leaking pipes and impudent rodents as they navigate the estate. Last month, Dame Meg Hillier of the Public Accounts
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Stop press: Fleet Street is officially full of sewage. Flicking through the papers this morning, Steerpike was intrigued to see water pollution feature prominently on the front page of both the Times and the i newspapers. ‘Water firms to be spared threat of £250m fines’ roared the former; ‘Sunak facing Tory rebellion over sewage in
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Labour have been out this morning, trumpeting their much-hyped ‘GPC files’ about the use of government procurement cards. Mr S has had a look and there’s some interesting things in there. But was Angela Rayner really the best choice to lead on this issue? Especially when it was Emily Thornberry who did all the work.
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Labour got much of the lobby exercised last week with its latest wheeze: mysteriously rebranding its Twitter account as ‘the GPC files’ and sending out a link to ‘theGPCfiles’ to launch 7 a.m Monday morning. Sadly, for fans of the Global Powerlifting Committee eagerly expecting a string of revelations, the website in question focuses on
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We haven’t seen much of Andrew Mitchell since his recent promotion and today was perhaps a reminder why. For more than ten years, the onetime Chief Whip languished on the backbenches post-plebgate, until last October Sunak appointed him Minister of State for Development and Africa. It was Mitchell’s turn to do the government media round
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First there was talk of a medal; now MPs have had their pay bumped up to more than £86,000. And today Mr S can reveal the latest wheeze to bolster the image of parliament in the eyes of the public. For days now, Steerpike has heard complaint from Commons staff about the appearance of ‘useless’
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It’s the reshuffle move that everyone is talking about. The promotion of Lee Anderson to Tory deputy chairman has excited the Westminster press pack no end, with the Ashfield MP making headlines within his first 24 hours in the job. A run-in with a local radio station and his support for capital punishment have prompted
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It seems Liz isn’t the only Trussite returning to public life. Her former chief of staff Mark Fullbrook has returned to the world of political lobbying, fresh from masterminding her 49-day regime in No. 10. Fullbrook’s previous activities in this field were a regular feature of news reporting during Truss’s seven weeks in office. And
