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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Every revolution has its victims and Jeremy Hunt’s counter-coup is no exception. The new Chancellor’s return to office has meant a clear out of Kwasi Kwarteng’s aides as the special adviser merry go-round continues at pace. The age of ministers being told to hire from a No 10 approved-list of nominees is over: Hunt instead
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Oh dear. Liz Truss ducked the opportunity to come to the House to explain Jeremy Hunt’s U-turn earlier today. So instead it was the turn of Penny Mordaunt – ‘the real PM’, her supporters jibe – to come to the Commons and defend the shambles of the past fortnight. Mordaunt, in her capacity as the
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Spiraling markets and grim-faced MPs don’t always make for the best of television viewing. Indeed, given the ongoing case in Westminster and Whitehall, farce seems much more appropriate. So Mr S was delighted to stumble across a well-crafted animation from Colin McQuaid which reimagines the Muppet Show intro but with the Tory government instead. Forget
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Trussonomics is dead, long live Treasury orthodoxy. New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unpicked the bulk of his next-door neighbour’s policy agenda on TV this morning, telling the nation that nearly all of the tax measures that have not started legislation would now be reversed. Income tax will now remain at 20 per cent ‘indefinitely’, the free
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In office, Liz Truss promised to be the ‘disruptor in chief’. Unfortunately, most of that disruption has proved to be in the markets and the polls as her short-lived revolution tanked the standing of both her currency and her party. With Labour and mortgage rates on the rise, Truss’s authority has disappeared within days. She’s
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Joe Biden, ice cream in hand as so often, yesterday pronounced on Liz Truss’s tax reform disaster. ‘I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,’ said Joe Biden, sounding every bit the wise old man of global politics. ‘I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy at a time
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In politics, where there’s death, there’s life. And as Liz Truss’s premiership crumbles before our eyes, all attention in SW1 is which lucky legislator gets to replace her. Second time Sunak? The people’s Penny? Back again Boris? Or perhaps the man who many wanted to run this summer but ended up dropping out: Ben Wallace,
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Kwasi Kwarteng’s letter to Liz Truss was outwardly loyal. But he made it quite clear he had been sacked for trying to implement her ‘vision’. Friends of the former Chancellor are now suggesting that it was the Prime Minister who was the moving force behind the mini-Budget’s most disastrous measure: the abolition of the 45p rate.
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Kwasi Kwarteng, we hardly knew ye. After 38 days, the Chancellor was unceremoniously axed from his post today as Liz Truss desperately tries to rescue her crumbling premiership. Memorable highlights of his five-week stint include the mini-Budget, firing Tom Scholar and being mistaken for Bernard Mensah. Indeed, the official mourning period appears in retrospect to
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It seems that panic and turmoil is something the markets and Tory party currently have in common. Kwasi Kwarteng is flying home a day earlier than planned from the annual meeting of the International Money Fund in Washington – so he will be back in London this afternoon when the Bank of England is due
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There’s not much for the Tories to cheer about at the moment but there was little sign of the blues last night in Leicester Square. Members of Rishi Sunak’s campaign packed out the Londoner Hotel to toast their king over the water with glasses of English sparkling wine. In what his supporters insist was an
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Who will take over the Evening Standard, the ailing London freesheet currently losing £14 million a year? One name floated by those in the know is a certain Boris Johnson. The chatter at the Northcliffe House is that the former PM decided against it, with one old hand suggesting that Johnson thought the paper was
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Meetings between the monarch and the prime minister remain a closely-guarded secret. This means that anything that is caught on camera when King Charles and Liz Truss meet is watched closely – and the King’s choice of greeting to the PM when he hosted her at Buckingham Palace last night was, err, particularly interesting. King Charles
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Critics moan that parliament is full of children – and next week it certainly will be. For Mr S has learned of a new scheme to champion Westminster’s outreach efforts across the country. The UK Youth Parliament for 11 to 18 year olds was one thing; now Tory MP Anna Firth is hosting the first
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The verdict is in: European Union diplomats are useless. But this isn’t the view of one of the EU’s usual detractors. It’s the assessment of Josep Borrell, Brussels’ very own foreign affairs chief. In a damning briefing to the European External Action Service, Borrell said he was fed up finding out information from newspapers before hearing it from his own officials.
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‘Permanent revolution’ is the on dit in Whitehall these days – and what it means is that the Truss administration U-turns so often the whole machinery of government is constantly spinning round on its axis. The latest volte-face is the decision to appoint James Bowler, a 20-year establishment veteran, as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.
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JK Rowling is a feminist idol for lots of women. After the break-up of her marriage, Rowling became a single mum, whose literary ability eventually earned her fame and fortune. The Harry Potter author has campaigned tirelessly for women’s rights in recent years. For voicing her scepticism about whether men can transition to become women,
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What an odd thing Sadiq Khan said following this morning’s stabbings in central London. Shortly before 10 a.m., three people were attacked by a man on a bike in Bishopsgate. The criminal is still at large, according to the Telegraph. This horrifying incident was no surprise to Londoners, so you would think that the Mayor would – from
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Liz Truss’s Conservative party conference speech has been disrupted by climate protesters. The demonstrators stood up during the Prime Minister’s address and unveiled a banner with the words: ‘Who voted for this?’ The pair were booed by Tory members in the conference hall before being ejected by security. ‘Later on in my speech I’m going to
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Conservative party conference has turned out to be a great opportunity – for Tory MPs and ministers alike to point the finger that is. Since Monday morning, the biggest blame game doing the rounds in Birmingham has been over who is responsible for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s embarrassing climb-down to reverse the cut to the 45p income