Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Tuesday

25 January 2022

Michael Ellis gets another grilling

Another day, another party, another Urgent Question – and another dreadful outing for Michael Ellis. The Paymaster-General was sent out again, just three hours after the Met Police confirmed it would be probing 'partygate.' Deploying the finest lawyerly evasions and the best of his oleaginous charm, Ellis spent a gruelling 45 minutes fending off a barrage of outraged opposition MPs. Highlights include the Member for Northampton North appearing to indulge in existentialism by questioning the very meaning of the word 'party'.

Steerpike

Extinction Rebellion target MPs’ offices

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is making its way through the final stages of the parliamentary process — and not a moment too soon it seems. For the legislation, which aims to deter direct action protests, might be called into action to deal with the latest shenanigans of Extinction Rebellion. Leaked documents obtained by Mr S reveal that the 'eco-activists' are planning another 'mass resistance' action day for 9 April, with the group aiming to have at least 3,000 so-called 'Rebels' arrested on that day alongside a demonstration in Hyde Park. According to the 'XRUK Strategy 2022,' the emphasis this spring will be on what XR is calling 'Local Coup D’etat Action.

Steerpike

British Council’s Russian détente

It's all gone a bit Pete Tong down in the Crimea. Russia and Ukraine are tooling up on both sides, with the Western powers claiming there will be 'unprecedented' sanctions against Russia if it were to invade. Ben Wallace is set to meet with his Russian counterpart for crisis talks; the UK is among those nations shipping hundreds of anti-tank weapons out to Ukraine. The mood music is grim: the rhetoric sombre. Yet there are those in London who are adopting a breezier approach to the current quandary. For the British Council, considered by many to be a key soft power extension of UK foreign policy, appears to have taken the prospect of imminent European war in its stride.

Monday

24 January 2022

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s lockdown birthday

'Wait for Sue Gray' has been the mantra on every ministers' lips these past few weeks. But with just days to go before the senior civil servant is due to deliver her findings on 'partygate' how much longer can that line continue to hold? For this evening ITV have dropped yet another bombshell: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors. Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where his wife surprised him with a cake, with Lulu Lytle — the designer who was doing up the Prime Minister's flat at the time — among those who came down to the party. Turns out that redecoration might have cost Johnson a whole lot more than £112,000... https://twitter.

Steerpike

Gavin Williamson’s new gig

With his Whips' Office in crisis, how Boris Johnson must be wishing he'd kept Gavin Williamson in government. The former Chief Whip was praised for the political intelligence operation he ran during both the 2016 and 2019 Tory leadership elections when he helped secure victories for Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May. Now though Gavin – or Sir Gavin, as he is reportedly set to become – is left lolling on the backbenches, defending himself against attacks from Labour defectors about the methods he employed while in office. Still, the ex-Education Secretary clearly sees his former brief as his calling, given his desire to educate the public on his work in politics.

Steerpike

Watch: Blow for Boris as Treasury minister quits

Some rare fireworks in the House of Lords this afternoon. Lord Agnew, the minister responsible for Whitehall efficiency, has just resigned his ministerial posts after he told peers he was unable to defend the Treasury's record. Responding to an Urgent Question by Labour, he strongly criticised the UK government’s 'lamentable track record' in tackling fraud in a flagship state-backed coronavirus business loan scheme. The bounce back loan scheme handed out £47 billion, of which £4.9 billion was fraudulently claimed, the Business department estimates. It has a target to recover just £6 million from organised crime over three years.

Steerpike

Serpentine swimmers slap down Matt Hancock

Oh dear. As part of his comeback tour, Matt Hancock is trying every trick to aid his post-Gina rehabilitation. There has been talk of a self-justificatory book, cringeworthy Twitter clips of him doing meet and greets, an appearance at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball in a dreadful turtleneck, backbench interventions and even talk of him mounting a leadership bid. But it seems one of Hancock's stunts has backfired somewhat, after the master of the breast stroke was last week spotted taking a dip in the open-water swimming site of the Serpentine.

Steerpike

Where next for ‘party Marty’?

