Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Thursday

Steerpike

Matt Hancock’s World Cup struggle

From our UK edition

Ahead of England’s crunch World Cup game against Belgium tonight, you might expect that support for the Three Lions is reaching fever pitch in the cabinet. Not so, Mr S is sad to report. Theresa May is more of a cricket fan, while Boris has been busy talking down England’s chances. It seems that culture secretary, Matt Hancock, is also failing to get excited about the football. At a party organised by the department for culture, media and sport for England’s opening game against Tunisia, Hancock seemed more interested in fiddling with a virtual reality set than paying attention to the game, Steerpike hears. “He’s more of a cricket man” a source close to Hancock said, when asked about his ambivalence towards the beautiful game.

Steerpike

Brexit football chant competition: ‘He’s here, he’s there! He’s a citizen of nowhere: Barnier, Barnier!’

From our UK edition

Congratulations to Radio 4’s Today programme for the amusing item on Brexit football chants. Very good. Radio 4 being Radio 4, however, there was a slight Remain bias to their chants. Also they lacked something of the sweet nihilism that all the best football chants have. So here, in the interests of balance and free speech, are a few we came up with in The Spectator office yesterday. We just about resisted the natural urge to rhyme with Jean-Claude Juncker, and now we dare to dream that one of them will be sung at the Kaliningrad stadium tonight for England’s match against Belgium. Please send your own chants (preferably with audio file) to editor@spectator.co.uk and put Brexit Football Chant Competition in the subject field.

Steerpike

Two years on: six of the worst Brexit predictions

From our UK edition

It’s just over two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union in what proved to be a shock result that caught both politicians and commentators off guard. Unlike Lord Ashdown’s hat-eating, or Matthew Goodwin’s book eating after the two most recent General Elections, many didn’t get held accountable to their off the mark Brexit predictions. Happily, Mr S is on hand to correct that. Steerpike has compiled a list of some of the Brexit predictions that failed to come true: 1. JP Morgan: Scotland will leave the UK and get a new currency Days after the EU referendum, investment company JP Morgan announced in an email to clients that they expected Scotland to leave the union and change currency. (As did Andrew Marr in the immediate aftermath of the vote.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Love Island fever sweeps the Labour backbenches

From our UK edition

Recess is fast approaching and many MPs are looking for a hobby to occupy them over the long summer break. Happily, a group of Labour MPs have hit upon the perfect thing to keep them busy: Love Island. Mr S hears that Lucy Powell, Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy have even set up a WhatsApp group to discuss the ITV2 show. A Labour source said: "It’s well known that Lucy, Jess and Stella have a Love Island WhatsApp group to debrief on each episode and to coordinate voting, with Lucy usually whipping. Their overwhelmingly favourite couple this year is Jack and Dani, and they are in total agreement that Adam is a rat.” It seems the trio aren’t the only ones on the Labour benches with a fondness for Love Island.

Steerpike

Liz Truss and the last straw

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Although free-thinking Cabinet members are not hard to come by nowadays, Liz Truss still managed to cause a stir with her speech to the London School of Economics. Only it was notable not just for her defence of free markets and fiscal restraint but for what she didn't say. In the pre-released speech on the government website, Truss took a swipe at her Cabinet colleague Michael Gove over his plan to save turtles and ban plastic straws: Only – despite the speech being pre-published – Truss appears to have decided it was a straw too far and taken the line out at the last minute. Happily, she was still okay criticising Gove's department as a whole: 'There’s enough hot air and smoke at the Environment Department already.

Tuesday

Steerpike

David Miliband takes in the refugee crisis… from Aspen

From our UK edition

Oh David Miliband – never change. Labour's prince across the water continues to surprise. Although friends of Ed Miliband's brother have reported that David is 'still attracted' to Britain, as of yet the former Labour politician has not been tempted enough by Blighty to quit his £425,000 a year job as the chair of the refugee charity International Rescue. It looks like that isn't about to change any time soon. Today Miliband has shared his working day – and it's a 'beautiful day to discuss refugees and political crisis of our times'. And where is the perfect spot to do this? Aspen, natch – the millionaires' playground. It seems £425,000 a year can't buy you tact...

Steerpike

John McDonnell fails to put on a united front

From our UK edition

Is Len McCluskey a signed up member of a 'corporate cartel'? That's what his close ally John McDonnell appeared to suggest in the Chamber as Tory MPs voted en masse to back plans for a third runway at Heathrow. With the shadow chancellor representing a constituency in the flight path of the proposed runway, McDonnell was quick to attack all those behind it and the 'corporate cartels' pushing for it: 'Does this House stand up for people and communities, especially working class communities or does it stand up for the interests of a corporate cartel that's ripped us off for decades?' Only McDonnell seems to have forgotten who his friends are. Labour's key union financier Unite is pro-Heathrow and seen to be the motivating factor in Jeremy Corbyn allowing his MPs a free vote on the issue.

