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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After the pomp and circumstance of yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, Tory MPs were on their best behaviour last night as they trooped into Downing Street to attend evening drinks with the Prime Minister. Boris Johnson has instituted a series of these receptions in recent months, as part of a belated effort to ‘love bomb’ his restless backbenchers. Such
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It’s Queen’s Speech day in parliament today and in traditional style, two lucky government MPs have been chosen to propose and second the Loyal Address to Her Majesty. This involves two backbenchers – one typically older, the other a newly-elected type – delivering a humorous speech ostensibly on the government’s legislative agenda but which actually
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With two looming by-elections, a selection dilemma is facing local Tories in both Wakefield and Tiverton: who do they choose to be their parliamentary candidates? A variety of names have been bandied about but one above all is the commentariat’s choice: David Frost, Boris Johnson’s former Brexit chief, now languishing on the backbenches in the House of
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It was Enoch Powell who remarked that ‘the House of Commons without whips is like a city without sewers.’ And it seems that the piping has sprung a leak, given the amount of excrement that’s been flying around Westminster in recent months. In January it was the Tory whips and their chief Mark Spencer, who
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There’s a new regime in Downing Street: the City Hall gang is taking over. The arrival of Guto Harri as No. 10 director of communications in February brought with it a fresh approach to media. Out went the broadcasting boycotts: in came a less hostile style willing to take more risks – the fruits of which
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You can tell the trouble that Sir Keir Starmer is in by the desperation of Sun hacks in finding fresh curry puns. Whether it’s ‘backed into a korma’ or ‘bhaji smugglers,’ the Labour leader’s ongoing troubles over ‘Beergate’ has caused a run on puns over at London Bridge. The latest twist in the ongoing saga is the news that Sir
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Uh oh, it looks like things are getting uncomfortable for Keir Starmer. This week the Labour leader was hoping to turn the national conversation towards the cost of living crisis and the poor Tory showing in the local elections. Instead the hapless opposition leader has become embroiled in a ‘beergate’ scandal of his own –
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It’s been a bad week for the Tories. They’ve lost nearly 500 councillors, are facing two key parliamentary by-elections and are now near-extinct in much of the capital. There are some who fear that following the various scandals involving Owen Paterson (lobbying), Imran Ahmad Khan (sex offences) and Neil Parish (porn in Parliament), the Conservative
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Poor Keir Starmer appears to have the reverse Midas touch. When he awoke this morning, Labour was making gains across the country – the capitalist citadels of London were falling, marginals like Southampton were going red and the seemingly inexorable advance of the Tories in the Red Wall had been halted. Yet as sure as
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Nervy Tories in Westminster will be looking at today’s results and wondering what it means for them. Council contests are often fought on very different issues to those in a general election but there’s no doubt that local councils switching parties is bad news for the incumbent MPs there. Top Tories under threat include Dominic Raab, whose
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Sir Keir Starmer has sown the wind – and now he reaps the whirlwind. The Labour leader has led the charge on Partygate these past six months, releasing endless statements, clips and quotes castigating Boris Johnson for the gatherings in No. 10 during Covid. But today Durham Police have announced they will investigate an alleged lockdown breach by
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This morning it was London: now it’s the results across the south of England which are flooding in, with similarly bad news for the Tories. And one declaration in Somerset will particularly trouble Conservative high command after the party’s expert on defeating the Liberal Democrats was himself defeated, er, by the Liberal Democrats. For incumbent councillor Hayward Burt
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Local elections aren’t exactly the most glamorous of affairs but there’s usually a sprinkling of celebrity stardust to enliven the occasion. This year it has been in short supply, with Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman and Carrie Johnson’s lockdown-defying friend Ben Mallett supplying infamy, in lieu of charisma. But now Mr S has discovered an unlikely
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All is not well within the Conservative party north of the border this morning. Counting the votes hasn’t even started yet but already the Scottish Tories have pre-emptively begun deciding who’s to blame for the looming electoral losses. Senior figures within the party expect ‘heavy losses’ and are preparing to slip into third place: unnamed sources are going around
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It’s not been a great night for the Tories. Labour have taken three symbolic London councils from the Conservatives – Westminster, Barnet and Wandsworth – while also making some gains outside the capital in key marginals like Southampton. And with Tory council defeats come defeated Tory council leaders. John Mallinson, who led his party on Carlisle
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Sadiq Khan may have won his contest last year but he’s not having such a good election this time around. The wokest mayor in all the West has not enjoyed the best week in the run-up to polling day. First, he was accused by Grant Shapps of breaking pre-election purdah rules after Transport for London yesterday announced
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It’s polling day today and voters will be giving their verdicts on Boris Johnson’s leadership. It’s the PM’s first test post-Partygate so what better time to reflect on the man in charge when that whole saga blew up? Dan Rosenfield was one of four men to serve as Johnson’s effective chief of staff in No.
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The Russian bear might be back but the Chinese dragon waits in the wings. Moscow’s spectacularly mismanaged invasion of Ukraine might have diverted Western attention away from Beijing but the CCP clearly poses a much greater long-term threat to the West than Putin’s kleptocratic regime. With that in mind, Mr S was intrigued to see
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Schadenfreude is a funny thing. Once it was Labour laughing at Boris Johnson dodging questions about food and drink: now it’s their turn to face them too. Sir Keir Starmer had a somewhat excruciating appearance on this morning’s Today programme when he was asked repeatedly about his attendance at a work event in April 2021,
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There are tears aplenty across America this morning as millions awake to the news that the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v Wade. The initial majority draft was leaked overnight, suggesting that the country’s highest court will strike down the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide. With Republican legislatures passing restrictive measures across America, the