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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It’s official, 48 letters of no confidence have been submitted to the chairman of the 1922 committee, Graham Brady, triggering a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister this evening. If she loses this, she will be required to stand down and a Conservative leadership election will begin. As James reports on Coffee House,
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Poor old Theresa May. The PM is hopping across Europe in a desperate bid to try and salvage her Brexit deal. But quite predictably things aren’t going well. After arriving in Berlin to meet Angela Merkel, Theresa May got off to a bad start – by getting locked in her car. Mr S is pleased
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John Bercow gave Labour MPs a helping hand in the Commons yesterday by making his thoughts known on the Government’s decision to delay a vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The Speaker said the hold-up was ‘deeply discourteous’. But it seems he hasn’t stopped his mission of making life tricky for the Tories. Philip Hammond
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It’s been a day of high emotions in the House of Commons after Theresa May moved to postpone the vote on her Brexit deal. With Brexiteers, the SNP and Labour MPs distinctly unimpressed at the move, it all got a bit too much for one MP this evening in the Chamber. Step forward Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
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Oh dear. It’s been a testing day for Her Majesty’s government after Theresa May decided to postpone the vote on her Brexit deal in order to avoid a humiliating defeat. The problem is no-one bothered to tell May’s so-called inner circle and just hours before the vote was pulled Michael Gove was sent on the
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Faced with the prospect of overwhelming defeat, Theresa May has once again decided to kick the Brexit can down the road and delay the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal. Standing before the House of Commons, the Prime Minister told MPs that ‘it is clear that while there is broad support for many of the
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Not for the first time, Theresa May’s words on Brexit are coming back to haunt her. The PM once famously said that no deal is better than a bad deal. But in the Commons just now, Labour MP Peter Kyle had this to say to the PM: ‘Isn’t it true that no Prime Minister is better
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Theresa May is having a hard time in the Commons on all sides but the most outspoken attack has come from a typical suspect. Step forward, Dennis Skinner. The Beast of Bolsover took the PM to task for delaying the Brexit vote, saying that by doing so she had handed over power to Brussels: ‘Mrs
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When it comes to columnists who lean towards Remain, few are more vocal in their criticism of Brexit than Times columnist Jenni Russell. So, when Russell has to step in to warn arch-Remainer Alastair Campbell that he has gone too far, you know something has gone seriously wrong. This was the case on Newsnight on
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Oh dear. With the government on course for a historic defeat next week on Theresa May’s deal, this is the point in the campaign that Downing Street had hoped to see MPs coming round. Alas not. So, it was a curious choice by the government to allow ITV exclusive access to Chief Whip Julian Smith’s
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Anyone watching the Conservatives tear themselves apart at the moment might be tempted to think that a political party could not possibly be any more divided. Well, the Tories may now have at last some stiff competition, as the Liberal Democrats face a remarkable split over their Brexit position. Since the coalition years, the Lib
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Despite numerous attempts by the government to keep it hidden, the Attorney General’s legal advice has finally been published. The move came after opposition MPs – to whom Mr S is very grateful – found ministers in contempt of Parliament for with-holding the information. Remember our 40 horrors of the deal? Well, Geoffrey Cox’s hotly-anticipated
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Nigel Farage has quit Ukip. The three-time leader of the party said he was walking away in protest at its courting of Tommy Robinson under Gerard Batten. Farage announced his departure in an article for the Telegraph. He said: ‘With a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am
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In an exceptional move, MPs have just voted to hold the government in contempt of Parliament for not releasing legal advice on the draft withdrawal agreement with the EU. While not being named specifically by the motion, it was the Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, who was the figurehead for the contempt proceedings, and as you can
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It’s safe to say that Mervyn King, former Bank of England governor, does not quite agree with Mark Carney on Brexit. In an incendiary article for Bloomberg, he says that the sight of Boris and Blair uniting against the deal shows that “something has gone badly wrong”. How wrong? Here’s his argument. “The withdrawal agreement
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It’s natural for there to be some animosity between the Speaker and the Leader of the House, as they fight over the competing rights of the government and backbenchers to alter and introduce legislation. But never has the relationship between the two been as low as it has with Andrea Leadsom and John Bercow. Their
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It’s crunch time once again for Theresa May’s government, as the House votes this afternoon on whether her ministers – including the Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox – should be held in contempt of Parliament for not releasing the government’s legal advice on the backstop. If the opposition motion passes, the matter will most likely be
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Theresa May is taking a break from defending her Brexit deal in Parliament – giving the chance to her Attorney General to have a go instead. But Geoffrey Cox’s sales pitch to MPs on the Brexit backstop isn’t going entirely to plan. Cox confirmed to Parliament that there is ‘no unilateral right’ for Britain –
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Theresa May has just over a week to go until her Brexit deal is voted on in the Commons, and while all the signs suggest she is facing a thumping defeat, the Maybot is still sticking to the script. In an interview with Phillip Schofield on This Morning, May was asked what will happen if
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And so another hellish week for Theresa May begins. The Prime Minister must somehow avoid publishing the Attorney General’s legal advice for all MPs and then convince 100 Conservative MPs to put their doubts aside and back her deal ahead of next week’s vote. So far, the signs are not good. But there is at