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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Oh dear. For some time there have been reports of tension between Downing Street and the Civil Service. Now it seems that the latest row over Dominic Cummings has brought things to a head. After Boris Johnson used today’s press conference to provide a full throttled defence of his aide amid allegations that he had
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As a former shadow education minister, you would expect Angela Rayner to be keeping a close eye on the scientific advice about when schools should begin to reopen. The government currently plans to reopen schools for some pupils on 1 June – a decision which has provoked the ire of several teaching unions, who say
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Professor Karol Sikora is a rare voice of reason in these strange times. So why was a video featuring him discussing coronavirus taken down from YouTube? In the footage, the professor of medicine discussed evidence that coronavirus may be petering out and explained how Sweden – a country which resisted calls to go into lockdown –
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Nicola Sturgeon today released her ‘roadmap’ for easing the lockdown in Scotland, after the first minister decided to pursue a separate strategy to Boris Johnson when it comes to lifting restrictions on freedom of association and movement. In an announcement, the first minister said that Scotland would pursue a ‘four-phase’ route out of lockdown, with some
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As if Matt Hancock didn’t have enough on his plate. In a bid to declare the lockdown unlawful, lawyers for the multi-millionaire Simon Dolan have lodged a formal challenge at the High Court in London, with Hancock and education secretary Gavin Williamson both named as respondents. In a statement released this morning, Dolan said: The claim argues that the
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Here in the UK, Britons are regularly told that the country’s handling of coronavirus is mocked right across the world. There have been countless round-ups of international press cuts in which Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised – even if the author is often a Brit known to harbour little admiration for the Prime Minister.
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Is it okay to have a cleaner during the coronavirus lockdown? It’s a simple question but one that has led to fiery exchanges in recent weeks. A row kicked off last week when Guardian columnist Owen Jones said people who aren’t forking out for their cleaners ‘shockingly selfish human being(s)’. ‘If someone can afford a cleaner,
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As scientists around the world race to find a cure, treatment or vaccine for Covid-19, the US president Donald Trump revealed that he had been doing his bit of medical experimentation this week. At a press conference last night the President revealed that he had been taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine every day for a
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Some unwelcome publicity this week for Rupert Soames, Churchill’s grandson and brother of the former Conservative MP Nicholas – once known as ‘Fatty’ – Soames. Rupert posted a curious tweet on Tuesday extolling the virtues of the Caledonian Sleeper train, run by the company he heads, Serco. The sleeper service from London to Scotland has
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Today the Liberal Democrats have published an independent review into their disastrous showing at the 2019 election, which saw its former leader Jo Swinson lose her seat, and the party drop to only 11 MPs in the Commons – despite starting the campaign at 20 per cent in the polls. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the election review
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Remember the no-nonsense plumber who criticised those who claimed to be baffled by Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement? Ryan Price defended the Prime Minister, telling Channel 4 ‘It’s not really hard to understand’ when asked to comment on the next steps in the lockdown plan. Price – who has been giving free call-outs to NHS workers – was
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Nothing causes Whitehall headaches like a government IT project. Remember the Ministry of Defence digital upgrade back in the 2000s? MoD officials originally told MPs that the software roll-out would cost an eye-watering £2.3 billion. The upgrade, which suffered multiple delays, eventually ended up costing the taxpayer somewhere north of £7 billion. Or cast your
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Boris Johnson continues to enjoy healthy ratings in the polls but not all of the Prime Minister’s Tory colleagues are pleased with his performance. Conservative backbencher Peter Bone has just taken a pop at Boris in the virtual Commons, slating the PM for revealing his lockdown plan on television on Sunday night rather than in
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One of the government’s leading scientific advisers, professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, has stepped down from his government position after breaking lockdown rules. According to the Telegraph, the academic was visited on at least two occasions by a married woman, who lives in a separate household. Ferguson told the Telegraph that: I accept
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Ever since the coronavirus first began to spread in the UK, one of the government’s staunchest critics has been the editor-in-chief of the Lancet, Richard Horton. In late March, he suggested that Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson were playing ‘roulette with the public’ and said on Question Time that the government’s response to the virus
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Matt Hancock has announced that the government has managed to meet its 100,000 coronavirus tests a day target. The Health Secretary confirmed at a Downing Street press conference that on 30 April, Public Health England carried out 122,347 tests – suggesting the government not only reached its target in time, but also over-delivered. But look at
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While most of us have been hunkering down at home, Brussels big wigs have been trying to thrash out of a rescue package for the hardest hit member states – with the southern Eurozone countries desperate to get their hands on emergency Euros. As ever, the Netherlands and Germany have resisted throwing taxpayers’ cash at their Mediterranean
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Oh, the joys of Twitter, brimming with experts ready to share their razor-sharp analysis of the day’s events. Today’s question? Why Boris Johnson wouldn’t be doing Prime Minister’s Questions. The social media site was this morning awash with pundits speculating as to the reason for the PM’s last minute absence and delivering their blistering hot takes on
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The House of Lords may be the place of hereditary peerages, woolsacks and arcane procedures, but today the Chamber ventured into the 21st century when it trialled virtual proceedings for the first time, using Microsoft Teams. Peers across the country dialled in to a giant conference call chaired by the Lord Speaker, as ministers fielded
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Last month, security experts warned that the Zoom video-conferencing software used by Cabinet ministers might not be the most secure way to discuss important business. It appears though that it was Fleet Street that should have been preparing for unwelcome intruders. Today, the Independent published a piece online alleging that a Financial Times media reporter