Westminster is gearing up for 'Sue Gray week' as the top civil servant is due to finally release her long-awaited findings into 'partygate.' There's been much speculation as to how bad the forthcoming report will be for Boris Johnson and his gang, with both political appointees and civil servants expected to be implicated. TheTelegraph reports that Downing Street police officers have been interviewed about what they saw on the nights in question while the Sunday Times claims that Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings will be grilled today. While Mr S awaits the publication of the report's findings with interest, it's clear that one or two people's careers in Whitehall have already been badly hit by the claims which emerged in recent weeks.

Sunday

23 January 2022

Steerpike

Science Museum axes slavery exhibits

An iconoclastic spirit has swept much of Britain's institutions over the past two years. Just last month Mr S revealed that a painting of a fictitious scene from the American Civil War had been removed from Liverpool University's library, despite it having hung there for decades. And it seems the university is not alone in its efforts, with Steerpike discovering that London's Science Museum has removed no fewer than eight exhibits for historical or political insensitivity reasons. Among the items are three objects from the vast collection of pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome, including two nineteenth century slave whips and a German man-catcher which pulled riders off horseback.

Steerpike

Was this MP sacked for her ‘Muslimness’?

It's a bad time to be a Tory whip. Facing briefings of incompetence and allegations of blackmail, backbencher Nus Ghani has overnight added fuel to the fire by claiming she was sacked from her ministerial post because her Muslim faith was 'making colleagues uncomfortable'. A few hours after the Sunday Times reports surfaced, Chief Whip Mark Spencer stepped forward to reveal himself as the MP about whom such charges were levelled. Ghani, of course, made history in January 2018 as the first female Muslim Minister to speak from the House of Commons dispatch box. A staunch Brexiteer and critic of China, she was surprisingly sacked from her transport brief in the February 2020 mini-reshuffle despite being generally well-regarded in the role.

Friday

21 January 2022

Steerpike

Carrie’s campaigners and the Tory Chief Whip

Poor Mark Spencer. The whips' office and its much-maligned chief have been in the firing line this week over their poor tactics and weak political intelligence, having been accused of deploying bully-boy tactics while conversely failing to protect their embattled PM. Spencer has, reportedly, accepted his fate and the fact he is 'very much much on his way out' amid briefings that the whips' office is to be purged to make amends for Johnson's errors. Still, Mr S was intrigued to read a page 4 report from the Guardian today, headlined 'Chief Whip "delaying changes to animal welfare".

Steerpike

Milling flounders on Uyghur debate

The mood in Westminster has gone somewhat quiet over the past two days, after Christian Wakeford's defection on Wednesday stopped the momentum of Tory plotters in parliament. But for a few hours yesterday, passions came alive once more – this time on an issue of policy. Foreign Office minister Amanda Milling was dragged to the House to answer questions from seething China hawks over the Commons debate on the Uyghur Tribunal's verdict of genocide. The hapless Milling was appointed to her current post as Minister for Asia in September 2021, after being demoted from her role as Chairman of the Conservative party.

Steerpike

Sturgeon skews her stats (again)

The statistical shenanigans of the SNP have been highlighted by Mr S before but it's always worth highlighting when the nationalist Holyrood government gets it wrong (again). At First Minister's Questions yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon told colleagues that England's infection rate is 20 per cent higher than that of Scotland, according to ONS figures. A surprising figure, given that the ONS estimated infection rate was 1 in 20 for both nations yesterday. The SNP leader said: In terms of the ONS figures this week, infection levels in England right now are over 20 per cent higher than in Scotland. I don't think it's a competition but if Douglas Ross wants to make these comparisons, then they are the comparisons, there is the data.

Steerpike

Dehenna Davison and the Mean Girls of Downing Street

It's all a bit of a soap opera over at No. 10. Tears, screams, tantrums, mess everywhere — and that's just Boris’s children Wilf and Romy. The papers are full of talk of ‘the good king with bad advisers’ as various sources speculate that one or more of the whips’ office, special adviser team and the ministerial ranks could all be overhauled. Bertolt Brecht suggested dissolving the people and electing another – it appears Boris wants to do the same to the team he hand-picked. But while Johnson's government has been accused of having a 'women problem,' it's not just the men getting involved in the briefing wars.

