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
Last week, Lily Allen became the subject of much mockery online after she claimed to have discovered the flaw in Theresa May’s plan for a global Britain. The pop singer said Brexit was unlikely to be a success as the ‘world still hates us’ because of… slavery. While Allen has refrained from offering any further Brexit analysis this
After Isabel Oakeshott co-authored Call Me Dave with Lord Ashcroft, the former Sunday Times political editor became the scourge of the Cameroons thanks to a story involving the former prime minister and a pig. However, despite this, she made a return to Fleet Street as the Daily Mail‘s political editor-at-large. A year on (and after months of speculation)
Oh dear. To describe today’s Prime Minister’s Questions as bad for Labour would be an understatement. After Jeremy Corbyn was put on the backfoot by Theresa May over the government’s Brexit white paper, he was left lost for words as he stumbled around for questions. To make matters worse, he also managed to mess up
Following Donald Trump’s surprise victory in America, Jeremy Corbyn’s team have tried to take inspiration from the new US president by pitching the Labour leader as a left-wing Trump. In a bid to jump on the populist wave, Corbyn and his supporters have gone to lengths to big up his anti-establishment credentials — even adopting a Trump-esque
Steerpike readers will be familiar with the antics of Ntokozo Qwabe — the Rhodes scholar, who boasted about making a waitress shed ‘white tears’ after he asked her to ‘return the land’. While the Oxford’s Rhodes Must Fall co-founder has since completed his law studies in Britain and returned to South Africa — where he
Ahead of the government’s supreme court appeal against the high court ruling that Article 50 cannot be triggered without a Westminster vote, the Daily Mail ran an article suggesting the judges who ruled against the government were ‘enemies of the people’. What’s more, the paper then ran a handy guide which ranked the 11 Justices of the
Thanks to the Home Office’s crackdown on hate crime, the Home Secretary recently found her conference speech officially recorded as a ‘hate incident’, after an Oxford University physics professor complained to the police that she was ‘picking on foreigners’. However, Mr S can’t help but wonder if Amber Rudd will soon be joined by her former
Over the weekend, John Prescott criticised Theresa May for arranging a trip to meet Trump as thousands of women marched in protest of the US president. Given that it has since been pointed out to Prescott that it’s not completely unreasonable for a Prime Minister to arrange a meeting with the new leader of the free world, Mr S suggests
Is there something in the water at BBC broadcasting house? First Theresa May appears on Marr where she refuses to answer a question on Trident four times, then Diane Abbott comes up blank four times on Sunday Politics when asked about Labour’s Brexit position. The shadow home secretary struggled as Andrew Neil asked her a
Although Donald Trump has suggested that he is unhappy with the BBC’s coverage of him, it’s the corporation’s reporting of Michelle Obama at today’s inauguration ceremony that has landed the BBC in trouble. As Katty Kay, the BBC reporter, led the coverage on the news channel, she offered a running commentary of the movements of various
As Donald Trump is sworn in today as the 45th US president, not everyone at the ceremony appears thrilled to be there. In fact, both Hillary Clinton and the departing first lady — Michelle Obama — look as though they would like to be anywhere but the White House: Mr S welcomes your caption suggestions on this
On Thursday, Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet found themselves in disarray after the Labour leader suggested he would issue a three-line whip for MPs to vote to trigger Article 50. This upset many in his party as they had hoped he would make Labour’s consent — at the very least — conditional upon certain details being revealed or caveats
After Labour party members in Copeland rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred choice as candidate for the upcoming by-election in favour of former doctor Gillian Troughton, the hunt is on to find a suitable candidate for the upcoming Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election — to be held on the same day. With Tristram Hunt quitting to take a job with
When Seumas Milne first announced that he was joining Labour as Jeremy Corbyn’s director of communications in 2015, it was made clear that he would not be exiting the Guardian for good. Instead — in an arrangement that raised eyebrows in Westminster — Milne would merely work for Corbyn while taking leave from his role as the
On Wednesday, No 10 was forced to clarify that the Foreign Secretary had not compared the French President to a Nazi after Boris Johnson warned Francois Hollande against trying to ‘administer punishment beatings’ in the manner of some ‘world war two movie’. Alas not everyone in Johnson’s party has proved so helpful in coming to his defence. An ill-timed press
Although Theresa May used her Brexit speech on Tuesday to emphasise to European leaders that she hoped for a close and mutually beneficial relationship between the UK and the EU, not everyone appears to have got the memo. Today Boris Johnson found himself in hot water after he warned Francois Hollande against trying to ‘administer punishment beatings’ in the
Although Theresa May’s speech revealing her plan for a global Britain was well-received by her party and much of the media yesterday, the SNP found much cause for concern. While Nicola Sturgeon has said May’s announcement that the UK will leave the single market makes a second independence referendum more likely, Paul Monaghan has a
Today Theresa May revealed her plan for ‘a global Britain’ in a speech at Lancaster House. While her words were well-received by her party and the media, not everyone is so convinced. Step forward Lily Allen. Yes, the pop singer — who last year apologised ‘on behalf of my country’ on a visit to the Calais
As Michael Gove does his bit for US-UK relations in The Times today with a Donald Trump interview on the positives of a quick trade deal, his former staff, too, are on manoeuvres to boost post-Brexit business. Mr S understands that Gove’s former SpAd — and Vote Leave adviser — Henry Cook has joined Portland Communications as the
After rail strikes caused havoc over the Christmas period, Sean Hoyle — president of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers — was reported as saying that the industrial action had been coordinated to ‘bring down this bloody working-class-hating Tory government’. While union leaders have since insisted that the strikes are not politically