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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We don’t hear much from Diane Abbott these days. Since leaving the front bench in April 2020, the former shadow home secretary has largely dedicated herself to writing her forthcoming memoirs: ‘A Woman Like Me’ due in all good book stores next summer. But this weekend the Mojito swilling backbencher returned to the fray with
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In a heartfelt letter addressed to Gareth Southgate, HM the Queen has sent her ‘good wishes’ to the team and praised ‘the spirit, commitment and pride’ shown by England during the Euro 2020 championship. The Queen began her letter by recalling her presentation of the World Cup to Bobby Moore 55 years ago, after Geoff Hurst
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Fractious times over at Guardian towers. The long-running battle between Kath Viner, the paper’s editor, and Anette Thomas, the media group’s chief executive, concluded last month after the latter resigned over conflicting views about the Graun’s future. It’s not just the boardroom where such clashes are being played out. Mr S hears word that the
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Peterborough has become something of a political lodestar for Keir Starmer’s Labour. The Cambridgeshire city hosted the launch of the party’s ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ campaign last July and provided one of the few bright spots on local election night this year, helping to elect the area’s first Labour combined authority mayor in Nik Johnson. The Economist
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It’s difficult to keep up with James Dornan these days. Whether it’s accusing Lothian Buses of discriminating against Catholics or failing to release information that exonerated Rangers football club, the gaffe-prone Glasweigan has earned himself earned the reputation of being a one man wrecking ball to harmonious community relations. Not for nothing has Steerpike christened him the ‘Hate-Finder
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Football fever appears to have infected the Commons, following England’s 2-1 win over Denmark last night. Tory backbencher Lee Anderson may still be maintaining his boycott over the team’s ‘taking the knee’ stance but the rest of his parliamentary colleagues have been eagerly following the journey of Southgate’s side, judging by the plethora of pictures plastered
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It was Opposition Day in the Commons yesterday, with the SNP plumping for a debate on Covid contracts – a bold choice given the £500 million approved by Holyrood without scrutiny. For leader Ian Blackford however it was a golden opportunity to rail against Westminster’s ‘endemic cronyism during a global pandemic, the misuse of funds, and
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It was just three weeks ago that Steerpike pointed out that Labour MP Naz Shah was being billed to speak at a charity fundraiser alongside a controversial imam. Now it seems the shadow minister for community cohesion has caused yet further headaches for her leader thanks to her speech on Monday on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Just
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Speak to battle-scarred Tory veterans of the 2017 snap election and they’ll regale you with horror tales about animal sentience. A little-noticed vote to reject the inclusion of the subject in the Withdrawal Bill quickly blew up into one of the major election issues, with the Independent running viral articles on the subject with inflammatory headlines
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The appearance of Dominic Raab before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee yesterday got somewhat overlooked in all the drama about lockdown and football. While the session was fairly routine, with Raab largely able to bat aside questions from committee chairman and No. 10 nemesis Tom Tugendhat, it will mostly be remembered for a moment of sheer vacuousness
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Government flats have been in the news a fair bit recently. Much ink was spilled over the £88,000 Boris and Carrie shelled out to interior designer Lulu Lytle to do up the Prime Minister’s flat at the end of last year. But now it seems the Johnsons got off lightly, judging by the current exorbitant rate going for
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Jon Ashworth is one of the great survivors of the Labour front bench, having held the shadow health brief for some four and a half years under successive leaders. But given this morning’s media round, how much longer will he be remaining in post? Responding to the government’s announcement yesterday of the end of social
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Most eyes in Westminster are on the future, ahead of next week’s looming July 19 unlocking. But for one man at least, attention is focused on the past and how the world became engulfed in the Covid quagmire. Matt Ridley, the journalist, businessman and member of the House of Lords, has been using his pen throughout
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It’s been a busy afternoon in Westminster, with both Boris Johnson’s press conference and Sajid Javid’s Commons statement absorbing the attention of SW1’s finest hacks. In the New Labour era, such a smorgasbord of headlines would be what cynical spin-doctors call: ‘A good day to bury bad news’ – with all eyes elsewhere, it’s the
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As July 19 looms ever closer and the football appears to be (finally) coming home, it appears that not even Tory MPs are exempt from experiencing the feel good factor. There was a boisterous mood in the Commons today as parliamentarians returned to hear the newly appointed Health Secretary read the last rites for the two
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Throughout the pandemic, few things have been certain but Devi Sridhar’s omnipresent opining is one of them. The Scottish Covid advisor has rarely been off our screens during the pandemic, becoming something of a pin-up girl to the SNP for her repeated jibes at the Westminster government, her demands for more power which Holyrood already
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Politicians have a long history of embarrassing themselves on trips to foreign lands. Boris Yeltsin famously offended his hosts in Ireland in 1994 when he refused to get off his plane at Shannon airport. The Russian president suggested afterwards that he had simply ‘overslept’ – an excuse the Irish Press suggested should be taken with
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It’s not been a great week for James Dornan. On Saturday the SNP MSP was forced to apologise (again) for suggesting Lothian Buses’ decision to cancel travel services over anti-social behaviour was linked to St Patrick’s Day, with the implication that the company blamed Catholics for the problem. Then on Wednesday Mr S showed the lengths the Hate-Finder General
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We don’t hear much of Laura Pidcock these days. The onetime Corbynista rising star was unceremoniously dumped by her North West Durham constituency at the last election, having managed to turn it from a Labour safe seat into a Tory gain in just over two years. Denied a voice in Parliament and with media appearances
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It’s been a bad week for marriages in Westminster. First the revelation of Matt Hancock’s affair with adviser, friend and Pinterest lover Gina Coladangelo led to the ex-Health Secretary splitting from wife Martha. And now today, the minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove has revealed he and his wife Sarah Vine are divorcing after