Steerpike

Tom Watson’s gambling hypocrisy

From our UK edition

When it was announced that the crackdown on fixed-odds betting machines could be delayed for up to two years, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson made his feelings loud and clear: ‘The state of this government. It’s pathetic,’ he tweeted. That outburst wasn’t the only time Watson has called for action against the bookmakers. Here he is describing gambling as Britain’s ‘hidden epidemic’ and urging football clubs to cut their ties with the bookies: 'Kids more than ever are exposed to gambling adverts, and it’s no surprise to me then...that gambling addiction has gone up by an estimated third in recent years.

Monday

Steerpike

Two years on: six of the worst Brexit predictions | 25 June 2018

From our UK edition

It’s just over two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union in what proved to be a shock result that caught both politicians and commentators off guard. Unlike Lord Ashdown’s hat-eating, or Matthew Goodwin’s book eating after the two most recent General Elections, many didn’t get held accountable to their off the mark Brexit predictions. Happily, Mr S is on hand to correct that. Steerpike has compiled a list of some of the Brexit predictions that failed to come true: 1. JP Morgan: Scotland will leave the UK and get a new currency Days after the EU referendum, investment company JP Morgan announced in an email to clients that they expected Scotland to leave the union and change currency. (As did Andrew Marr in the immediate aftermath of the vote.

Steerpike

Greg Hands makes life difficult for the Foreign Secretary

From our UK edition

With a key vote on Heathrow’s third runway due later today, the bulldozers ominously loom whilst the Foreign Secretary is missing in action. The once anti-Heathrow Boris Johnson will helpfully miss today's vote though the exact whereabouts of Johnson remain unknown – with the Prime Minister saying last Thursday that '[he] will be what I would describe as the living embodiment of global Britain'. Alas not all of Johnson's colleagues seem so impressed. Robert Halfon hypothesised on Daily Politics that he might be in India or China 'to buy a cheaper bulldozer’ than the one he previously threatened to lie down in front of should Heathrow expansion occur. Meanwhile, Greg Hands continues to make life more difficult for Johnson.

Sunday

Steerpike

Tory MPs turn on Gavin Williamson

From our UK edition

Despite the good weather and England's good World Cup result, it hasn't been a relaxing weekend for all. Step forward Gavin Williamson. The ambitious defence secretary has found himself in the line of fire, with the Mail on Sunday splashing on reports that he has threatened to topple the prime minister unless defence spending is increased by £20bn. Given that Theresa May doesn't yet have a firm plan in place to fund her £20bn NHS pledge, it's hard to see her signing up to this anytime soon. Allies of Williamson – known as Private Pike in the Treasury – have moved to deny the reports. However, regardless, the incident has not gone down particularly well with Williamson's colleagues.

Steerpike

Anti-Brexit protesters turn on Labour leader: ‘Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’

From our UK edition

This time last year, Jeremy Corbyn was standing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury to adoring chants of 'Oh-Jeremy-Corbyn'. Last weekend, Corbyn-mania attempting a resurgence at JezFest – Labour's very own music festival – but failed to deliver the Labour leader another Glastonbury moment – with only faint chants to be heard. Happily, Corbyn can take heart that his name was chanted en masse this weekend. Only it wasn't for the reason that his supporters had in mind. At the anti-Brexit People's Vote march in London, protesters angrily chanted 'where's Jeremy Corbyn?' https://twitter.com/Jack_Slater/status/1010519215034560513 It turns out that Corbyn was busy visiting a refugee camp.

Friday

Steerpike

Love Island education: A beginner’s guide to Brexit

From our UK edition

When Love Island contestant Hayley Hughes used a conversation about Brexit to ask whether there would still be trees after Britain leaves the EU, there was widespread ridicule. With the reality star now out of the ITV2 villa, Hayley appeared on Daily Politics to be given a Brexit education via the BBC's Adam Fleming. 'I'm finding it really interesting,' she mused. Given the disagreement over the past few weeks about what a meaningful vote really means and what a backstop is, Mr S suspects that the number of people confused by the whole thing goes well beyond the Love Island cast.

