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 been a tough week for Jared O’Mara. The MP for Sheffield Hallam had the Labour whip removed after a series of sexist and homophobic comments were unearthed online. Since then, allegations have been made regarding his behaviour towards women in his home of Sheffield. So, the news that he decided not to hold a
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Oh dear. Since Labour’s surprisingly good defeat in the snap election, the hard left has managed to tighten its grip on the party. As last month’s conference proved, Jeremy Corbyn’s party is intent on socialism for the 21st century. But behind the scenes there are still battles being fought between the moderates and the Corbynistas.
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It’s fair to say Jared O’Mara has not done wonders for Labour’s fight for gender equality. The MP for Sheffield Hallam was finally suspended by the party yesterday for referring to teenage music fans as ‘sexy slags’. Yet while Jeremy Corbyn was apparently slow to act in bringing O’Mara to task, it seems that the
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As concerns continue to be rise over Jared O’Mara’s conduct towards women, his Labour comrade John Mann has suggested such behaviour isn’t just limited to one MP in the party. With Mann threatening to expose a colleague who was sent home from a foreign delegation for inappropriate behaviour, the conversation has turned to who knew
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Oh dear. When a Tory MP missed last week’s Opposition Day debate on universal credit to referee at a Barcelona match, both the SNP and Labour were quick to go on the offensive – accusing Douglas Ross of failing his constituents. Now it seems that one of Labour’s most vocal justice warriors has also fallen foul
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After an unflattering account of Theresa May’s dinner last week with Jean-Claude Jucker wound up in the German broadsheet FAZ, tensions between Brussels and Westminster have heightened. The briefing claimed that May ‘begged’ for help and appeared ‘tormented’ with ‘deep rings’ under her eyes. Keen to prove that he was not behind the leak, Juncker
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Oh dear. Although John Bercow has a penchant for winding up Conservative MPs in the Chamber, he also has a habit of taking the SNP to task for failing to grasp Westminster etiquette. However, today he adopted a rather different approach. During questions after Theresa May’s statement on the EU Council summit, the Speaker appeared
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Last week, the SNP proved particularly vocal at PMQs after they went on the offensive over a Scottish Conservative MP missing Labour’s opposition say debate on universal credit to referee at a Barcelona match. Although the vote was non-binding – and the Conservatives abstained anyway – Douglas Ross has since promised to hang up his whistle –
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Since George Osborne moved to the Evening Standard, the one-time austere chancellor has rebranded himself as a centrist darling – and a critic of Theresa May’s government. So, at last night’s Standard Progress 1000 awards at the Tate Modern, Osborne took great delight in telling the esteemed crowd – which included Diane Abbott, Matt Hancock
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Oh dear. Despite managing a carefully co-ordinated photo opp with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on arrival in Brussels, Theresa May cut a solemn figure this morning. A snapper took a photo of the Prime Minister alone at a meeting table – looking glumly into the distance. It’s hardly the Brexit image that Downing Street
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Alastair Campbell has made his views on Brexit loud and clear to anyone who will listen. Tony Blair’s former spin doctor is not happy about Britain leaving the EU and he wants us all to know it. It’s something of a shame then that he doesn’t give others who don’t agree with him about Brexit the
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Oh dear. Although Theresa May is on a mission to unite her Cabinet after months of in-fighting, her mission appears not to extend to the party-at-large. Or if it does, that memo is yet to reach Damian Green. Today the First Secretary of State was guest speaker at the Press Gallery Lunch. Although Green is
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Earlier this week, the New York Times introduced social media guidelines for its journalists. The rules were designed to ensure the paper’s ‘reputation for neutrality’ isn’t damaged by anything its writers might say on Twitter. Is it time for the Economist to do the same? Mr S. only asks because one of the magazine’s Brexit-bashing
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Poor old Ian Blackford must have skipped eating his Weetabix this morning. At PMQs, the SNP MP and leader of his party in the Commons took to his feet to quiz the Prime Minister on the government’s approach to Brexit. But when it came to actually saying the ‘B’ word, it seems Blackford had another
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With the Labour party currently leading in the polls, it’s easy to think that the party’s problem with anti-Semitism must have been resolved. However, Andrew Neil was on hand this week to remind the public that this is not the case. In the keynote speech at the Holocaust Education Trust dinner in London, Neil launched
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Oh dear. About this time last year, as part of its series of predications about how the sky would fall in after the Brexit vote, the NIESR predicted that inflation would hit 4 per cent. This was way out of line with the the consensus, higher than other economist was forecasting. But in the rather
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John Bercow is a big fan of a sporting freebie. The Speaker is a regular fixture in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, and last year Bercow enjoyed thousands of pounds worth of prime tickets to cheer on his beloved Arsenal. Old habits die hard, it seems, with Bercow wasting no time this season claiming some more
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Although Theresa May has found herself in a more vulnerable position since her disastrous conference speech – which featured a collapsing set, prankster and bad cough – the Prime Minister can take heart that her MPs are willing to put on a show of solidarity. At today’s Autumn Reception of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on
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Oh to be young and free and a member of Young Labour. Labour’s youth wing held its annual conference this weekend. On the menu? Votes for 16-year-olds, comradely debate and… a vote to leave Nato. Yes, in a bid to free themselves of American imperialism, the Labour MPs of tomorrow backed a motion calling for the UK
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For George Osborne, it was the 5:2 diet that was credited for sculpting his political ambitions. His decision to shed the pounds was taken as a sign by the commentariat that he had serious leadership ambitions. So, Mr S was curious to hear that Labour’s Tom Watson is now on a mission to lose weight. Writing