Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Monday

6 March 2023

Poll: public support King’s meeting with von der Leyen

It's six months on Wednesday since Charles became King. So, to mark the occasion, Mr S thought he'd ask his fellow royal subjects what they made of the King's reign thus far. Our septuagenarian monarch had a difficult act to follow in succeeding Elizabeth II but it seems on the whole that he has done a pretty good job. Polling by Redfield and Wilton of 1,500 Britons last week found that some 43 per cent of the public think that Charles III has thus far been a 'good king' – slightly ahead of the 42 per cent who replied 'don't know' but nearly three times as many as those who responded 'no.

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer squirms over Gray job offer

Oh dear. Just this morning Mr S was wondering how Labour can justify its job offer to Sue Gray. And it seems Sir Keir is having similar difficulty in doing so too. Appearing on LBC this morning for his weekly 'Call Keir' segment, the Labour leader was asked six times about when the party first approached the senior civil servant but Starmer refused to answer. Quelle surprise... Presenter Nick Ferrari did his damnedest, asking whether Gray was first approached this year or last year. Sir Keir declined to answer, only saying it was a 'recent' approach, following the departure of his previous chief of staff in October. It was, he said, after he had a period 'working through in my own mind what I wanted from a chief of staff.

Steerpike

Did Sue Gray break the civil service code?

Who watches the watchmen? That's the question Whitehall is asking after chief panjandrum and sleazebuster extraordinaire Sue Gray's was offered the job of Keir Starmer's chief of staff. The revelation that Gray might not necessarily be quite the bastion of perfect probity has sent shock waves through SW1 – not least in the upper ranks of the senior civil service. Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary at the Department of Education, was so concerned by news of Gray's appointment on Thursday that she reportedly raised concerns in an online Zoom call with colleagues.

Steerpike

Watch: Hancock’s supposed lawyer in GB News bust-up

A bizarre late-night row occurred on GB News yesterday. The channel were delighted to welcome lawyer Jonathan Coad on to discuss the lockdown files, with host Steve N Allen welcoming him by saying he was 'actually recently asked to act for Matt Hancock.' But Coad bristled at that introduction, insisting that 'I made it absolutely clear to your programme, I asked them not to disclose that. That is very, very poor journalism.' He continued thus: When your own television station has engaged in correspondence with me where I explained that I’m in a position to be able to comment on this and mentioned I’d been approached by Matt Hancock – I asked you not to mention that and you mentioned it.

Sunday

5 March 2023

Steerpike

Watch: Osborne grilled about Hancock texts

Will anyone ever text Matt Hancock again? It’s day five of the lockdown files today and it seems there’s still more revelations to come from the former health secretary’s WhatsApp messages, handed over to Isabel Oakeshott because he wanted a ghostwritten book to commemorate his triumph. Talk about the grift that keeps on giving… One of those unlucky politicians who’ve found their messages splashed across the Telegraph is George Osborne. Mr S rather enjoyed reading the former chancellor’s pithy form of texting style, with gems such as ‘no one thinks testing is going well Matt’. Still, Osborne wasn’t always so acerbic, at one stage promising Hancock that he would guarantee him the front page of the Evening Standard if he gave some exclusive quotes on Covid testing.

Steerpike

Poll: public confused on Starmer and Sunak’s five goals

An awkward one for the strategists in Southwark and Westminster. Mr S has commissioned some polling and it's official – the public, it seems, are having a tough time telling the Labour and Tory policies apart. Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have recently made major speeches, respectively setting out their 'five pledges' and 'five missions.' But a survey of 1,500 voters this week by Redfield and Wilton found that by 40 per cent to 26 per cent, Britons wrongly identified the goal of securing the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 as Sunak's goal – rather than Starmer's.

Steerpike

Hancock wanted to ‘deploy’ new Covid variant and ‘frighten the pants off everyone’

Day 5 of the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files and the most startling stories yet. Here’s what’s new: Matt Hancock asked when he could ‘deploy the variant’ When the more contagious Alpha (then ‘Kent’) variant started spreading in December 2020, many were scared. Good, thought Hancock. The former health secretary told his adviser that ‘we [can] frighten the pants of [sic] everyone with the new strain’ on 13 December, and wondered when ‘do we deploy the new variant’. Five days later, Boris Johnson cancelled Christmas. 2. Simon Case saw the benefit in fear-mongering At least Sir Humphrey was subtle.

