Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Thursday

Steerpike

Imran Ahmad Khan’s legacy revealed

Few MPs have had such an inglorious and brief career as Imran Ahmad Khan. Elected in December 2019, he was charged in June 2021 with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. After having the whip duly removed by the Tories, he was subsequently tried and found guilty in April 2022, for which he was jailed for 18 months. That in turn caused a by-election in his Red Wall Wakefield seat: a by-election which swung so convincingly towards Labour that it prompted the no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson which precipitated the end of his premiership. In a career full of disgrace though Mr S has uncovered what may be Ahmad Khan's lasting legacy.

Steerpike

Sturgeon’s taxpayer-funded political attack

Nicola Sturgeon has never been all that bothered about the remit of her devolved government and the parameters of its responsibilities. So exactly no one was surprised when she popped up this morning with another speech on independence. It comes as part of her ramp-up to a referendum which she insists she will hold next October, despite Westminster refusing permission. Today's speech unveiled the second in a series of papers making the case for independence. What might have surprised casual observers of Scottish politics is just how closely the address resembled a party conference speech in its unabashedly partisan attacks on the Tories and Labour.

Steerpike

Theresa revels in Boris’s downfall

Of all those revelling in Boris Johnson's downfall last week, few probably enjoyed it more than Theresa May. It would only be natural for the former Tory PM to enjoy a little schadenfreude from Johnson's defenestration, given how his resignation and subsequent maneuverings played their role in destabilising her premiership. Outwardly, of course, May has remained Sphinx-like with regards to the leadership, refusing to divulge who she is backing or even say if she submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson. But there are signs, perhaps, about her true feelings. The Maidenhead MP did turn up to the aforementioned confidence vote while clad in a full length ball-gown, beaming broadly at assembled lobby reporters.

Steerpike

Lord Frost says Penny Mordaunt isn’t up to the job

In an excoriating interview on TalkTV just now, Lord Frost has said he has ‘grave reservations’ about Penny Mordaunt becoming the prime minister. The former Brexit negotiator, who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet last year, told Julia Hartley-Brewer ‘To be honest, I'm quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy – notionally more than really – in the Brexit talks last year’. He went on: I’m sorry to say this, I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year, she wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary and I’m afraid she wasn't fully accountable. She wasn’t always visible, sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Watch: Joe Biden’s Holocaust gaffe

Has the US president been possessed by an alt right troll? Nope, it’s just Joe being Joe. No sooner had Joe Biden landed in Israel this afternoon than he managed to commit a gaffe so heinous that it's hard to see how his hosts will forgive him. After stepping off Air Force One, Biden said it was vital to 'bear witness' to the Nazi atrocities of World War Two in order to: 'keep alive the truth and honour of the Holocaust'. He promptly corrected himself by saying '…horror of the Holocaust’ but the damage was done. Oh dear. Here's the video: https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1547227449607573505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1547227449607573505?

Steerpike

Either shut up or get out! Hoyle kicks out Scottish MPs

Prime Minister’s Questions got off to a rowdy start today – which was perhaps not surprising considering that it was the first since Boris Johnson’s resignation last week. But while Boris might have been expecting trouble from the Labour benches, it was parliament’s Scottish MPs who ended up causing trouble.  As the Prime Minister began to answer his first question, the session was drowned out by heckling from the Alba party (formerly of the SNP) who began shouting incoherently about another referendum. Not to be outdone, the MPs were promptly shouted down by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who told them to ‘either shut up or get out’.

Steerpike

What is Michael Gove up to?

The Westminster rumour mill is in overdrive about Michael Gove’s intentions in the leadership contest. Fresh from bringing down Boris, the Brutus of the backbenches has surprised some by opting to back Kemi Badenoch in the race to find Johnson’s successor. His endorsement of Badenoch impressed some colleagues but many right wing Tories have convinced themselves that it is just part of a plot to split their wing of the party. Steve Baker went public on Monday, telling LBC listeners that: I am given to understand quite authoritatively from a candidate that Michael Gove started with Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove is now backing Kemi Badenoch.

