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
Gavin Williamson is the unfortunate victim of the Parliamentary recess. With little in the way of political news, the Defence Secretary’s awkward exchange with Richard Madeley over his ‘shut up and go away’ Russia comment has received a lot of attention. Now the Good Morning Britain presenter has decided to prolong Williamson’s turmoil a bit
Gavin Williamson – who told the Russians to ‘shut up and go away’ – is usually the one dishing out the rebukes. Not today. The Defence Secretary met his match in the form of Good Morning Britain presenter Richard Madeley after he repeatedly refused to answer a question on whether he was right to use
Oh dear. The Labour party is one of the loudest cheerleaders when it comes to giving 16-year-olds the vote. At PMQs in January, Emily Thornberry was particularly keen to push the cause. The shadow foreign secretary accused the Conservatives – who oppose such a move – of being in a ‘coalition of cavemen’, before going
It’s safe to say that the Tory think tank Bright Blue hasn’t always enjoyed the greatest respect among the Conservative party-at-large. Although it has a dedicated following from Liberal Conservatives, its focus on green issues has seen more traditional Tories snipe that it bears a closer resemblance to Lib Dem yellow than a Tory blue.
Oh dear. It’s six months since Philip Hammond stood up in the Autumn Budget and announced a new railcard for those aged 26-30 ‘giving 4.5m more young people a third off their rail fares’. Yet the millennial railcard remains a near mythical artefact – with a mere 10,000 released on the day of the official ‘national’ launch.
It’s safe to say the New York Times doesn’t take a particularly fond view of Britain these days. Whether it’s their ongoing Brexit coverage, writing up Sajid Javid’s appointment as Home Secretary with the headline ‘a new face won’t cover the British government’s racist heart’, mistaking a newspaper sketch writer’s joke about the French for Brexit
Mr S has always been a great admirer of creative accounting: the tricks our politicians use to dress up 50p as £1. It’s not lying, per se. All the techniques need to be valid. But their effect is to mislead. Ed Balls was the great master of this dark art, George Osborne his less-subtle apprentice.
Although Conservative MPs were recently given training to brush up their Instagram skills, there’s one Cabinet minister who requires no such help. Step forward Liz Truss. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has carved out a niche on social media thanks to her hashtags and puns. One of my favourite things from tonight's event is
These days Mr S rarely – if ever – finds himself agreeing with Anna Soubry on politics. The arch-Remainer has made it her mission to keep Britain in the customs union, the single market and ideally – Steerpike suspects – the EU. Yet, on Question Time this week, the Conservative MP managed to briefly strike
Boris Johnson has been caught in a prank call by a pair of Russian comedians posing as the Armenian prime minister. The Foreign Secretary is recorded discussing Russia’s involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and offering tips to the pranksters on how to deal with Vladimir Putin. In a recording of the phone conversation
It’s safe to say that the uneasy peace formed in the Labour party after the snap election is coming to an end. Labour MP Ian Austin has today penned an article for PoliticsHome which is titled: ‘The current Labour leadership is completely outside Labour’s mainstream tradition’. And he doesn’t mean that as a compliment. In
On Monday night, Michael Gove set tongues wagging in Westminster by joining forces with Ruth Davidson to launch new Conservative think tank Onward. With down-hearted Conservatives hoping the duo could form a future dream ticket in a Tory leadership election, the Defra Secretary dampened enthusiasm slightly by comparing himself and the leader of the Scottish
Over the past few weeks, company emails have been flooding into inboxes asking the recipient to give consent to remain on mailing lists. Given the repetitious nature of the message, the emails have begun to all fade into one. So, today’s GDPR email from the Labour party stuck out thanks to its originality. In a
Jacob Rees’Mogg’s appearance on the new Conservative Home Moggcast has caused a stir in Westminster. In the broadcast, the arch-eurosceptic – and chair of the European Research Group – questions Theresa May’s commitment to Brexit: ‘I fear we’re getting to the point where you wonder whether the Government really wants to leave at all.’ Although
To the launch of Onward, the new liberal Conservative think tank. A who’s who of the Tory party, including Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, gathered in Parliament’s Churchill room to raise a glass to the new venture – headed by Theresa May’s former policy wonk Will Tanner. Launching the event were the new
Andy Burnham is now making a career out of being an aggrieved northerner, fed up with London dominating the agenda. Never mind that the Mayor of Greater Manchester made his name down south, Burnham takes a pop at the Westminster ‘bubble’ whenever the opportunity presents itself. But Mr S wonders whether he really thought through
Once upon a time, Labour politicians were lining up to praise the socialist achievements of the government in Venezuela. These days it’s a much harder sell thanks to the fact that 82pc of households live in poverty. Happily, John McDonnell has found a workaround. Speaking on the Sunday Politics, the shadow chancellor rejected the idea that
This weekend, John McDonnell set the cat among the pigeons with an interview on the Sunday Politics. With Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro winning re-election amid claims of vote-rigging, the shadow chancellor was asked whether Venezuela was an example of a failed socialist economic model. McDonnell’s reply? The country isn’t socialist enough. He said it ‘took a wrong
Oh dear. Although Theresa May’s divided government is currently in a state of deadlock over Brexit, the Prime Minister can at least take heart that the Tories aren’t the only party experiencing difficulties here. This morning Barry Gardiner was the victim of a car crash interview on the Andrew Marr show. With Marr on sick
This week Rod Liddle took over the London Palladium for one night only. Mr S’s colleague and comrade spoke to a sold out audience about his approach to writing and politics – as well as his managerial style at the BBC (clue: not legal). For those readers unable to bag a ticket, Mr S is pleased
