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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With Brexit negotiations stuck at a stalemate and a warring cabinet to contend with in the UK, the famously robotic Theresa May could be forgiven for wanting to let her hair down as she begins her tour of South Africa today. Which could possibly explain why she decided to throw caution to the wind, and
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When the Liberal Democrats unveiled their new slogan – ‘Demand better’ –earlier this month, critics were quick to point out that it might not have the desired effect. One Lib Dem source soon snarked to Mr S that many Lib Dems do want to demand better – at least, of their lacklustre leader Sir Vince
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David Lammy has always had Jeremy Corbyn’s back, but it seems his patience in the Labour leader might be wearing thin. In a story that emerged yesterday, Corbyn was caught on tape claiming that Zionists ‘don’t understand English irony’ despite them having lived in Britain ‘for a very long time’. It appears that Corbyn’s remarks
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This summer, Jeremy Corbyn has struggled to get much coverage of his plans for domestic policy thanks to the fact Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis has dominated the headlines. So the Labour leader can take heart that one of his policy ideas has finally started to make waves. In a speech on the UK press on Thursday,
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There’s something going on across the pond. Less than twenty-four hours after Mr S informed readers of the New York Times’s struggle with the London foodie scene, Steerpike has come across another incident of an American journo who seems divorced from reality. The American Enterprise Institute’s Dalibor Rohac has waded into the debate over where
The New York Times is at it again. It was only back in May that Mr S was forced to call into question the paper’s coverage of Britain, after a curious article on ‘Austerity Britain’ by one Peter S Goodman appeared, complete with a slew of glaring omissions. Well, now it seems that the NYT has
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Have you ever looked at a job advert with a temptingly high salary, and thought to yourself… you’d have to be mad to apply to that. Mr Steerpike suspects many Labour staffers had a similar reaction this week to a job posted on the Labour website. Labour HQ are on the lookout for a new
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When Alex Salmond stepped down as First Minister, he famously unveiled a commemorative stone engraved with the message ‘The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students.’ If he wants to see melting, he should go to the UCAS website and look at the courses up
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This week, a Sky News video has been doing the rounds on Twitter in which an exasperated Jeremy Corbyn supporter cast doubt on the row over the ongoing wreath-laying controversy by declaring that the Labour leader is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. End of. https://twitter.com/Jamin2g/status/1029448470028013570 Just in case readers are in any doubt,
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Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today to give a talk called ‘First Among Equals.’ Audience members will be charged £12 to hear Brown’s ‘painfully honest account’ of the ‘highs and lows’ of his political career. Alas, Mr S has reasons to believe though that Brown may be offering
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Oh dear. As many politicians have discovered, trial by Twitter rarely ends well. And neither does poll by Twitter. Where in a normal poll, factors such as sample size and demographic can be controlled, these thing are taken out of control when you ask the Twitterati to decide. Despite this, many campaigners see this set-up
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Poor old Chris Williamson. Jeremy Corbyn’s changing story over whether he did or didn’t lay a wreath on the graves of the Munich terrorists must make keeping up difficult for his loyal and faithful follower. Which perhaps explains why Williamson was somewhat lost for words when he was challenged on the subject on Newsnight last
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Jeremy Corbyn is facing mounting criticism over whether he did or didn’t lay a wreath at the grave of one of the Munich terrorists, but helpfully his acolytes are staying faithful. Still, while the loyalty of the likes of Chris Williamson isn’t in question, Mr S isn’t so sure that their support is actually all
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Did he or didn’t he? The question, of course, is whether Jeremy Corbyn laid a wreath or not for one of the Munich terrorists. Given the Labour leader’s shifting position on the subject it’s somewhat difficult to keep track. But Corbyn, it seems, has run out of patience with those confused about his wreath-laying antics.
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Corbyn cheerleader-in-chief Owen Jones frequently rallies against what he calls ‘whataboutery.’ For those not familiar with the word, it is a technique used to distract people from talking about injustices on your own side by bringing up atrocities elsewhere. Or, in his own words: Given whataboutery is used to deflect responsibility for misdemeanours and crimes committed
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Today, Jeremy Corbyn confirmed that he had been at a ceremony which commemorated the deaths of several terrorists linked to the 1972 Munich massacre. But it seems that Jeremy has had trouble recollecting what actually happened while he was there. So, to help jog Jeremy’s memory and to let our readers make up their own
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Poor Jeremy Corbyn, always ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. After revelations in the Daily Mail that he had laid a wreath near the graves of those involved in the 1972 Munich terrorist attack, he finally clarified what happened. Asked by Sky News if he was involved in the tributes, he answered:
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Boris Johnson has been in hot water for the past week over his Telegraph column which compared women in burqas to letter boxes, so it made sense for him to use the restorative powers of a hot drink to try and remove himself from trouble. The beleaguered MP has been on holiday in Italy for
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It’s been all out civil war in the Tory party since the disastrous snap election which saw Theresa May lose the Conservative majority. Now it looks as though the party, tired of all the infighting, might finally be turning their attention to Labour. A job advert on the site w4mp went up over the weekend
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When Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader in 2010, he must have imagined himself headlining Labour conferences for years to come. He would stand on stage delivering the defining political speeches and bold policy moves that would propel him to victory in a general election. Alas, many bacon sandwiches, conference gaffes, and an EdStone later,