Saturday

4 March 2023

Steerpike

Hancock and Gove’s cringeworthy Covid love-in

Last night it seemed as if the Matt Hancock WhatsApp messages released by the Telegraph couldn’t get any worse, after the paper published texts showing Hancock’s realtime reaction to his rule-breaking affair being exposed. Yet somehow new depths have been plumbed in Hancock’s correspondence today. For the paper has published texts between Matt Hancock and Michael Gove. Despite some friction between the pair – with Hancock at one point fearing Gove was gunning for his job – the published messages show that the two had a remarkably (some might say pathologically) close relationship. In one exchange from 2021, Hancock texts Gove before a meeting asking what they were trying to achieve.

Steerpike

Seven things we learned from the juiciest lockdown files yet

Day four of the lockdown files and it’s the juiciest so far. Here’s what the Telegraph released last night: 1. Matt Hancock thought kissing report wasn’t that bad While cursing ‘that f——g CCTV camera’, the indefatigable Hancock said ‘that [the Sun’s] write up is very gentle’, after the paper released pictures of him and Gina Coladangelo in a rule-breaking embrace. Hancock then set up a WhatsApp group called ‘Crisis Management’ with his media adviser Damon Poole and his lover Coladangelo. He said that he ‘need[ed] to find a clinician’ to say that he broke guidance, not guidelines. ‘PLEASE STAND THIS UP’, he wailed to his advisers.

Friday

3 March 2023

Steerpike

Matt Hancock’s Covid social media frenzy

Another day, another painful set of WhatsApp messages about Matt Hancock. Yet again the Daily Telegraph have released another batch of texts involving the former health secretary, this time about his burgeoning public profile in the wake of the pandemic. The paper reports that as Covid arrived on Britain’s shores, Hancock shared with his special advisor a memo written by a ‘wise friend’, that suggested that Hancock’s career could be propelled ‘into the next league’ by the Covid pandemic. Hancock certainly comes across as image conscious in the texts. The Telegraph suggests that over the course of the pandemic, he exchanged more than 22,000 messages with his staff about social media posts.

Steerpike

Tories see red over Gray

Some good news at last for Damian Green. Theresa May’s onetime deputy has had a difficult few weeks what with his unsuccessful selection bid in Ashfield followed by the news that his nemesis Sue Gray is off to run Keir Starmer’s office. But Mr S hears that Green last night had a bit of good luck: the team he captained triumphed at the Tory away day pub quiz, thanks in no small part to the efforts of one Michael Gove. The brightest minds in the parliamentary party were grilled on subjects from ‘great Conservative election wins’ to ‘great Labour scandals’, ‘Lib Dem failures’ to the ‘zeitgeist tape (for those who’ve had enough of politics).

Steerpike

Five things we’ve learned on day three of Hancock’s lockdown files

Ping! It's day three of the 'Lockdown Files' and a whole new tranche of former Health Secretary Matt Hancock's WhastApp messages has just landed. Mr Steerpike has taken a look at what the Telegraph released last night: Matt Hancock said ‘we are going to get heavy with the police’ A worried Hancock told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case that the police needed to get a grip on mandating lockdown restrictions. Somewhat concerningly, the head of the civil service asked Hancock ‘who actually is delivering enforcement?’ Case found hotel quarantine ‘hilarious’ In an attempt at humour, the Cabinet Secretary said he found imagining ‘the faces of people coming out of first class and into a Premier Inn shoe box’ funny.

Thursday

2 March 2023

Steerpike

How long can Simon Case cling on?

It's not been a great day for the Civil Service. First it's announced that Partygate prober Sue Gray has been offered the role of Chief of Staff for the Leader of the Opposition. And now the Telegraph has released WhatsApps that show Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, mocking those affected by the government's lockdown policies. Talk about classy, eh? As Britain began a forced quarantine for returning holidaymakers in February 2021, Case messaged Matt Hancock to ask 'Any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?' After the Health Secretary replied 'None but 149 chose to enter the country and are now in quarantine hotels due to their own free will!' Case responded 'Hilarious.

Steerpike

Trans row rocks Guardian towers, again

Oh dear. It seems that life in the offices of the world's wokest paper isn't all its cracked up to be. For the Guardian's sister paper – with which it shares an office – has been accused of 'institutionalised transphobia' by a disgruntled former writer. James Wong, the Observer's garden columnist departed last week with a parting shot at his onetime employer. He wrote on Instagram that he left after being reprimanded by an editor for publicly criticising one of his paper's articles about trans rights: After formally complaining about an article that likened politicians who support trans rights to alleged sex traffickers, the editor ignored my complaint and reprimanded me for revealing that I had even made it.

