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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After a month of Franco-British naval conflict, Brexit barbs and, most importantly, the release of Michael Barnier’s diaries, one might expect Boris Johnson’s stock in France to be low. For a certain kind of #FPBE bien-pensant, Johnson represents all that the continent should hate: British belligerence, slapdash scruff and Little Englander jingoism. Yet polling reveals that 51
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The wedding of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds was a highly secretive affair. The couple tied the knot yesterday at Westminster cathedral, with key aides being kept out of the loop for fear of leaks. So Mr S was surprised to spot one high-profile Remainer pictured emerging from Downing Street in wedding attire last night,
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After Dominic Cummings’s seven-hour evidence session slating Boris Johnson and his ministers, it’s been a difficult few days of press coverage for 10 Downing Street. There were even rumours last week that the Prime Minister could embark on a Cabinet reshuffle to change the news agenda. However, it seems that may not be necessary. Today
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After Dominic Cummings’s explosive testimony on Wednesday, you might have thought special advisers in Downing Street would be spending the evening busily preparing their lines of rebuttal. Far from it. Mandarins, spads and operatives piled into the Downing Street garden for a belated farewell drinks for James Slack, the longtime No. 10 director of communications,
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At long last the ministerial register of interests is here – a mere five months after it was due. The register was released today to accompany the findings of the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Christopher Geidt, into whether Boris Johnson’s No. 10 flat shenanigans broke the ministerial code (spoiler: he didn’t.) Mr S has spent the
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It has been a ruff time in No. 10 for poor old Dilyn the dog. Adopted in September 2019, the Jack Russell-cross has been the subject of interminable briefing wars about his constant yapping, destructive tendencies and attempts to fornicate with his next door neighbour. But while not everyone in Downing Street is smitten with the
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In one of the more surreal moments of Dominic Cummings’s testimony to MPs yesterday, the former No. 10 advisor suggested that Carrie Symonds and Dilyn the dog might be to blame for the UK’s sluggish coronavirus response. Cummings told MPs that on a key day in mid-March, as the government began to consider locking down,
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This week’s Spectator cover article examines China’s role in the origins of the Covid virus. With many of the early decisions about the pandemic now being re-examined one year on, Mr S thought it best to ask what the British public made of this subject and the extent of Beijing’s culpability. A new poll by Redfield and Wilton — with
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The BBC clearly enjoyed Dominic Cummings’s testimony yesterday, running his seven-hour appearance uninterrupted in full on its channels and writing multiple stories with headlines such as ‘The most explosive claims’ and ‘Claims cannot easily be dismissed’. Among the many targets who suffered Cummings’s wrath were members of the media who he declares were driven ‘mad’ after
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After a mammoth seven hour session, Dominic Cummings’ appearance at the joint science and health committee meeting has finally ended. The former chief special adviser took aim at Cabinet ministers, Boris Johnson’s fiancée, senior Whitehall officials and Jeremy Corbyn in three different segments focusing on the national lockdowns and Britain’s test and trace system. Below are Mr
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Dominic Cummings was invited to appear in front of MPs today to talk about the government’s coronavirus response in the early stages of the pandemic. A neutral observer might suggest though that the true purpose of Cummings’s visit was to demolish the health secretary Matt Hancock. Near the beginning of his evidence Cummings suggested that
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D-Day is finally here. Like the rest of SW1, Mr S will be tuning into Dominic Cummings’s appearance at a Commons joint committee later today. Kick off is 9:30 a.m. with four hours of theatrics expected to focus on his criticisms of the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. The political editor of ITV Robert Peston
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Amid rumours that parliamentary bosses are mulling the closure of MPs’ favourite bar, Mr S is pleased to report that some traditions remain intact. An advert appeared last week on the government contracts website for the ‘provision of frozen desserts and afternoon tea sweet selection.’ The body demanding this service? None other than the mother
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It has been a tough few years for Emmanuel Macron. Elected on a tidal wave of optimism in 2017, the famously fickle French public has since soured towards the country’s youngest ever president. The ‘yellow vest’ movement, continued Islamist extremism and now the Covid pandemic have all damaged Macron’s approval ratings, which have hovered around the -20 mark
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Professor Devi Sridhar has been rarely off Scottish television screens during the pandemic. The Edinburgh academic has become something of an SNP pin-up owing to her membership of the Scottish government’s Covid advisory group. In this capacity she has repeatedly lobbied for more Holyrood powers which she claimed were necessary to stop the spread of coronavirus – powers that
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It has been a bruising afternoon for the BBC in the House of Commons. An urgent question was granted on the findings of the Dyson report into the Martin Bashir affair and the subsequent cover up of how Panorama obtained its Princess Diana interview in 1995. Tory MP after Tory MP has queued up to
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Valerie Vaz’s month goes from bad to worse. The Labour MP was one of just two frontbenchers sacked by Keir Starmer a fortnight ago in the wake of the party’s Hartlepool defeat. The surprise move prompted political journalists to joke that sacking Vaz as shadow leader of the House had been just the response red wall voters
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Word reaches Steerpike of a dastardly plot to rob MPs of their favourite watering hole. The Strangers’ Bar is located in the heart of the Palace of Westminster and has been plying honourable members with subsidised booze for generations. But now parliamentary bosses are feared to be considering the closure or dramatic overhaul of Strangers, under the pretext
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After the UK finished bottom of Eurovision on Saturday, you might have thought British hopeful James Newman was the big loser of the night. But step forward, Rhiannon Spear, SNP Greater Pollok representative, who managed to embarrass her newly re-elected party with a late night display of classlessness. The SNP’s national women’s convenor posted: ‘It’s ok
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It has not been a happy week for the BBC. The corporation has spent the last four days grappling with the fall out from Lord Dyson’s damning report into the Martin Bashir affair and Prince William’s angry response. Now a fresh controversy has blown up in the BBC Monitoring unit. Digital journalist Tala Halawa has
