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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There’s only one story doing the rounds on SW1 WhatsApp chats this morning: the photographs in today’s Sun of the married health secretary in a clinch with a senior taxpayer-funded aide. Matt Hancock caused headlines last November after bringing lobbyist Gina Coladangelo – his friend from Oxford university – into government as a non-executive director for the department
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Oh dear. Back in March, Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall landed himself in hot water after praising a book by conservative American journalist Andy Ngo. Following the publication of Unmasked – Ngo’s recent critique of the antifa movement – Marshall tweeted his praise, declaring: ‘Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man.’ The subsequent backlash
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Journalist, banker, academic, think tanker and now culture vulture — is there nothing to which George Osborne cannot turn his hand? The former chancellor has today been appointed the chair of the board of trustees of the British Museum — an institution that incidentally was spared from the 20 per cent cut he forced on
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Oh dear. While all eyes in Westminster were on the dispatch boxes at Prime Minister’s Questions today, it appears an unsightly scuffle was going on just out of sight. Joanna Cherry, the onetime SNP darling sacked from her party’s front bench in February, has accused the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey of ‘unacceptable behaviour.’
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It is five years today since the EU referendum. Despite David Cameron’s psephological guru Andrew Cooper predicting a ten point win for In on polling day, we all know what happened next as the Vote Leave team of Boris and Cummings trumped the Britain Stronger in Europe’s brigade of Craig Oliver, Will Straw et al. The
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Few institutions are as treasured in the Palace of Westminster as the parliamentary choir – though perhaps the terrace canteen’s jerk chicken recipe runs it close. The choir is arguably the best embodiment of the cross-party spirit, in which Tory MPs, Labour peers and House staff members can all sing alongside one another. Or as the choir’s
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After last year’s A-level results day debacle and the ongoing saga about catch-up funding, Gavin Williamson is one of the bookies’ favourites for the Cabinet chop. The incumbent education secretary has suffered some brutal headlines in the last 12 months and appears to have stumbled on the culture wars as his best bet for ministerial
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Few trends are as little remarked upon in British politics as the strange death of rural Labour. Back in 2001 the party held more than 100 seats in rural England and Wales; today the figure has slumped to just 17. Whereas once both comfortable shires and working class countryside constituencies were red on the map, now
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The imminent departure of Labour’s communications team appears to have done little to galvanise its flagging social media game. Party staffers yesterday released a new campaign graphic on Twitter, labelling the government’s proposed liberalisation of planning laws a ‘Developers’ charter’ accompanied by the old jibe at ‘Tory party donors.’ Some online were quick to point
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Back in October, international trade secretary Liz Truss held the first meeting of the reconvened historic Board of Trade after decades in abeyance. The appointment of former Aussie PM Tony Abbott among others to this once great commercial champion prompted a paroxysm of fury from the usual suspects, with Truss’s shadow Emily Thornberry dubbing him a ‘Trump-worshipping misogynist.’ But
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The final fortnight of the Batley and Spen by-election has turned ugly up in West Yorkshire. Yesterday, the Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges quoted an anonymous Labour official claiming that ‘We’re haemorrhaging votes among Muslim voters and the reason for that is what Keir has been doing on antisemitism… he challenged Corbyn on it
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He was once best known for his expansive, rambling blog posts but now Dominic Cummings appears to have a new favourite form of medium. Boris Johnson’s former chief special adviser announced a fortnight ago he was joining paid-for newsletter site Substack, launching his first incendiary post last Wednesday by sharing screenshots in which his former
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Next Thursday is election day in the Batley and Spen by-election and with polls showing a six point Tory lead, it’s no surprise CCHQ has been stepping up its ground game there. Boris Johnson was deployed on Friday to visit the constituency, taking in Batley’s largest employer, Fox’s biscuit factory, the home of kids’ favourite party
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To many in Brussels, the French statesman is already a saint. But now Pope Francis has decided to put Robert Schuman — the foundering father of the European Union — on the path to sainthood. A decree has been issued by the Vatican recognising his ‘heroic virtues’, the first step in the formal process of canonisation. Two miracles
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John Bercow has once again broken with convention. The former House of Commons Speaker has defied three centuries of tradition by announcing a return to party politics post-speakership with an ‘extraordinary broadside‘ against Boris Johnson. His reason for joining the Labour party – or making the move official, as Tory wags now quip – is primarily
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Oh dear. It was just two weeks ago that Labour’s Naz Shah found herself in trouble for attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Bradford at which a speaker made antisemitic remarks in Arabic. Now the shadow minister for community cohesion appears to be again tempting fate after a scheduled appearance next month at a charity dinner
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The No. 10 media operation has become notorious for releasing announcements late on a Friday night when most hacks have already filed their stories. Now it seems Labour is learning from the masters of the dark arts, having finally pulled off a successful media strategy – revealing the resignation of its most senior communications official
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Following this morning’s shock by-election result, gloom and despair are gripping much of the Conservative party in the South of England. But one ex-Tory Cabinet minister was in brighter spirits today, with former Attorney General Dominic Grieve popping up on BBC News to explain why his onetime colleague turned Brexit nemesis Boris Johnson is to blame
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They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. If that’s the case, there must be an awful lot of people who are close to the health secretary, Matt Hancock. Hancock has not had the best of weeks. On Wednesday, Dominic Cummings released a series of WhatsApps which appeared to show
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Last month’s Queen Speech was noteworthy for how little it contained, with the only rabbit out of the legislative hat being (appropriately enough) the Animal Sentience Bill. But now the proposed legislation, which would give vertebrates a legal right to feel happiness and suffering, has started to attract serious scrutiny as it enters the committee stage of