Steerpike

Is Sue Gray really a coup for Keir?

Well, there we are then. Less than 24 hours after reports emerged that Sue Gray could be Keir Starmer's next chief of staff, the lady herself has confirmed the story by resigning from the civil service. The Partygate investigator will however have to wait at least three months before she can start working for Labour, as per government guidelines. And, deliciously, she will also have to get final approval from, er, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Will he hold the process up? Timings aside, it seems it is a fairly extraordinary decision for a senior civil servant to make. How, frankly, are ministers expected to trust their mandarins if they are going to defect to the Opposition? 'We're a joke' said one despairing official to Steerpike, 'I've completely lost respect for her.

Steerpike

Another day, another SNP controversy

No wonder they didn't want to let cameras in at last night's hustings. Not a day goes by it seems without a leading SNP politician embarrassing themselves in one forum or another. Today's hapless half-wit is MP John Nicolson, who has found himself accused of racism after tweeting a video shortly before appearing on the BBC’s Debate Night. Preparing to go on air, the member for Ochil and South Perthshire tried his hand at social media influencing, giving his very own ill-thought make up tutorial in the green room. Addressing the camera in the video captioned ‘Politicians that do their own makeup tend to “tandoori” themselves’, Nicolson declared: ‘Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking John Nicolson doesn’t need make up!

Steerpike

Tories gear up for away day jolly

After two years of planning, Tory MPs are finally having their long-awaited away day today. Rishi Sunak and the whizz kids at CCHQ have booked a fleet of buses to whisk the members of his parliamentary party away to Windsor for a 24-hour away day. They'll be put up in the luxury hotel where Sunak unveiled his 'Windsor framework', with even Boris Johnson reportedly set to attend. Talk about happy families eh... On the agenda for today is an exciting range of talks, breakout sessions and even a jolly old pub quiz. Chats on political strategy and beating the Lib Dems are planned alongside sessions on 'demonstrating delivery to your constituents' and 'maximising your social media profile.' Presumably TikTok sat Luke Evans will be leading that one.

Steerpike

Five things we’ve learned on day two of Hancock’s lockdown files

More revealing Matt Hancock messages dropped late last night as the Telegraph released another tranche of the former health secretary’s WhatsApps. Here are some of the stand-out lines on day two of the lockdown files: Hancock mounted a ‘rearguard action’ to close schools Matt Hancock said that then education secretary Gavin Williamson (who was ‘going absolutely gangbusters’ to keep schools open) was risking a ‘policy crash when the kids spread the disease’ in January 2021. Hancock said that ‘we must now fight a rearguard action for a rational policy’. Williamson has written a column for the Telegraph saying that he was ‘battling’ to keep schools open, and that he thought ‘long and deeply’ about resigning.

Wednesday

1 March 2023

Steerpike

Williamson and Hancock’s schools battle revealed

Ding, ding, ding! It's day two of the revelations from the Telegraph's lockdown files and today's chosen battlefield is the school playground. The paper splashes on claims that Matt Hancock as Health Secretary fought a 'rearguard action' to shut down the nation's schools against the efforts of Sir Gavin Williamson, who held the Education brief from 2019 to 2021. Exchanges reveal the lengths which Hancock went to fight such battles, privately suggesting it was 'mad' that Sir Gavin was trying to re-open them in January 2021. After Johnson initially backed Williamson, his cabinet rival sneered that 'the next u-turn is born', adding: I want to find a way, Gavin having won the day, of actually preventing a policy car crash when the kids spread the disease in January.

Steerpike

Watch: ministers considered ‘exterminating all cats’ in Covid

It's not a great time to be a friend of Matt Hancock, knowing that any moment the Telegraph might splash the contents of your private WhatsApp conversations. Still, good old Jim Bethell – a veteran of the Ministry of Sound and the Department of Health – was wheeled out to defend him tonight. And in his eagerness to defend his onetime boss, the Old Harrovian made an extraordinary revelation: that the British government debated whether it might have to ask people to exterminate all pet cats during the early days of the Covid pandemic. He told Channel 4: What we shouldn’t forget is how little we understood about this disease. There was a moment we were very unclear about whether domestic pets could transmit the disease.