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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Recent reports on the situation in the socialist haven of Venezuela suggest that not everything is so tickety-boo. With five-hour queues for toilet paper, the prospect of forced labour looming and a mass food shortage, Mercosur — the South American trade bloc — has threatened to expel the country over human rights violations and not
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There was a time when it looked as though this year’s Labour conference might not go ahead as they struggled to find a company to provide security at the event. The party’s usual supplier G4S had been deemed unsuitable after the NEC made a decision to boycott them over its prison contracts and links to
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Oh dear. It’s not been a great conference for Seumas Milne. Jeremy Corbyn’s director of comms managed to make himself the story this week after he altered Clive Lewis’s speech on Trident at the last minute. The shadow Defence Secretary was said to be so angry over the changes that he punched a wall after
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Although David Cameron faced flak over his resignation honours list, it was Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to give the chair of his anti-Semitism inquiry a peerage that attracted the most criticism. Today Shami Chakrabarti — now Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington — appeared on the Daily Politics where Andrew Neil. While she freely admitted that her findings
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Back in May, Boris Johnson was awarded first prize in the Spectator’s ‘President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition’, for the following poem: There was a young fellow from Ankara Who was a terrific wankerer Till he sowed his wild oats With the help of a goat But he didn’t even stop to thankera. Fast forward a
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On Monday, it was the shadow Defence Secretary rather than the shadow Chancellor who made the biggest splash with their speech. Alas it was for the wrong reason — