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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There was a lot more rubbish than usual at the Edinburgh festivals this August. With refuse workers out on strike, the debris piled high in the Scottish capital and other cities, much to the dismay of visiting tourists. But one attendee who remains clearly undaunted is Nicola ‘friend of the stars’ Sturgeon, who last night
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With a week to go until a new prime minister enters 10 Downing Street, the frontrunner Liz Truss has been criticised so far for limiting her media appearances – instead focussing on meeting the membership and making plans for government. So her decision to belatedly agree to a BBC interview with Nick Robinson won her praise.
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It seems that the last two years of interviews, podcasts and media briefings actually count as Meghan keeping shtum. Towards the end of a 6,500-word interview with the Cut, which covers the duchess’s views on the monarchy, the British press and racism, she says that she ‘never had to sign anything that restricts her from talking,’ adding ‘I can talk
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Things aren’t exactly going well for Nicola Sturgeon at the moment, with bin strikes underway across Scotland leaving half the country festering under piles of rubbish. Which perhaps explains why the First Minister was so keen to skip the country yesterday, leaving the difficult business of government behind her to open a glitzy new Scottish
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Well, there you have it. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has confirmed that Facebook did indeed censor news of the New York Post’s 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story. But The Zuck had a rather curious tale to tell. Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg was questioned by Rogan on Facebook’s approach to fake news and misinformation. In the discussion, the question of Hunter Biden’s laptop arose. Zuckerberg was keen to point out that
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He may not have long left as leader of the country, but Boris Johnson is still out and about conducting the finest diplomacy on Britain’s behalf. Today though the PM was fighting fires after Liz Truss started a petit diplomatic spat with the French. Plus ça change… When asked if French President Emmanuel Macron was
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Well that didn’t take long. It’s only been a few months since the former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis left the BBC, and already the broadcaster seems to be enjoying her newfound freedom from the corporation’s impartiality restraints. Speaking tonight at the Edinburgh international television festival, Maitlis used the event to hit out at her former
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Nicola Sturgeon is having something of a summer of discontent. It started almost promisingly in July, when the Scottish Government managed to buy off ScotRail drivers with a five per cent pay bump. That brought to an end weeks of travel disruption caused by Aslef members refusing to work overtime on the newly-nationalised rail company.
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Of all the politicians to be the first to wire in and blast into the Metaverse, it turns out that the House of Commons’s brave pioneer has become none other than Matthew Hancock. The MP joined the online world today as part of an event organised by the tech firm Shift. Mr S couldn’t help but notice though that the Cybernaut
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It’s fair to speculate that the head honchos at Spotify might be wondering if their company got enough bang for its buck following its reported $25 million multi-year deal with Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It’s been 611 days since Spotify announced the agreement. But until today, Meghan and Harry had only
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Oh dear. It appears the blue-on-blue warfare that has dominated the Tory leadership campaign is taking its toll. After reports last week that members of Liz Truss’s team hope Rishi Sunak will decline any job she offers him should she win, it appears the former chancellor has taken such briefings to heart. When a Radio
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When you say the name ‘Andy Coulson,’ it’s hard not to think of the phone hacking scandal. The former News of the World editor served five months of an 18-month sentence for conspiracy to commit phone hacking in 2014 but has now managed to rebound from Belmarsh to business success, with a PR firm making
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It’s the scandal all Westminster is talking about. Appearing on ITV’s This Morning Rishi Sunak told viewers that if he goes to McDonald’s with his daughters they all get the breakfast wrap: ‘My eldest daughter, we get the wrap so if I’m with her that wrap with the hashbrown and everything in it is what
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Congratulations to Amol Rajan, who adds the mantle of University Challenge host to his burgeoning portfolio of BBC jobs. Rajan will succeed Jeremy Paxman in the role when the latter steps down this autumn after 28 years hosting the show. On current trends, Mr S estimates the former Independent editor will have held every top
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Party politics is done somewhat differently in Finland. While Boris was hounded out in Westminster for some miserable looking cake and wine, over in Helsinki, his counterpart finds herself in hot water for simply having too much (legal) fun. Sanna Marin, the country’s 36-year-old Prime Minister, is now facing criticism after a video of her
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The Tory leadership teams rolled into Belfast this afternoon, clad in metaphorical red, white and blue and eager to display their unionist credentials. But while all eyes were on Ulster, elsewhere the real scrap was happening at the Conservative Environment Network where proxies were battling it out for the two final contenders. In team Truss’s
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It’s been a difficult year for the Metropolitan Police. Commissioner Cressida Dick was forced out in April after a string of scandals while the force’s broader handling of issues around racism and sexism has also been called into question. Given all that, it can be difficult to hire new officers willing to join the force;
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It’s not easy being a Lord. No, really, it isn’t, judging by the latest poll of the Upper House. Mr S has obtained a copy of the most recent Members’ Survey – conducted in March of this year – and it shows that dissatisfaction in the House of Lords is at record levels. Responses from
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The sound of moralising was in the air this morning, as Steerpike emerged bleary-eyed from his hangover. Is it Sunday already? No, just the standard self-righteous squawking from the usual suspects of the left. Today’s topic of sanctimonious one-upmanship? Leaked comments made by Liz Truss on the need for British workers to show ‘more graft’.
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The New York Times has never been shy about sharing its opinion – especially when it comes to bashing Britain. In recent years, Mr S has greatly enjoyed reading the London dispatches from America’s least reliable news source, in which Brexit Britain is re-imagined as an autocratic archipelago where plague-riddled, rain-drenched, swamp-dwelling subjects devour legs of
