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

Tuesday

Steerpike

Reform councillor attacks Farage as she quits party

From our UK edition

Reform UK enjoyed success in last week's local elections, but it hasn't all been plain sailing for Nigel Farage's party. It transpires that one of his new councillors Donna Edmunds has quit the party just days after winning her Shropshire seat – following her suspension from the group for posting on Twitter that she had plans to defect from Reform after the local elections. Good heavens! Edmunds, who was elected in Hodnet in Shropshire, had taken to Twitter on Sunday to announce she had been suspended from Farage's party 'pending an investigation' – after she had made previous posts about waiting for ex-Reform man Rupert Lowe to set up a rival party 'and then I will defect'. While she has now quit the group, Edmunds didn't go quietly.

Steerpike

Mike Amesbury urges Labour MPs to rebel

From our UK edition

You'd have thought ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury would have tired of making headlines by now, but the former politician can't seem to keep his head below the parapet. Now the former Runcorn and Helsby parliamentarian – who prompted last week's by-election after he punched a constituent – has called on Labour backbenchers to rebel against the leadership's 'big political mistakes'. And Amesbury knows all about mistakes, eh? Amesbury lamented that while he was 'really disappointed' at Labour's loss in his former seat On the BBC's Today programme, the ex-Labour man spoke to presenters about the future of Labour.

Saturday

Steerpike

Labour minister: rape gangs are a ‘dog whistle’ 

From our UK edition

Uh oh. Commons Leader Lucy Powell has found herself in hot water after making some rather careless remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions yesterday. The Labour politician sparked outrage over her reaction to a point by Tim Montgomerie – the founder of Conservative Home who has since aligned himself with Reform – who brought up a recent Channel 4 documentary on grooming gangs.  Cutting across him, Powell replied: ‘Oh we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we?’ ‘No,’ Montgomerie responded. ‘There was a real issue…’. Not that Powell appeared willing to listen, interrupting again: ‘Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we?’ Oo er. Talk about flippant!

Friday

Steerpike

Watch: Prince Harry says he wants to ‘reconcile’ with the King

From our UK edition

Prince Harry has said he 'would love a reconciliation' with the Royals after losing a legal challenge over his security in Britain. The Duke of Sussex told the BBC that King Charles 'won't speak to me because of this security stuff', but insisted he would love to get back on speaking terms with his family: 'It would be nice to reconcile,' he said. 'There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,' said Prince Harry 'There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,' said Prince Harry. Asked whether his wife Meghan and children would come to Britain, Harry said: 'I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point. And the things that they’re going to miss is, well, everything.

Steerpike

Suspended Labour candidate wins in Lancashire

From our UK edition

Some real characters being elected today. Remember Azhar Ali? He was dropped as Labour’s candidate in the Rochdale by-election last year after he was recorded claiming that Israel ‘allowed’ the 7 October massacre, and making dark insinuations about ‘Jewish quarters’ of the media... Well, Mr Ali (these days an independent) has just been re-elected by the clement people of Lancashire in the ward of Nelson East. He was voted in, too, with a very healthy majority of 874. Result! And then there’s Maheen Kamran. She’s an 18-year-old aspiring medical student who has just been elected by the good men and women of Burnley Central East with a majority of 268 votes. Who is she?

Steerpike

Darren Grimes wins Durham council seat for Reform

From our UK edition

To Durham, the mining heartland of the UK and a traditional working class county. Yet despite its rich history with the reds, being the first of England's county councils to be controlled by Labour – with the party retaining that control for over a century – Nigel Farage's Reform party is making gains. Now it transpires that ex-GB News presenter Darren Grimes has won a council seat in Durham – receiving a staggering 49.7 per cent of the vote. Talk about a decisive victory! Grimes won the Annfield Plain ward in County Durham this afternoon as Farage's party continues to pick up council seats across the country. Reform's campaign claimed that 'Durham was broken' and sought to take advantage of growing disillusionment with Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot.

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer admits Runcorn loss ‘disappointing’

From our UK edition

It's been an eventful day – and there are still many more local election results to go. After a long night in Runcorn, and a full recount, Nigel Farage's Reform party clinched the win in what had been a Labour safe seat by just six votes – securing a fifth parliamentarian and their first female MP. While the Reform lot could hardly contain their glee, the Labour team struggled to disguise their dejection. Now Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made his first statement on the result, admitting to reporters that 'the results are disappointing' for the reds. Talk about an understatement… Going on the PM insisted: I could stand here and say to you 'opposition parties always do well in elections like this. It was very close in Runcorn. Etcetera, etcetera.

