Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Wednesday

26 January 2022

Did Boris lie about the Afghan dog evacuation?

With Sue Gray keeping the lobby on tenterhooks, it's a good day to bury bad news. Earlier today, the Foreign Office quietly divulged emails that appear to confirm that, contrary to the Prime Minister's claims, he did intervene to authorise the evacuation of Pen Farthing's animal evacuation out of Afghanistan. The campaign to get Farthing's animals out was of course led by Dominic Dyer — a friend of Carrie Johnson, who features in her cover picture on Twitter. Released to the Foreign Affairs Committee, the files indicate Boris Johnson ordered the rescue of the animals from Kabul, despite the crisis on the ground and repeated denials to the contrary.

Steerpike

Animal lobby turns on Guardian columnist

The Animal Sentience Bill is the centrepiece of the government's environmental agenda, designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain. But will Guardian columnists be included under the new law? For it seems poor George Monbiot has been the victim of a rather unedifying pile-on in recent days. His crime? Suggesting that controlled trophy hunting should be used to incentivise animal conservation. Monbiot has been the victim of a rather unedifying pile-on in recent days Monbiot, a devoted environmentalist of the public school kind, argued that such activities 'when well-regulated' can provide much-needed funds to poor communities in places like Africa and actually help improve the number of endangered species.

Steerpike

The Daily Mail’s curious partygate U-turn

The Daily Mail has long been the favoured mid-market newspaper of the masses, as the self-styled champion of Middle England. Its leaders are thumping; its splashes a must-read: so tight is its grip on the public imagination. Not for nothing do ministers live in fear of finding themselves in the paper's crosshairs, given its reputation for having its finger on the pulse. Still, this morning Mr S can't help wondering: has the Mail gone off the boil? For Mr S was curious to see yet another frenzied front page this morning declaiming Westminster's focus on partygate as 'A nation that's lost all sense of proportion'. It follows last week's effort which told partygate plotters 'In the name of God, grow up!

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg offers up another laughable defence of Boris

It's a mark of the government's desperation that, less than two weeks after his disastrous performance on Newsnight, Jacob Rees-Mogg was wheeled out on the same show again last night. Having done his bit for the Union by dismissing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross suggesting he wasn't a 'very significant figure,' the Somerset MP has now decided to rewrite the British constitution. He told Newsnight that if Boris Johnson goes, 'a change of leader requires a general election' as the UK is now effectively a 'presidential system' and 'the mandate is personal rather than entirely party'. This is news, of course, to Rees-Mogg's Conservative colleagues in Parliament. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Tuesday

25 January 2022

Steerpike

Commons’ staffers in bonus boost

Inflation, fuel prices and a looming cost of living crisis: it's a grim economic outlook for many out there. Fortunately, MPs are doing their bit to help, namely by giving extra cash handouts to the staffers in the offices. Steerpike has spotted that almost a million pounds – £951,000 – was shelled out in 'reward and recognition' payments last year, according to the 2020/21 figures from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). A follow up request from Mr S has established the identity of the most generous bosses in parliament, with Sir Keir Starmer in the top ten of the 352 MPs who sanctioned such payments last year.

Steerpike

Watch: Ian Hislop kicks off at Commons committee

It seems Bonfire Night has come early this year. First there were fireworks in the chamber after Labour tabled an Urgent Question on Sue Gray's investigation into 'partygate.' And this afternoon Private Eye editor Ian Hislop had quite the argy bargy with Tory grandee Sir Bernard Jenkin over at the Standards Committee. Hislop was one of a number of journalists called up before MPs in the aftermath of the Owen Paterson scandal to give evidence on sleaze-related scandals. And the long-serving Have I Got News For You panellist was on feisty form as he locked horns with Sir Bernard, one of those who voted to let Paterson off the hook in November. Hislop was only up for less than an hour but managed to cram in more than his fair share of drama.

Steerpike

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.