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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So, what did the Prime Minister know about Chris Pincher’s behaviour and when did he know it? That’s the question the whole of Westminster is asking today after the intervention of Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office. Given Dominic Raab’s embarrassment this morning, it’s hardly surprising that special advisers are now briefing
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Is that it? After two years of studiously ignoring the issue, Sir Keir Starmer finally delivered his big Brexit speech yesterday to, er, a somewhat underwhelmed audience. Facing accusations of being part of the Remainiac elite, Starmer’s team naturally decided the best course of action was to brief his speech to the Financial Times (backed
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Boris Johnson seems to be in enough bother without his opponents making unsubstantiated claims against him. But that’s exactly what Diane Abbott, the sexagenarian Stoke Newington MP, did yesterday when she appeared on yesterday’s episode of Broadcasting House, the BBC news review show. Abbott – who was ostensibly there to discuss allegations surrounding Chris Pincher
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Pride month means only one thing: the chance for corporations to embarrass themselves with the latest right-on social media stunt. This year it was the turn of Halifax, which took to Twitter last week to declare that ‘Pronouns matter’ alongside an image of its new-style staff name badge, featuring the words ‘she/her/hers’ underneath. Other banks
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Oh dear. It seems that gabby Guto Harri has done it again. The revelations about Chris Pincher have put the No. 10 comms chief and his colleagues in No. 10 on the back foot – not least because the Tamworth MP’s promotion to deputy chief whip in February came just days after Harri’s own appointment.
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Just what is up with Ben Wallace? The Defence Secretary is widely thought to have had a ‘good war’ in Ukraine, receiving much praise within parliament and outside it for the way he’s handled Britain’s response. Yet Mr S can’t help but wonder about some of the Lancashire MP’s recent rhetoric. Just this week he
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Another glorious day for our great democracy. Chris Pincher’s resignation has unleashed a deluge of anger, despair and frustration in the Tory WhatsApp groups today. One backbencher texted Mr S to remark darkly of Dowden and Pincher that ‘at least they’re freeing up jobs for the reshuffle.’ Another asks ‘How on earth was he put
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The Tories are in crisis, standards are in peril. So who do you turn to for ethical advice? Step forward Neil Parish, the tractor-loving, porn-perusing former MP for Tiverton. Parish, whose constituency is now, er, represented by a Liberal Democrat thanks to his resignation, was asked for his views this afternoon on Christopher Pincher. Barely
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Boris Johnson has never been afraid of expressing himself but he might well have regretted his verbosity yesterday when he had a rather awkward encounter at the Nato summit in Madrid. As Johnson sat at the summit table, a tall figure loomed over him and gripped the Prime Minister’s back. Johnson turned around to be
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Oh dear. It looks like Pestminster 2.0 is rumbling on. On Thursday, Chris Pincher, the deputy chief whip quit after allegations were reported in the Sun. The newspaper reports that the MP, first elected for Tamworth in 2010, has written to Boris Johnson, claiming that: ‘Last night I drank far too much. I’ve embarrassed myself and
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Sir Keir Starmer is very keen these days to prove that Labour can be trusted on defence and foreign policy. Tweets, statements, Union Jacks galore: nothing is too over the top in the party’s efforts to distance itself from its recent Corbynista past. So Mr S was intrigued to see what one of his backbenchers
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Liz Truss has been in Madrid this week, talking tough on Taiwan. In the face of continued Chinese aggression, Truss is keen to support the island republic, such as by boosting arms sales there. Yet when pressed this morning on LBC, Truss struggled to add more detail, suggesting that ‘the defence that Taiwan need is
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What with Covid, Ukraine and the levelling-up agenda, fiscal probity is somewhat old-fashioned now in Westminster. So it’s unsurprising then that the billion-pound boondoggle of HS2 carries on winding its way through the political process, despite mounting costs and time delays. Having dragged on for more than a dozen years, the, er, high-speed rail project
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Oh dear. We all remember Captain Tom, KBE, beloved national icon and centenarian philanthropist. In the depths of Covid, the second world war veteran raised Britain’s spirits with his 100 laps of his back garden to raise oodles of cash for the NHS. But now the charity set up in Moore’s memory could be in
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Nicola Sturgeon’s latest independence wheeze might have received a near-universal panning but there’s one organ she can always count on for stellar support: the National. ‘SAVE THE DATE’ screamed its front page today, replete with ten pages of Pyongyang-style praise for the Dear Leader and her latest, brilliant move that will almost certainly fall short
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Ah, Matt Hancock: the man who makes Gavin Williamson and his manoeuvrings look subtle. The former Health Secretary marked the anniversary of his fall from grace by going out to bat for the government’s Protocol bill in the Times (hint, hint Bozza). But until he gets recalled to his rightful place in the Cabinet, the West
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To Policy Exchange, the chameleon think tank that changes with the seasons. The summer party was well under way by the time Mr S rocked up, with Gavin Williamson and Sajid Javid clutching glasses in the shade of Westminster Abbey. But Pimms and canapés weren’t the only things on the menu tonight, as Rishi Sunak
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It’s supposedly illegal to die in the House of Commons, but Simon Case gave it a good try this afternoon. The Cabinet Secretary endured a torrid time before the Public Administration Committee, being grilled on everything from Partygate and public standards to Carrie Johnson and civil service cuts. For 107 minutes, Britain’s top mandarin was
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Here we go again then. Nicola Sturgeon has finally anounced her great Scexit wheeze: after years of making claims about another independence referendum, she’s finally announced a timetable at last. Thursday 19 October 2023 is now Scotland’s divinely-ordained date with destiny (according to the First Minister at least) with Sturgeon prepared to use the courts
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Parliament is ablaze with gossip and rumour this morning. There’s only one question on anyone’s lips: will any more MPs defect to Labour? Such speculation has been fuelled by something of a collective Fleet Street guessing game: the Sunday Times has predicted that up to six Tories might make the jump while today’s Telegraph merely