Steerpike

Berkeley law professor: ‘Your line of questioning is transphobic’

Britain isn’t America. But that doesn’t stop us letting out a collective groan when we see the same loopy opinions wheeled out in complex and nuanced debates.  Yesterday, the author of Critical Race Theory: A Primer, Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges, appeared at a Senate hearing about the overturning of Roe v Wade. She gave a masterclass in a form of pseudy smugness we’ve come to expect from the academic-activist industrial complex in recent years.  For example, Professor Bridges accused a questioner of transphobia when asked whether she meant ‘women’ when using the phrase ‘people with a capacity for pregnancy’. Mr S thought readers might enjoy watching some of the highlights:  https://www.youtube.

Tuesday

Steerpike

George Freeman’s leadership shenanigans

It seems that George Freeman has got his summer flip-flops in early. The (recently departed) science and innovation minister hasn't had a great few weeks in the Commons recently. First, there was last month's leadership vote in Boris Johnson in which Freeman initially refused to say which way he had voted. This was then followed by last week's rather more successful coup against Johnson in which Freeman submitted a public letter of no confidence in the PM . He did not, however, make clear if he was resigning or not, sparking confusion and derision among bemused colleagues and hacks. Having announced that he had, in fact, resigned, Freeman then took to Twitter to bemoan his loss of office, sharing a series of flattering quotes from academics about his departure.

Steerpike

Kemi Badenoch’s toilet stunt

War and famine in Ukraine and inflation and rising bills at home. These are tough times in Britain and abroad: the winning candidate for the Tory leadership will have to be able to really deal with the big issues. But, er, not every MP in the running is keen to focus on such themes. Kemi Badenoch, the surprise star in this contest, has taken a rather different approach, preferring instead to dive head-first into the culture war. And so it was in that spirit that the Badenoch campaign sought to make something of a stunt out of the facilities at their official launch this morning. Camilla Turner, the Telegraph journalist, spotted that makeshift signs have been added to toilet doors to say 'Men' and 'Ladies'. Could it be an apparent dig at one particular candidate?

Steerpike

Watch: Beth Rigby heckled at Sunak’s launch event

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak tried to strike a conciliatory tone at his campaign launch this morning, in which he praised his former boss Boris Johnson as a ‘remarkable’ man with a ‘good heart’. It appears though that Sunak’s defenestration of the PM might be a sore point for his campaign. At the launch, Sunak was grilled by Sky’s Beth Rigby, who suggested he was a divisive figure, saying: ‘You have a police fine over partygate and there have been questions too over your very wealthy family avoiding paying millions of pounds in tax due to your wife being a non-dom taxpayer...’ Mr S isn’t sure that Rigby is best placed to suggest that those who break the Covid rules should have no place in public life.

Monday

Steerpike

Now Steve Baker goes for Penny

It's all getting a bit heated in the Tory leadership wars. Fresh from the sweltering heat of the Churchill War Rooms, Steve Baker has marched into the LBC studios with his blood clearly boiling. The 'Brexit hardman' went on Andrew Marr's show tonight and launched a howitzer at fellow Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt. Baker, who is backing Suella Braverman of the European Research Group, was asked to assess Mordaunt's credentials. He replied: I'm sorry Penny but where were you when I needed you? She was supposed to be a Brexiteer. And when I was a bruised, you know, beaten captain in the trenches, Penny was staying in the Cabinet along with others.

Steerpike

Jamie Wallis fled car crash in heels and leather mini skirt

Just because Boris Johnson has gone, don’t expect the legal fines for Tories to go away. Jamie Wallis, the Member of Parliament for Bridgend has been ordered to pay £2,500 and banned from driving for six months after he smashed into a lamp post in November, failed to report the collision and then left his vehicle in a dangerous position. Wallis told the judge that: 'I am sorry that is appears I ran away but this is not how it happened in the moment.’ The court, it seems, saw matters differently.  The MP was dressed in a leather mini skirt, tights and high heels at the time of the crash, according to testimony.

