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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When it comes to Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn is still keeping his options open. But the same can’t be said of his brother. Piers Corbyn has taken a breather from tweeting about climate change to throw his weight behind a no-deal Brexit. The Labour leader’s older sibling wrote: ‘The threat of CrashOut catastrophe is nonsense’. ‘Nodeal
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It’s here. It’s Brexit day, again. And Channel 4’s Jon Snow and Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney-General, have come to blows on Twitter. Snow tweeted the latest from his ‘lawyer contact’ this morning on what Cox’s verdict is on the Prime Minister’s verdict. It’s safe to say Cox was not impressed: Well, at least that’s cleared that
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When seven Labour MPs formally announced that they were leaving the party to form the Independent Group on 18 February, it didn’t take long for deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to release a video about their departure. In his statement, Watson lamented that his colleagues had decided to leave and suggested that there should be a
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On Friday we saw Will Self and Mark Francois have a huge stare-off on Politics Live. Monday has arrived, and this time it was the turn of businesswoman Michelle Dewberry, left-wing commentator Paul Mason, and presenter Jo Coburn to clash. The argument began after a short break in the programme, when Coburn suggested that there
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What does the Independent Group actually stand for? We know what they are against: Brexit and anti-Semitism. But so far the fledgling group has been somewhat shy about coming up with policies. With TIG MPs this week reportedly entering talks with the Electoral Commission about become a political party, they had better get a move on.
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At her speech in Grimsby this afternoon Theresa May made an attempt to get her colleagues in parliament to coalesce around her Brexit deal, by warning them about the dangers of Brexit being cancelled. It seems though that she may have alienated at least some of the audience today, when she took questions from the
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It’s something of an understatement to say that Brexit has incited passions in the past two years, even on live TV. But today Mr S thinks we came the closest we’ve seen yet to a full on fight breaking out in the studio, between the author Will Self and the Brexiteer MP Mark Francois on Politics
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Theresa May headed to the seaside town of Grimsby this morning to try and inject new life into her flagging Brexit strategy. The prime minister plans to give a speech in the Leave voting town, which piles pressure on the EU to offer her concessions so she can get her deal past parliament. But it
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With Theresa May’s departure expected later this year, a host of ambitious males are keen to parade their wares. Frontrunner Boris Johnson has lost weight and is the RSPCA’s new pin-up boy, while Sajid Javid is trying to show his strength through the medium of ostracising Isis brides. On Wednesday night, it was David Davis’s
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Amber Rudd has caused a storm of outrage this afternoon after she referred to Labour’s Diane Abbott as a ‘coloured woman’. Rudd was being interviewed on Jeremy Vine’s show on Radio 2 to mark International Women’s Day. Asked by Vine whether online abuse is worse for women in general, the work and pensions secretary replied:
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It’s been a gruelling couple of days for the Labour Party, as their approach to handling and meddling in anti-Semitism complaints has been held up to scrutiny. But it looks like things may be about to get worse for the party. The equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), has begun the first stages
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A few weeks ago, it was reported that Sajid Javid likes to refer to himself as ‘The Saj’. While the Home Secretary has repeatedly denied the claims, the tendency to refer to one in the third person appears to be catching. The Times reports that Liz Truss has been known to go by ‘The Truss’
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Today was the last chance for the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya MP to protest her innocence, as she appealed her conviction for perverting the course of justice. The Peterborough MP was sentenced to three months in jail this January for lying to police to avoid a speeding ticket, but has since been released from jail.
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A fresh war broke out this week between Labour MPs and the party leadership over how impartial Labour has been when dealing with anti-Semitism disciplinary cases. The fighting began after the Observer reported this weekend that Corbyn advisor Andrew Murray had personally lobbied for the party to be more lenient toward a member accused of defending an
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Chris Grayling is back in the news – and once again it is for all the wrong reasons. The transport secretary is facing calls to quit over his handling of the Brexit ferry debacle, which led to the Government having to shell out £33m of taxpayers’ money to Eurotunnel. Grayling said ‘however regrettable the Eurotunnel
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Chris Grayling has managed to take the government’s ‘Global Britain’ agenda up a gear this week with an appearance in the New York Times. The under fire Transport Secretary is the subject of a blistering editorial in the American paper (which has developed a penchant for negative UK stories these days) titled ‘How Does He
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Are Tory MPs actually proud to be Tories? Following recent defections from the party and the ever-present backdrop of Brexit in-fighting, it’s a question being heard more and more around Westminster. There are mutterings of parties within parties and the Independent Group has said it expects another wave of defections, highlighting just how low Conservative morale
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David Lammy has taken a break from talking about Brexit – to take a pop at Comic Relief. In a strange turn of events, the Labour MP, investigative journalist Stacey Dooley, and Comic Relief have become embroiled in an online spat this morning. The row began when Lammy complained about a film Dooley was making
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Ever since deputy leader Tom Watson called for a shakeup of the Labour frontbench last week, in response to the departure of several MPs to the Independent Group, rumours have flown around Westminister that Jeremy Corbyn may be preparing for a reshuffle. But could it already have begun? Mr Steerpike spotted in a Labour press
From our UK edition
Relations between the deputy leader of the Labour party, Tom Watson, and Jeremy Corbyn have reached something of a nadir in recent weeks. After a group of MPs left the party to form the Independent Group, Watson called on Labour to do more to tackle anti-Semitism within its ranks, and has continued to pile pressure