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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Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has managed to establish quite the reputation as a firebrand during his four years in the Commons, most famously ranting on the night of the 2019 Tory victory that ‘we will fight them in the streets’. In the eighteen months since, it has emerged he claimed the Conservatives ‘conspired to murder and let
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Thursday was a red-letter day in the history of the Foreign Office with the appointment of the first female ambassador to France. It means that for the first time all the key British postings –Berlin, Tokyo, Washington, Canberra, Beijing, Paris, Rome, Moscow and the UN – are now held by women. Quite an achievement given the FO banned
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It’s a tough gig defending this government. So tough in fact that the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson Allegra Stratton left the role before even giving a single press conference. The past week is a case in point – with No. 10 facing miserable headlines over the ongoing feud between Johnson, his fiancée Carrie Symonds and
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Last month Steerpike revealed that two sitting Haringey councillors suspended for claims of anti-Semitism had been quietly readmitted to the party despite Keir Starmer’s vow of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on this issue. Following a backlash, both were quickly resuspended with one of them, Preston Tabois, being dropped from Labour’s list of candidates for next
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Evening Standard editor Emily Sheffield waded into the row over Boris Johnson’s flat refurbishment this week. Sheffield – a regular visitor to Downing Street in the Cameron era, when her brother-in-law was prime minister – insisted the No. 11 flat ‘is no skip’ as some have implied. As well as having the opportunity to check out the interiors
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It has been an interesting year for onetime Rada star Laurence Fox. The former Lewis actor turned Question Time guest announced he was running for London mayor last month but has thus far barely managed to make a ripple ahead of polling day in just a week’s time. A city-wide poll last week showed the
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MI6 is on the hunt for a new Q and in the spirit of 21st century recruitment, Britain’s secret service has turned to the one truly indestructible force of modern life: corporate headhunters. Consultants Saxton Bampfylde – dubbed the Fortnum and Mason of labour exchanges – have been brought in to lead the search for Director
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It is one week to go until the biggest set of polls outside of a general election in UK history, prompting some commentators to bill next Thursday ‘the British midterms’. Wales and Scotland both vote for their devolved parliaments alongside 13 directly elected mayoralties including Tees Valley, West Midlands and of course London with its assembly. Around 5,000
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France’s vaccine rollout has had its difficulties in recent months. In early January, the Mail on Sunday reported the ‘French are at better at torching cars than giving Covid vaccinations’ after vandals burned 861 vehicles on New Year’s Eve – more than twice the number of people inoculated over the last five days of December.
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As Flatgate rumbles on, it appears the government has adopted a new communications approach to a controversy involving the Prime Minister’s spouse: send for Michael Gove’s wife. The Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine popped up on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning to firefight the situation – an interesting choice given her love of incendiary quotes in her
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Michael Gove was deployed to the Commons on Monday afternoon to answers questions on the ministerial code, an hour-long appearance in which he was (inevitably) asked about that day’s Daily Mail splash: ‘Boris: Let the bodies pile high in their thousands’. An awkward question for any minister to handle, you might think, but the oleaginous
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Plans for a News UK channel to rival the BBC appear to be dead in the water. Last year it was reported that Rupert Murdoch was planning to expand his news empire by launching a new channel in the UK that would take inspiration from Fox News in the US. Alas it’s not to be. The company’s Chief Executive Rebekah
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Pity the poor people of Hartlepool. Next week’s parliamentary by election has seen an army of activists pouring in to the Red Wall seat, with Labour desperate to cling on to a seat that last went blue in the days of Supermac. CCHQ have been playing down chances of a Tory gain but one Labour insider
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The SNP tabled an urgent question in Westminster today, asking for an update on the ministerial code in light of recent allegations of impropriety – something of course their comrades in Holyrood would know all about. A potentially tricky outing for the government beckoned but up stepped Michael Gove, master of the sticky wicket, to
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Whether it’s in government or outside it, financial management has often been Labour’s weak spot. In recent years though the party has struggled to balance its own budgets, let alone those of the country, with fundraising from wealthy donors being (understandably) more difficult during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Electoral Commission figures published last week show that in 2019
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In the wake of recent scandals, Parliament last year began a series of ‘Valuing Everyone’ training sessions to ‘combat bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.’ In November they were made compulsory but last week it emerged that the Lords standards commissioner has launched investigations into around 60 members who are yet to take the training including none
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Much has changed in the world of politics since May 2015 but one thing certainly hasn’t – former MP David Ward is still causing problems for the Liberal Democrats. The one term wonder achieved little in his year five stint in Parliament other than notoriety for a 2013 website post to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in which claimed he
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The Holyrood election has been characterised as relentlessly negative, with the SNP and the Conservatives sticking rigidly to their respective attacks on the Prime Minister and calls for a second referendum on independence. Both Nicola Sturgeon and Tory leader Douglas Ross look like they desperately want the whole thing to be over. Not so, Anas
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Few in Westminster have emerged with any credit from the fallout of the Greensill saga. A pandora’s box has now been opened with the lobbying activities of politicians both past and present now considered fair game. But one man who is clearly enjoying himself is the ubiquitous Sir Alastair Graham, the former chairman of the
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Three national newspapers last night splashed on No. 10 source claims that Dominic Cummings was responsible for WhatsApp leaks about Boris Johnson’s government. Less than 24 hours later the former chief adviser has opted to return fire, unleashing a 1,091 blog post in vintage Cummings style. It begins in typically combative style – ‘the Prime
