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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Rayner-gate rumbles on into day three, with no sign yet that the press have bored of talking about themselves. The Deputy Labour leader was accused by an anonymous Tory MP in the Mail on Sunday of ‘flashing’ the Prime Minister at PMQs, prompting wall-to-wall criticism across every media outlet. Radio 4 led its 6 o’clock news programme with Speaker
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China is back on the agenda in Westminster. Whether it’s Boris’s trip to India or a Beijing-based take-over of Newport Wafer Fab, it’s hard to escape the flutter of the five-starred red flag. And there’s few signs of that abating any time soon, with leading US Senator Marco Rubio launching an attack this month on
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Westminster has been ablaze with indignation. What’s the cause this time – another Downing Street lockdown party? No, on this occasion it’s an article in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday about Angela Rayner. The Deputy Labour leader was accused by an anonymous Tory MP of ‘flashing’ the Prime Minister at PMQs, in the manner of Sharon Stone
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It’s not just The Smiths who warned of panic on the streets of London. The capital’s crime rate isn’t doing terribly well these days with five stabbings, a shooting and an acid attack all in the past week. Indeed, 2021 was a record year for teenage homicides in the great metropolis. Even former boxing champion Amir Khan
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The government seems keen to conduct something of a war on Whitehall. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minster for government efficiency, has even taken to leaving calling cards in empty offices in order to encourage civil servants to return to their workplaces. But hybrid working isn’t the only problem facing the civil service: a more costly issue,
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Online offence is back in the news after a man received a suspended sentence of 10 weeks for sending a ‘grossly offensive’ viral video of a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire. It’s an issue that the Tory party have mixed views on: many of its MPs claim to stand for free speech but
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The Express – home of the Crusader, William Hickey and Ann Widdecombe’s columns. Lord Beaverbrook’s baby has enjoyed its ups and downs over the decades but has its fans in Westminster, with Tory backbenchers organising a special virtual ‘Blue Collar Conservatives’ together back in 2020. And while the daily newspaper has undergone something of a rebrand in recent years, under its
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Dogs bark, cows moo and the SNP duck their failings. It seems as though every day brings fresh revelations about Nicola Sturgeon’s regime in Scotland as more and more questions are asked about her party’s record in office. The only novelty is the sheer range of scandals which can outrage, shock and rile: last week it was
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Boris Johnson’s India trip hasn’t got off to the best of starts. Seeking to escape domestic woes, the Prime Minister jetted off to the subcontinent yesterday, only to face a fresh row about the Commons U-turn on the parliamentary investigation into Partygate. And Johnson’s irritation at the prospect of yet another inquiry was palpable in an
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Boris Johnson was always dubbed the ‘Heineken Tory’ – the man who could always reach parts of the country which other Conservatives couldn’t. But now it seems that appeal hasn’t extended as far as, er, his own backyard ahead of next month’s local elections. For Hillingdon Tories appear to have removed any trace of the
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It seems that the spirit of COP26 is still alive and well in Edinburgh. For the SNP’s parliamentarians have begun recycling their speeches at Holyrood, regardless of the occasion. Amid claims that the Scottish nationalists are nothing but a bunch of unthinking, zombie–like drones, blindly following the latest directive from Bute House, backbencher Willie Coffey
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Sir Keir Starmer is riding highs in the polls, topping Boris Johnson as the preferred PM of the people. Sober, studied and serious: after the ups and downs of the past six years, he’s (apparently) looking like an increasingly attractive offering to a weary electorate. But Mr S is somewhat perturbed by the Labour leader’s
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It never rains for No. 10 but it pours. After both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were last week fined in recess for breaching lockdown laws, the Prime Minister returned to parliament today to atone for his sins. And it’s not been a happy afternoon for Johnson as opposition leader after opposition leader denounced him
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All eyes are on the Commons this afternoon for Boris Johnson’s imminent statement on partygate. But before the fun starts at five, Priti Patel offered up an appetiser to whet the appetite, appearing before MPs to justify her new-fangled Rwanda immigration policy. The Home Secretary was in a buoyant mood, calmly rebutting the attacks of
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For some time now Mr S has been concerned about the assorted dregs gathering around the House of Commons. Badly dressed, often heckling, always angry and rarely lucid. No, not the SNP’s parliamentary party but rather the various bands of demonstrators who seem to congregate outside the gates of the Palace of Westminster to protest a smorgasbord
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All bets were off at the Hippodrome casino last night as London’s nerdiest politicos piled into Leicester Square to watch the first For the Many live recording. For those unfamiliar with this Westminster institution, it is nothing but an hour of smut and innuendo masquerading as a political podcast. Carry On Up The Commons, if you will. And hosts Iain Dale
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The blessed Nicola has been out on the campaign trail in recent days, spreading the good news and decrying that wicked Boris Johnson’s non-believing band of heretic Tories. The bad king’s woes down in London have proved a godsend to Saint Nicola the nationalist, ever eager to lead her people to that land of milk and
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It is said in Westminster that Boris Johnson likes to surround his 5ft 6in Chancellor with tall ministers to make him feel small. And up at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon has clearly taken a leaf from the Prime Minister’s book, judging by the ministers with whom she surrounds herself. After suffering a reversal at last year’s elections,
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Since her appointment as Culture Secretary in September, Nadine Dorries hasn’t been shy about making the odd enemy or two. Whether it’s the BBC, Channel 4, Facebook or Ofcom, the former nurse has shown no compunction in dishing out the harsh medicine during her seven months in office. And now it seems the Bedfordshire MP can
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The Tory task at the next election is enormous. No party in the democratic age has ever won a fifth consecutive term in office and bruising battles over Brexit and Covid mean the Conservatives will have a tough ask next time out. Boris Johnson’s team still have two years left in office but inside No. 10 minds
