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

David Cameron’s Greensill riches uncovered

From our UK edition

Shame, opprobrium and multiple select committee grillings – was the disgrace of Greensill worth it for David Cameron? The answer would now appear to be yes, judging from documents obtained by the BBC ahead of a Panorama special programme tonight on the story of the company’s collapse. According to the Beeb, Cameron made about £7 million

Watch: anti-vaxxers storm wrong BBC centre

From our UK edition

Oh dear. This afternoon an anti-vaccine demonstration marched on what they thought was BBC Television Centre in apparent protest at the media’s supposed complicity in supporting vaccines, Covid certification and lockdowns.  Unfortunately for the protesters, the Corporation actually left the building in White City some eight years ago. Since 2013 the site has instead boasted

Cable goes from Mr Bean to Stalin

From our UK edition

It seems like just yesterday that Vince Cable was the most popular Lib Dem in the land. Back in the heady days of the late noughties, Cable was regarded as the supposed seer who foresaw the banking crisis; a ‘safe pair of hands’ whose memorable jibe at Gordon Brown’s transformation from ‘Stalin to Mr Bean’ provided much mirth to

Whitehall’s £3 million Stonewall spend

From our UK edition

It’s not been a great year for the LGBT rights charity Stonewall. In May founding member Matthew Parris accused the organisation of trying to delegitimise anyone who did not agree with its views after a free speech row at Essex University.  Stonewall was alleged to have misrepresented the law in its advice to the institution

BBC’s bizarre Christmas Day message

From our UK edition

Last week Mr S reported that – following months of deliberation – the BBC had (finally) decided to uphold a complaint about a controversial blog post written by its LGBT correspondent Ben Hunte. The case in question concerned a court verdict in December in which senior judges ruled against children being given access to drugs that would allow

Farage’s festive funding of the lifeboats

From our UK edition

Throughout the summer Nigel Farage has kept up his focus on the migrant crisis in Dover. The onetime UKIP leader turned GB News star has spent much of the last six weeks denouncing the efforts of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) which he has dubbed a ‘taxi service for illegal trafficking gangs’ for picking up

Revealed: Robert Dingwall axed as government advisor

From our UK edition

This week, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which sets the UK’s vaccine policies, recommended that 16 and 17-year-olds be offered the Pfizer vaccine – leading to speculation that the jab could soon be offered to even younger age groups. Speaking at a press conference on the issue yesterday, the deputy chief medical

Guy Verhofstadt claims Olympic gold for the EU

From our UK edition

Who is on top of the gold medal table at the Tokyo Olympics? China? The United States?  According to former European parliament Brexit chief Guy Verhofstadt, it is, in fact, the European Union that is triumphing at the games. While you have to go down to seventh place in the Olympics leader board to find an EU country (Germany), Verhofstadt

Why is the EU attending the butcher of Tehran’s inauguration?

From our UK edition

At the beginning of the year Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was forced to hastily cancel a diplomatic trip to Europe, reportedly after top EU officials refused to meet with him following the storming of the US Capitol building. In the aftermath of the event, Luxembourg’s foreign minister suggested that Trump was a

Foreign Secretary in free fall

From our UK edition

You might have thought the hire wire act of balancing Britain’s overseas interests would be keeping the Foreign Secretary fully occupied this summer. But now Dominic Raab has added skydiving to karate and boxing in his bag of tricks, having signed up to do a sponsored freefall for charity in October. A letter has now gone out to Raab’s parliamentary

Ed Davey’s nuclear U-turn

From our UK edition

Sir Ed Davey has called on the government to ‘keep the British taxpayer out of’ the Sizewell C nuclear plant, arguing that a part nationalisation of the project would ‘be a total betrayal of taxpayers and cost every household in Britain a small fortune’. Ministers are reportedly considering plans to strip the Chinese state-owned energy

Revealed: Top mandarins’ bumper pandemic bonuses

From our UK edition

The news this month that the government will offer nurses a 3 per cent pay rise didn’t exactly go to as ministers had hoped. Public sector workers still facing a pay freeze took umbrage at their exclusion while the UK’s largest nursing union is planning ‘a summer of action’ over what they view as a pitiful

Labour demand probe into Tory China visit

From our UK edition

It was revealed on Monday that ministers want to remove Beijing’s state-owned energy company China General Nuclear (CGN) from future UK power projects. In light of this, Steerpike thought he would look into those MPs and peers who have declared enjoying hospitality from CGN in the past. Neil Coyle, Trudy Harrison, Sue Hayman and Lord

BBC (finally) upholds complaint on gender-transitioning article

From our UK edition

The BBC has had its fair share of reporting controversies in recent years. But transgender issues have been a particularly difficult issue for the Corporation, with one video being lampooned (and then quickly retired) in January for telling children there are ‘over 100 genders.’ One article that caused particularly controversy appeared on the Beeb’s online

How green is Labour’s environment spokesman?

From our UK edition

It’s the issue facing all MPs this recess: what do you do for your summer hols? It’s not just Covid causing confusion this year, with approved travel lists going from green to amber at a moment’s notice – there’s also the environmental question to consider. Some MPs are reluctant to cast aspersions on their eco-credentials by jet-setting

Floods force Labour reconciliation

From our UK edition

The morass of flooding politics have claimed a fair few scalps over the years. Those with long memories will recall the struggles of former Culture Secretary Chris Smith, whose lacklustre tenure as chair of the Environment Agency was ended ignominiously back in 2014 after flooding in Devon, Cornwall and the Somerset Levels. Now Labour is having to grapple

Are MPs safe against a hack attack?

From our UK edition

It’s parliamentary recess at present but the work doesn’t stop for MPs. Post bags and inboxes remain piled high, with our long-suffering legislators forced to slog through a backlog of Covid-related constituent issues. Still, the stresses of the job are even greater for those five Tory MPs who have been sanctioned by the Chinese state. Tom

Five experts who predicted daily Covid cases would hit 100,000

From our UK edition

A lot was said and written about the UK’s decision to press ahead with July 19, the so-called ‘Freedom Day’ when restrictions on social contact were lifted. Some greeted this date with a mix of horror, outrage and fury with 1,200 scientists signing a letter which effectively declared the unlocking as ‘a threat to the world.’ Much of the

Dom Cummings urges Britney to take back control

From our UK edition

They say politics is show business for ugly people. And now Dominic Cummings has taken that axiom to new heights after throwing himself behind the campaign to ‘release’ American pop princess Britney Spears. Spears, the noughties sensation behind a string of successful songs, is currently battling to end her 13 year-long conservatorship – a controversial legal process whereby a guardian is