Steerpike

Watch: Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns storms out of Sky interview

From our UK edition

Andrea Jenkyns may have won the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election with over 100,000 votes, but it hasn't all been plain sailing for the Reform candidate this morning. An interview with Sky News turned sour when Jenkyns was probed about previous comments she'd made about a rival's South African accent after the other mayoral candidate claimed Jenkyns had been parachuted into the electoral race. Slamming her interviewer as 'divisive', the new Greater Lincolnshire mayor then refused to entertain any further questions and stormed off from the camera. The post-election sleep deprivation is kicking in… The interview with Sky News turned sour Her interviewer quizzed her: 'You accused one candidate, she said you were parachuted in and you made a comment about her South African accent.

Steerpike

Farage: ‘Not true’ I have a woman problem

From our UK edition

Well, well, well. It's been a good start to the day so far for Nigel Farage's Reform party, with the group in the lead on council seat wins, securing victory in the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty and, to top it all off, coming first place in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election. Now the party has returned its Westminster parliamentarian count to five (after ex-Reform man Rupert Lowe was suspended earlier this year) and hopes to continue making gains across the country throughout the day. Talk about shaking things up, eh? Reform's Runcorn victory sees the party gain its first female Member of Parliament while ex-Tory politician Andrea Jenkyns swept to victory to become its first women mayor.

Steerpike

Farage to Kemi: ‘Please stay’

From our UK edition

Happy six months anniversary to Kemi Badenoch. Elected leader at the start of November, she today has to watch her party shed councillors at a rate of knots. Coming off the back of the 'Boris bounce' in 2021, it was always going to be a hard night for her – but even this will be a tough result for her supporters. Inevitably, Nigel Farage was on hand to stick the knife into his Tory rival. At the Runcorn count, he was asked by Sky's Jon Craig what was his message to Badenoch. He replied: Kemi Badenoch – please stay. I mean please don’t resign, we want you to stay on as leader, I’ll put some money in if you like to keep you there.

Steerpike

Watch: Reform celebrate Runcorn victory

From our UK edition

It was a long, tense night in Runcorn and Helsby as constituents and candidates awaited the results of their parliamentary by-election. Initially Labour looked to have come out on top, before reporters were informed that Reform UK were four points ahead of Sir Keir Starmer's army. 'Doubtful' votes prompted a recount – and almost eight hours after journalists first appeared at the count centre, the final results came in: Nigel Farage's Reform party won the Labour safe seat from the reds by just six votes. Talk about a knife edge… Not that the result was necessarily surprising to Farage, who had taken to Twitter earlier in the night to proclaim victory in the by-election – despite the recount taking place – noting that: 'Labour have demanded a recount.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour mayor turns on Starmer

From our UK edition

Oh dear. It has been a pretty grim night for Sir Keir Starmer's party. Loyalists have been out spinning desperately, with Science Secretary Peter Kyle given the thankless task of defending the indefensible on the overnight shows. One ray of sunshine which the party is citing is the North Tyneside mayoralty, where Ros Jones narrowly held off Reform's challenge by barely 400 votes. So it must be a shame for No. 10 then that Jones' first act as a newly re-elected mayor was to turn her guns on her own party leader. Speaking to the BBC, she declared that 'national government needs to look and see what people are saying.' Asked by Laura Kuenssberg what, er, exactly she meant, Jones replied: I'm sure they're saying the same as I have.

Thursday

Steerpike

Reeves probed over late theatre ticket declarations

From our UK edition

Dear oh dear. Rachel Reeves has found herself in yet another spot of bother, as it transpires that the Chancellor is under investigation for a late declaration of theatre tickets. The Labour politician is being probed by Westminster's standards watchdog for belatedly declaring two sets of gifted tickets from the National Theatre after the freebies from last year were only registered last month. How very interesting… Reeves was given free tickets to a December showing of Ballet Shoes last year, worth £276, as well as freebies worth £266 to Nye – about the founder of the NHS – in March 2024. Yet despite MP guidance stating that politicians must declare any hospitality within 28 days of receiving it, Reeves took much longer to record her freebies.