Thursday

20 January 2022

Steerpike

Michael Fabricant’s hapless help

Oh dear. Tory loyalists have been out in force the past two days, desperate to save Boris Johnson's flailing premiership. Mr S has heard of at least one boosterish Boris-backer quoting the words of Margaret Thatcher in November 1990: 'I shall fight on, I fight to win!' Unfortunately, as another MP muttered back: 'Maggie resigned two days later.' An excruciating interview by the Prime Minister on Tuesday backfired spectacularly, while the efforts of party whips to 'encourage' colleagues have resulted in Will Wragg denouncing them as 'blackmail' before his select committee today. Still, cometh the hour, cometh the Fabricant.

Steerpike

The SNP’s bullying hypocrisy

The 'baby-faced assassin' has struck again. William Wragg, the backbench Boris-basher, lobbed another grenade at the door of No. 10 today with his comments at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee about the tactics being used by the Johnson regime. Wragg, who possesses the name of a septuagenarian but the appearance of an adolescent, claimed that his party's whips are trying to undermine colleagues opposed to the current leadership. He told an ashen-faced Steve Barclay that No. 10 staff, special advisers and government ministers had said there would be embarrassing stories released to the press if MPs did not support the Prime Minister. Wragg also claimed No.

Steerpike

Kent Tory Burns Sturgeon

It's Burns night on Tuesday and after two years of pandemic politics, what better time to celebrate the Union? Yesterday evening Tory unionists piled into the opulent splendour of the the Cavalry and Guards Club for the London branch of the Scottish Conservatives' annual celebration of the national poet. Steerpike's spies were in attendance to enjoy the traditional bagpipes and whisky, with Dame Eleanor Laing delivering a magisterial toast to the haggis in her wonderful Paisley accent — a job for which her stints in the Speaker's chair have certainly proved good training. Scottish leader Douglas Ross was the star turn, having found himself caught between a Holyrood/Westminster tug-of-war in recent days after calling for Boris Johnson to go.

Steerpike

Harry and Meghan’s tax wheeze

Money is very important to Harry and Meghan – as evidenced by their multi-million dollar deals with a string of top companies. Not for them, 'go woke, go broke': their philanthropic vehicle Archewell raised less than £37,000 for their charities up until June last year, with more being spent on legal fees to dissolve their previous UK effort, Sussex Royal. Still, this hasn't stopped their website gushing about the couple's 'shared purpose, global action' and 'leading the way with compassion.' Its mission statement proclaims passionately that 'our core purpose is to uplift and unite communities — local and global, online and offline — one act of compassion at a time.' Talk about putting the Prada in Pravda.

Steerpike

Devi Sridhar concedes defeat

Amid all yesterday's defection drama, it was easy to miss that Boris Johnson announced the scrapping of his 'Plan B' Covid measures. Such a move has not gone down well among the more hysterical elements of Covid Twitter who appear to see the restoration of civil liberties as a dastardly Tory plot to privatise the NHS. The SNP MP for Central Ayrshire Dr Philippa Whitford spoke for such elements when she called the announcement 'crazy', asking 'Would you slash your seatbelt or airbag in the middle of a car crash?' Not all of Whitford's nationalist fellow travellers agree though. For Professor Devi Sridhar, an ardent supporter of 'Zero Covid' and lockdowns appears to have today thrown in the towel and come out as a lockdown-skeptic.

Wednesday

19 January 2022

Steerpike

Former Tory MP gets revenge on Boris

Partygate may be what does for Boris but it was the North Shropshire by-election which triggered the landslide. The fallout from the disastrous decision to contest Owen Paterson's suspension by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has fuelled the anger and discontent which now leaves Johnson clinging on the precipice. For in losing a constituency which had returned Tories for more than 100 years, the PM spooked nervy backbenchers into thinking their seats could be next. Now though, the latest publication of the register of members' interests has revealed the schadenfreude which others are deriving from Johnson's North Shropshire woes.