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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Which government agency has performed the worst in this pandemic? It’s a difficult question to answer. The Passport Office has its critics; delays at HMRC have meant tax rebates have gone months overdue. But for Steerpike’s money, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is hard to beat. In March, the Times reported that some
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Rishi Sunak may be a big fan of Instagram but he hasn’t always demonstrated such a sure touch for tech. The Twitter-savvy politician made headlines earlier this month after claiming that he couldn’t raise welfare benefits to shield the most vulnerable because of a ‘technically complicated’ IT system. Pressed a fortnight ago on further support,
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It seems no-one has a good word to say about capitalism these days. For now, even the Financial Times – that bible of our captains of industry – seems to have gone off the filthy rich. Once, the newspaper’s ‘How To Spend It’ supplement was an unashamed paean to conspicuous consumption; a veritable smorgasbord of
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This has been Boris Johnson’s worst week in politics since last week. Under-fire over partygate, accused of watering down the Sue Gray report and facing yet more letters of no-confidence, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis look set to further erode his standing still further. On Thursday, Rishi Sunak unveiled a package of measures to try
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Politics’ longest-running farce is at a close. Sue Gray, that pillar of Whitehall officialdom, has today delivered her report into whether Boris Johnson did indeed break lockdown rules during the pandemic. And while there will no doubt be some relief for those in No. 10 that Gray’s inquiries didn’t investigate any further parties to those
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Sleaze is the watchword in Westminster at the moment. Morale amongst staff on the parliamentary estate was already low before the latest partygate shenanigans. Recent embarrassments about outside interests, dodgy MPs, drinking on the estate and historic sex offences have taken their toll. Few of the twenty-somethings who work in the Commons have a good word
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Well, it’s finally here. After five months of waiting, Sue Gray has today released her report into the parties that went on in Downing Street during Covid. Her 60-page report is currently being pored over by hacks, spinners and MPs across parliament, ahead of Boris Johnson’s appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions today. But initial attention has
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Shock, horror! Another principled SNP stance has crumbled at first contact with the prospect of power. For much of the past three weeks the nationalists in Scotland have been screaming blue murder about opposition groups negotiating pacts on local authorities where the SNP are the largest party, to lock them out of office. Such deals between the Tories,
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Away from the shenanigans of partygate pictures, a rather more sobering publication has today been released by the Foreign Affairs Committee. The dozen-strong panel of MPs has issued one of the most damning parliamentary reports in modern times, describing Britain’s evacuation from Afghanistan as ‘a disaster and a betrayal of our allies that will damage the UK’s interests
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It’s groundhog day in Westminster, where the leaked images of a No. 10 leaving party have prompted the re-emergence of some of the Prime Minister’s most vocal yet indecisive critics. Cometh the hour, cometh the carpers as veteran Sir Roger Gale and Scottish satrap Douglas Ross returned to their familiar place in the headlines yesterday by attacking Boris Johnson
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As Westminster waits for Sue Gray to release her report, ITV has got there first. The broadcaster released images this afternoon of one of the Downing Street parties during lockdown – specifically the 13 November 2020 leaving drinks for Lee Cain, Boris Johnson’s former director of communications. Bottles of alcohol and party food are pictured on
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It looks like Steerpike’s favourite students are it again. Six months after the furore about Rod Liddle’s speech at South College, members of Durham University’s student body have published a fabulously self-lacerating screed about their seat of learning. For on Friday, Durham’s Students’ Union (SU) released a 48-page ‘Culture Commission’ which seeks to ‘articulate what
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The policemen who guard the Downing Street guards are used to rag-tag protesters rocking up and chanting in their faces. But Friday afternoon brought with it a more well-heeled crowd than usual, as a myriad collection of 200 kids and campaigners rocked up in Whitehall to protest the government’s U-turn on the obesity strategy. And
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The Jubilee weekend looms next month. For some, it’s a chance to toast the monarchy; for others, simply an extra day off work. And for a small minority of Twitter-crazed loons, it’s yet more proof that the UK is goose-stepping down the path of fascism. For the unfurling of Union Jacks on London’s Regent Street, ahead of
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Jeremy Hunt is currently enjoying something of a renaissance – all the more interesting in light of Boris Johnson’s ongoing difficulties. The former Health Secretary has been touring the TV studios recently, promoting his new book Zero: Eliminating Preventable Harm and Tragedy in the NHS. It aims to ‘reduce the number of avoidable deaths to zero and in the process
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It looks like Ben Wallace had sugar on his cornflakes today. The Defence Secretary has gone ‘full tonto’ this morning at the Sunday Mirror over a story in today’s newspaper about the amount of cash his department is spending to send the kids of top army officers to leading public schools. The paper says that last year some
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Ah, Jacob Rees-Mogg. The Old Etonian sometimes appears to have been designed by top lab scientists at CCHQ to perfectly antagonise the Sir Humphreys of SW1. Since his appointment as the Minister for Government Efficiency in February, every announcement by the Somerset MP seems calculated to enrage the civil service trade unions, keen to retain Covid-era hybrid working
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There was much joy in Parliament earlier this month at the first in-person State Opening of Parliament since 2019. But the return of pomp and circumstance to the Palace of Westminster wasn’t universally applauded. Some doomsters took to Twitter to bemoan the sight of Prince Charles sat besides the Imperial State Crown while reading the Queen’s Speech
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Twitter may not be the real world, but it sure does set the conversation in Westminster. Commentators once spoke of ‘the ground war’ of activists on the ground and the ‘air war’ of broadcast interviews, but increasingly social media is where battles are fought and won. This week an audit in the States found that nearly
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So, the verdict is in: Boris only broke the law once during lockdown. Like it or not, today’s findings by the Metropolitan police will no doubt be received with delight by those in No. 10, relieved that the PM looks to have got away with it once again. Even if there are nerves over the