Steerpike

Watch: Gavin Williamson meets the US ambassador

From our UK edition

The new US ambassador has set the cat among the pigeons this morning with the Telegraph splashing on his call to Britons to stop being 'defeatist' about Brexit and instead be inspired by Trump. The comments from Woody Johnson were made as part of a new Channel 4 documentary – Inside the American Embassy – out on Monday. While the programme is sure to cause a stir when aired in full, Mr S understands that it could actually be a Cabinet minister who finds the documentary to make for the most uncomfortable viewing. The three part fly-on-the-wall documentary – for which Channel 4 was given unprecedented access inside the U.S. embassy for several months – catches Theresa May's government attempting to charm the ambassador.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Policy Exchange summer party: Theresa May takes a swipe at Michael Gove

From our UK edition

It's summer party season in Westminster. Tonight it was the turn of Policy Exchange with the think tank securing a speech from Theresa May. In a buoyant mood after narrowly dodging a Tory rebellion on the EU withdrawal bill, the Prime Minister spoke about the need to respect the EU referendum result. However, May's speech was notable for two other reasons. Firstly in an apparent case of déjà vu the set began to dissolve around her – thanks to a gust of wind. Secondly, the Prime Minister used the opportunity to have a go at Michael Gove.

Steerpike

Phillip Lee’s bad press

From our UK edition

The Remain rebels have this afternoon backed down and found a compromise to the government's meaningful vote amendment that they can live with. So, was it all worth it? That's a question Phillip Lee may well be asking himself – following his decision to resign his junior ministerial post last week so he could speak freely on his issues with the government's Brexit strategy. Alas, it seems not everyone in Lee's Leave-voting Bracknell constituency about his escapades. Today's issue of the Bracknell News sees the MP for Bracknell on the front page along with the headline 'MP faces fresh calls to resign': 'Furious residents are calling for the resignation of Dr Phillip Lee from his seat as a member of parliament.

Steerpike

Labour councillor who said ‘no proof’ Isis exists to help protect children from radicalisation

From our UK edition

Remember Safia Akhtar? Back in May, Mr Steerpike reported how the Birmingham Labour candidate had ‘waltz[ed] to victory’ in the local elections and been elected as a Labour councillor. Given that the Labour representative once said there was 'no proof' that Isis existed, not everyone was thrilled by her appointment. After Khalid Masood murdered five people including PC Keith Palmer in the March 2017 Westminster terrorist attack, Akhtar posted to her Facebook: ‘Can people relax and stop fighting on Facebook, sadly people died in Westminster today but people die everyday in Syria Palestine Africa Rohingya Kashmir.. Need I carry on?!! Grow up and stop pointing fingers!

Steerpike

Watch: Minister taken to task over ‘Brexit dividend’

From our UK edition

Theresa May has said a Brexit dividend will help fund the NHS cash boost, but does it actually exist? It was left to health minister Jackie Doyle-Price to convince viewers on the Daily Politics that it does. But Mr S wasn't entirely convinced by her explanation: Andrew Neil: It surely stands to reason that there is no Brexit dividend to finance these rises. Jackie Doyle-Price: Well, the secretary of state made clear in his statement that this would come in a reduction of subscriptions (to the EU) but also, we will have to look at taxes as well. AN: But there is no reduction of subscriptions in 19/20 or 20/21, they continue during the transition period. So in these two years at least and probably for a third year, there is no Brexit dividend, correct?

Steerpike

David Davis makes an entrance

From our UK edition

To the Westbourne summer party where James Bethell and Iain Anderson were celebrating the new merger between their respective companies Westbourne and Cicero. Only the speech didn't go quite to plan. To much laughter, Bethell told partygoers that the Cabinet big beasts hadn't been able to make the bash – but had sent their apologies. Boris Johnson had wanted to have his cake and eat it, Theresa May to try and bake a cake and David Davis was too busy delivering said cake... Only as the public affairs honcho was reading out the Brexit Secretary's 'excuse', Davis walked in to the party and grabbed the mic: 'Let me read it out for you... sorry not to be here I am an SAS man who is busy delivering cake' Davis was certainly in a cheery mood at the bash.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Ruth Davidson’s potshot at Theresa May

From our UK edition

Theresa May has managed to surprise absolutely no-one this afternoon with her spokesman's confirmation that the Prime Minister has never smoked cannabis. Cue widespread jokes that May was too busy running through fields of wheat – the activity that May herself describes as the naughtiest thing she has ever done. Now not even May's colleagues can resist taking a pop at the boss's idea of fun. Ruth Davidson has intervened on Twitter after a user asked how many fields of wheat she had run through: That will go down well in No 10...