Sunday

Steerpike

Suella goes for Penny on gender row

Is the leadership race turning toxic already? Three days in and Rishi Sunak has been the target of a vicious private memo while Nadhim Zahawi is fighting off questions about his tax arrangements. Now it seems that Penny Mordaunt is the latest candidate in the firing line; namely over her past support for trans rights. The 'PM4PM' campaign has got off to a shaky start, having been forced to remove its campaign video after using footage of a British Paralympian without his permission. And now, despite releasing a midnight Twitter thread to try to rebut criticisms that Mordaunt is 'woke', Penny is facing flak from the Tory right. Mordaunt has claimed that it was she who 'changed maternity legislation that was drafted in gender neutral language to use female terms.

Steerpike

Full text: leaked Tory memo attacking Sunak

The Telegraph has got hold of a zinger of a private memo currently doing the rounds on Tory MPs’ WhatsApp groups. The 421-word dossier, which sums up all of the ex-chancellor’s supposed errors during his two-year tenure, has been published by the paper’s associate editor Camilla Tominey.  The document lays into Sunak, accusing the favourite to replace Boris Johnson of reckless overspending and a commitment to ‘big state’ economic policy. It also claims that he lied about his wife’s non-dom tax status and that he committed ‘schoolboy errors’ that led to widespread fraud of the Covid loan scheme.

Steerpike

Penny Mordaunt changes tack on trans rights

Penny Mordaunt has had a good start to the leadership race, storming into second place with 16 names, even though she is yet to declare. But is the Portsmouth MP worried about her past views coming back to haunt her? Mr S was surprised to see Mordaunt fire off a late-night ten-part Twitter thread shortly after midnight, in which the Royal Navy reservist tried desperately to prove that she really isn't woke. Having complained that she wants to talk about 'how we get our economy growing', Mordaunt then shared a graphic captioned 'Do I know what a woman is?' Taking a sideswipe at the Times for using an image of her on a gameshow, the trade minister declared that 'Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female.

Saturday

Steerpike

Jolyon makes a mess of it (again)

Oh dear. It seems that Britain's favourite kimono-wearing, fox-murdering, bat-wielding loudmouth lawyer has done it again. The Conservative party is shaping up for a leadership contest between the most diverse range of candidates ever, including five MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds (Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid). There are also four women (Braverman, Badenoch, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt) –  more than the prospective number of straight white men (Tom Tugendhat, Ben Wallace and Jeremy Hunt). But that's not enough for Jolyon Maugham, the right-on Remainiac best known for losing cases and killing foxes.

Friday

Steerpike

Has Jeremy Hunt been left in the lurch?

Boris’s decision to quit yesterday fired the starting gun on the greatest game of them all: the Tory leadership race. Suella Braverman was first out the blocks on Thursday night before, er, Johnson had even gone. But it’s the launch of the second official candidate, Tom Tugendhat, which has attracted more interest. In traditional Tory style he began his campaign with an article in the Telegraph, emphasising his own personal values and the need to tackle Britain's economic problems – a conscious effort to broaden his appeal beyond being pigeonholed as solely interested in matters of defence and foreign policy.

Steerpike

Will Blackford and Sturgeon now resign too?

The SNP likes to portray itself as the moral guardians of Scotland. But does such sanctimony extend to Westminster, where the Tories have just ousted a leader accused of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment. Amid the chaos in the Commons, Steerpike was intrigued by the silence earlier this week coming from the SNP press office. Perhaps though, that was unsurprising, given the party’s own track record on responding to such issues.  This seems a particular affliction for the nationalist party's leaders in London. First we had Angus Robertson, who led the party's Westminster contingent until he lost his seat in 2017. Robertson was one of the first nats to be informed about allegations against that fallen idol Alex Salmond.

Thursday

Steerpike

Spectator summer party, in pictures

It's been a tumultuous day in Westminster. Boris Johnson has (finally) resigned as Prime Minister after losing more than 50 members of his own government. So what better way to mourn or celebrate the fall of the Tory premier than over a glass of Pol Roger in the garden of The Spectator's offices in Westminster? Mr S was on hand to hear the plots and gossip as the great and the (not so) good gathered to mark the resignation of one of Britain's most divisive leaders...