Steerpike

FA bans trans players from women’s football

From our UK edition

Well, well, well. The ramifications of the Supreme Court's ruling on single-sex spaces are beginning to be seen. It transpires that transwomen are to be banned from playing women's football in both England and Scotland. The judgment from the highest court in the land that backed the biological definition of a woman put pressure on the Football Association to clarify its position and step in line with other national bodies that allow only those born female to take part in women's competitions. The decision by England's Football Association follows the move in Scotland, which saw the Scottish FA update its guidance to stop those born as males from taking part in the female game. At the start of April, the English body launched a case-by-case policy which stopped short of a blanket ban.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Cartoon exhibition cancelled after art deemed too political

From our UK edition

Is the era of political satire over? The Kingston Riverside TownSq venue seems to think so. It transpires that the Surrey events space has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists' work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. You couldn't make it up… The Kingston TownSq venue has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists' work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. The showing featured work from celebrated newspaper cartoonists including the Spectator's JG Fox, Morten Morland, also formerly of the Spectator, the Mail's Mac and Pugh, and the Guardian's Martin Rowson.

Steerpike

Listen: Environment minister backs Blair’s net zero takedown

From our UK edition

It's not a typical culprit that has ruffled Labour party feathers this week but instead the party's former leader. In a notable intervention, Sir Tony Blair insisted on Tuesday that the current 'irrational' approach to hitting the net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 was 'doomed to fail', before pointing out that the 'inconvenient facts' of supply and demand for fossil fuels are rising. Yet despite the hit to Sir Keir Starmer, it transpires that one of the Prime Minister's own cabinet secretaries agrees with Blair's assessment. How very curious… Speaking on Times Radio this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed remarked that he did, in fact, agree with 'much of what [Blair] said'.

Steerpike

How many crooks are in the Commons?

From our UK edition

As politicians complain about a Britain in decline, perhaps they should look closer to home. Mr S can reveal that, over the last five years, a total of nine Commons staff have been probed for criminal activity allegations – and yet fewer than half were dismissed. Talk about falling standards, eh? A total of nine Commons staff have been probed for criminal activity allegations A Freedom of Information request revealed that, since April 2020, nine people employed by either the Commons or the joint departments of parliament have been investigated for criminal offences ‘which would call into question their ability or suitability to work in their current post’. You don’t say!

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Labour MP attacks Ed Miliband

From our UK edition

Ding ding ding! The gloves are coming off, as Scottish Labour backbencher Brian Leishman today took aim at Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons over Grangemouth. First bashing both the SNP and previous Tory governments, Leishman turned the guns on his own government minister. Today marks the day that all oil refining in Scotland has come to an end, after the company that runs the refinery, Petroineos, notified staff that operations had ceased and the first group of redundant workers will be leaving the plant, with 200 to lose their jobs by the end of June. Hitting out at Labour pre-election promises on the future of Scotland's oil plant, Leishman raged: Mr Speaker, today is the end of over a century of refining at Grangemouth.

Steerpike

Watch: Poilievre concedes defeat before Portillo moment

From our UK edition

Dear oh dear. Canada's election results came in early this morning, revealing that – despite only being leader of the Liberal party for two months – ex-Bank of England governor Mark Carney wiped the floor with Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre. And not only did Poilievre's party lose the election, he even lost his parliamentary seat. Talk about a double whammy… In the early hours of Tuesday morning, excitement heightened among Canada's Liberals as Carney's party was projected to soar to victory in the election. As James Heale wrote for Coffee House this morning, what the economist has pulled off is nothing short of exceptional.

Steerpike

SNP politicians back anti-gender ruling Green MSP

From our UK edition

Despite denouncing the Supreme Court judgment that backed the biological definition of a woman, Green MSP Maggie Chapman has bafflingly managed to survive an attempt to remove her from her role as Deputy Convener of the Equalities Committee in the Scottish parliament. It seems the eco-activists can get away with anything these days… When Chapman took to the streets of Aberdeen some weeks ago to fume about the 'bigotry, prejudice and hatred that we see coming from the Supreme Court', women's rights campaigners, fellow politicians and legal experts were quick to hit out at her remarks.