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 Labour’s draft manifesto out in the open today, politicos and pundits are beginning to cast judgment on whether it offers an innovative set of policies that could transform Britain or if it’s really a socialist disaster just waiting to happen. Alas, Tony Blair’s former director of political operations falls into the latter category. Speaking
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Jeremy Corbyn’s day is going from bad to disastrous. Labour’s draft manifesto has been leaked and is splashed all over the newspapers. And the Labour leader was a no show at the party’s poster launch. So you might be forgiven for thinking that things couldn’t possibly get any worse for Corbyn. Not so. When the
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The original EdStone may have been broken up and discarded soon after Ed Miliband’s 2015 defeat, but its memory lives on. In fact, the Conservatives have even managed to spin a tidy profit from it — auctioning replica versions to party donors. So, last night at the Ivy Chelsea Garden’s champagne-fuelled summer party, Mr S was
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Oh dear. Does anyone in the Labour party have a head for numbers? Mr S only asks after Jack Dromey became the third Labour politician in recent days to come up short on being asked about basic Labour policy figures. In an interview on the Daily Politics, Dromey came up short as he attempted to explain
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Last week it was Diane Abbott who was caught on the hoof by Nick Ferrari when she took to the airwaves to unveil Labour’s policing policy. Unable to give the correct figures regarding how much her party’s plan to put more police on the beat would cost, the shadow home secretary seemed woefully unprepared for office. Today
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Jeremy Corbyn said this morning that Brexit was ‘settled’. Now, it seems, he isn’t quite so sure. The Labour leader was quizzed repeatedly on whether the UK would definitely leave the EU behind if he becomes Prime Minister on June 9th. Seven times, Corbyn refused to answer. Instead, Corbyn insisted that he would ‘get a good
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Labour MP Sarah Champion was ‘giddy with excitement’ ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s launch of the party’s election campaign this morning. Afterwards, she tweeted to say that the event was ‘stunning’. So it might be a fair bet to assume she’ll be proudly urging voters to back Jeremy Corbyn all the way to Downing Street? Not so.
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Ever since the referendum result, the New York Times has adopted a decidedly gloomy tone in its Brexit coverage. The American paper even suffered a sense of humour failure when hacks read the Times‘s parliamentary sketch of an Emmanuel Macron rally as a serious news report — interpreting it as a sign of British superiority
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After John McDonnell praised Karl Marx’s Das Kapital on Sunday, Jeremy Corbyn today doubled down and described the philosopher as a ‘great thinker’. This has led to some light mockery today, with the Liberal Democrats’ Tom Brake getting in on the fun — claiming the Labour leader deserves ‘full Marx’ for this latest gaffe. But the
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Tim Farron has said the Lib Dems won’t be forming a coalition with Labour. But it seems Vince Cable didn’t get the memo. Cable has been taped suggesting that Lib Dem voters should back Rupa Huq, Labour’s candidate in Ealing Central. Here’s what he said: ‘I’ll just give one example – there’s Rupa Huq, who’s
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Last week, Theresa May was accused of trying to turn the Conservative campaign presidential when she stood on the steps of Downing Street and accused Brussels politicians of trying to interfere with the election. Since then, candidates have been pitching themselves as ‘Theresa May’s candidate’ rather than as a Conservative candidate. At a press conference this morning,
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Ever since Emmanuel Macron emerged as a frontrunner in the French presidential race, UK politicians have been clamouring to shower praise on the centrist politician while flagging their (undoubtedly) close connections to the man. After Macron made it through the first round, George Osborne congratulated his ‘friend’ online, only for Ed Miliband to cast doubt on
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Last Sunday, John McDonnell stood in front of communist flags and gave a speech at the May Day rally. Today, the shadow chancellor appeared on the Andrew Marr show to declare that while he was a fan of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, he was no Marxist. Fast forward two hours, and to the embarrassment of
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Oh dear. After a disappointing showing in the local elections on Friday, Jeremy Corbyn needs to win back disillusioned Labour voters who have switched to the Conservatives. So, how’s that going? Well, if Paul Mason’s appearance on Newsnight is anything to go by then not very well at all. The former Channel 4 economics editor
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Labour’s dismal showing so far in the local elections was predicted by many. However, the results still appear to have come as a nasty surprise to some former Corbyn cheerleaders. Step forward Caitlin Moran. The columnist has taken to social media to apologise publicly for backing the beleaguered Labour leader: Moran then went on to claim that
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Oh dear. It’s not turning out to be a great week for Diane Abbott. On Tuesday, the shadow home secretary found herself in a tight spot after she got her numbers completely wrong when trying to explain Labour’s new police policy, in an interview with LBC. With her party today suffering a disappointing result in the
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Poor old Emily Thornberry. Labour is having a torrid time in the local elections and during her appearance on the BBC this morning, things took a turn for the worse for the shadow foreign secretary. Thornberry – who Mr S previously revealed is known as ET by Jeremy Corbyn — was there to try and defend Labour’s
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Standing outside Downing Street, Theresa May’s speech was notable for a number of reasons — not just her claim that politicians in Brussels were trying to interfere in the election result. In a sign of how the Tories are trying to turn this snap election into a presidential-style contest, May talked about ‘my local candidates’— rather Conservative candidates.
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After Simon Danczuk was barred from standing as the Labour candidate for Rochdale, there have been reports that the Leader’s Office are keen for Corbyn adviser Katy Clark to be put forward for the seat — after she lost out in Leigh. However, now the word on the ground is that Labour want a local candidate over concerns
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With Labour predicted a catastrophic election result come June 8, many MPs are resorting to rather desperate tactics in a bid to cling on to their seat. So, Mr S was curious to learn of an encounter a comrade experienced over the weekend. At an address in one of the capital’s marginal constituencies, a canvasser was