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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Kay Burley is hardly what you would call a ‘sympathetic personality’ – but Steerpike is a magnanimous sort and he can’t help feeling a little sorry for her on this chilly winter’s morning. The poor presenter is having a miserable time because, having spent much of the year berating others for their failings vis Covid,
From our UK edition
It’s a big morning for news in the UK as the first patients receive the Pfizer coronavirus jabs and Brexit deadlines loom. So, one would have imagined Kay Burley would be front and centre of her self-titled morning breakfast show. Apparently not. Mr S was curious to note Burley’s absence on today’s show — with Sky News’s Sarah
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This morning the new vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, appeared to change his tune when it comes to the use of ‘immunity passports’ for the British public. After telling the BBC last week that UK residents might need some proof of their Covid vaccination status to dine out at a restaurant or attend a sporting
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Running London, you might have thought, should probably involve some knowledge of London. Living in the city would be a good start — or at least living in the same time zone. But Sadiq Khan’s top aide clearly disagrees. Jack Stenner, the Mayor of London’s director of political and public affairs, upped sticks and moved
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Vanity photographers are a relatively recent addition to Westminster life, one that Mr S doesn’t wholly welcome. The growth of the in-house snapper has meant that politicians are able to control their image in a way that previous generations of ministers would have found impossible. David Cameron famously had his advisers cover any nearby exit
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When it comes to Boris Johnson’s skills as a politician, his particular communication style is regularly cited as a talent that makes him stand out as a leader. He was, after all, an accomplished journalist before stepping into the world of politics. So Mr S was a little surprised by the email that landed in
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Over the weekend, Nigel Farage was involved in a rescue operation in the English Channel. Having headed out for a Sunday morning of sea fishing, Farage spotted two men adrift in an inflatable kayak about five miles off the Kent coast. The ex-kipper turned skipper called the coast guard before trying to pull the pair
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This morning the UK became the first country in the West to licence a vaccine, after regulators approved the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. The ruling opens the way for the vaccine to be rolled out nationwide, after the UK purchased 40 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine. The Health Secretary has said we will have 800,000 doses ready
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What would the Labour party look like if Jeremy Corbyn was still in charge? On the long list of things that would be likely be different to Labour now under Keir Starmer are Brexit, the response to the EHRC inquiry and even whether Corbyn was still classed as a Labour MP. Now there’s a new item to
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Belgium has had some of the toughest coronavirus restrictions in Europe during the second wave of the pandemic, with hospitality venues closed and socialising severely restricted. So Mr Steerpike was surprised to note this interesting story in the Belgian press today, which suggested that some may not be following the rules as closely as expected.
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In a 2,000-word essay published over the weekend, Michael Gove sought to win round Tory rebels by arguing that ‘lockdown was the only way to stop the NHS being broken’. In the article, the cabinet minister paints a picture of an NHS all set to be flattened until lockdown 2 was introduced: ‘Infections were doubling
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What should we do with foreign criminals, people who come to this country and then commit cruel and violent crimes against law-abiding British residents? If your answer is to deport them, then that is, according to Diane Abbott, ‘cruel and potentially dangerous’. During an urgent question from Labour earlier this afternoon, the former shadow home
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When the new tiered restrictions come into force this week, many pubs and bars around the country will be wondering if they can keep their doors open. While Tier 3 venues have effectively been forced to close, pubs in Tier 2 (which covers around 50 per cent of England) have been told they can only
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Nicola Sturgeon had some choice words to say about Brexit last month. Speaking at one of Scotland’s daily coronavirus briefings, the First Minister said she was ‘deeply frustrated and depressed’ about the prospect of no deal in the new year, and suggested that to talk about Brexit in the middle of a pandemic was not
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Mr Steerpike was not exactly impressed when the government launched a new website feature this morning to tell people which tier they were going to be in – and which promptly crashed, leaving people in limbo. But if you were left disappointed by the tech blunder, that was nothing compared to the Speaker of the
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The government is set to announce today which areas will be moved into the three tiers, once the national lockdown ends on 2 December. To help the anxious public find out if they will be allowed to visit their friends and family, depending on their area, the government helpfully launched a new feature on its
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This year Jordan Peterson, the cult Canadian psychologist, meat-eater and lifestyle guru, will tentatively edge back into the public spotlight, after spending time reportedly recovering from drug addiction in Russia. Readers may be familiar with Peterson’s self-help guide 12 Rules for Life, which sold over three million copies worldwide and topped the bestseller lists. So
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The Tory MP and former 1922 committee chair Charles Walker appears to have become involved in a lockdown protest outside Parliament today. The MP was outside the House of Commons when he witnessed an elderly woman being arrested by police. In response, Walker told the officers that their arrest was an ‘outrage’ and was not
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After a brief spell in the Labour hinterland after losing her Durham seat in 2019, the former MP and Corbynite Laura Pidcock returned to frontline politics this year, after being elected to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). Unfortunately though it didn’t take long for the former Durham MP to once again indulge in the
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In case you missed the memo, it’s now illegal to cross the border to Scotland unless you have a ‘reasonable excuse’ that meets the First Minister’s requirements. Nicola Sturgeon’s new law – which limits the number of people who can travel from England to Scotland – is said to be aimed at protecting public health north
