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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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
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There have been few constants in British politics this past decade but Sir Graham Brady has been one of them. Elected chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs in 2010, Brady has served continually ever since – barring a brief moment of madness to consider a leadership bid back in the crazy days
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Mr S enjoyed the spectacle of the SNP’s orotund Westminster Ian Blackford claiming at this week’s PMQs that he is a ‘member of Scotland’s crofter community.’ The Edinburgh-born ex-banker provoked much laughter with the claim about his smallholding which he cited to justify an attack on Boris Johnson for ‘planning to throw our farmers and crofters under the Brexit bus.’ A
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With the Holyrood elections now over, Nicola Nicola Sturgeon has resumed her previous habit of fronting daily Covid press conferences – except, err, when it is convenient that she doesn’t appear. Beginning today’s briefing, Sturgeon referred to the ‘so-called Indian variant’ and declared she would call it by another name: From now on, I will refer to that
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Just days after appearing on a podcast in which he called America’s first amendment ‘bonkers‘ Prince Harry has now popped up again in another interview with Oprah Winfrey. Back in March, in his infamous joint interview with Meghan Markle, Harry told the media mogul that Prince Charles had cut off all communication with him but
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It has not been a happy day for those in Broadcasting House. An inquiry into Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana has concluded the BBC ‘fell short of its high standards of integrity and transparency’ and that Bashir acted in a ‘deceitful’ way by faking documents to obtain the sit down chat. Judge Lord Dyson found
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It has been an eventful years for Lord Nazir Ahmed. Created a life peer on the recommendation of Tony Blair back in 1998, the noble Lord repaid the favour by becoming one of Blair’s most vociferous foreign policy critics, claiming that the government had tapped his phone and that the suicide bombers of 7/7 had
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For several years now New Zealand Jacinda Ardern has enjoyed the status of being one of the world’s leading liberal icons. The popular premier has backed progressive policies like bereavement leave for miscarriage, gun control reforms and tackling period poverty. Her handling of the pandemic – completely shutting the country off from the rest of the
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Pro-Palestine rallies were held across the country at the weekend amid the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. Onetime Labour leader turned independent backbencher Jeremy Corbyn was the star attraction at the London shindig, waving a rose to his adoring fans just yards away from a ten foot inflatable caricature with devil horns and maniacal red
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George Eustice has not enjoyed an easy time since being elevated to the Cabinet last year. The environment secretary has had a lot on his plate with the Brexit fall out, pesticide squabbles, a department dominated by Goldsmith allies and near-endless rows about free trade deals impacting Britain’s food. This week a Cabinet row over talks
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Amid much gloom in Westminster over the threat posed by the new Covid Indian variant, Mr S was intrigued to hear a counter blast of optimism this morning from an unlikely source – Professor Neil Ferguson. The epidemiologist appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme in which he said that this new strain appears to be less transmissible
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Oh dear. Labour’s unofficial collector of titles Angela Rayner popped up in the Commons today to attack the government over its supposed ‘Covid cronyism’. Ministers such as Priti Patel have been accused of improperly helping to secure PPE contracts last year. Unfortunately for Rayner her opponent at the dispatch box was none other than the redoubtable Penny
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Pitch: a struggling politician eager to make his mark. He’s 10 points behind in the polls, leading a fractitious party and struggling to prove he is the charismatic, dynamic and likeable leader his country needs. From where does he seek salvation? That time-honoured tradition of the fly on the wall documentary. Such an outlandish proposal could soon
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There has been much talk in recent years about the prospect of a so-called ‘progressive alliance’ coming together to lock the Conservatives out of power. During the Brexit era commentators such as Neal Lawson and Polly Toynbee excitedly speculated on the electoral success a cross party coalition comprising Labour, the Liberal Democrat and Green parties could enjoy,
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Mr S was intrigued to read in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph that public buildings will have to have separate ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ lavatories in the future. The move – which has already infuriated campaigners who want more gender-neutral facilities – will see building regulations and planning guidance amended to ensure separate ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ facilities are installed in new buildings
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Rallies for Palestine were held across the country this weekend which meant of course a starring role for one Jeremy Corbyn. The former Labour leader was introduced on the London platform by comedian Alexei Sayle who – in a move that will hardly aid Jezza’s bid to be readmitted as a Labour MP – dubbed Corbyn’s
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Earlier this month the columnist Sarah Vine revealed in the Mail on Sunday that education secretary Gavin Williamson had been the recipient of a tearful phone call from a student over last year’s A-level results day fiasco. Now two weeks later Mr S can go a step further in revealing the barrage of critical correspondence Williamson received in the immediate
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Much has been written here in the UK about Prince Harry’s Thursday appearance on Hollywood actor Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast. The Duke of Sussex’s comments about the ‘genetic pain and suffering’ of growing up as a royal made the front page of Friday’s tabloids with the Daily Mail asking ‘Just how low can Harry go?’
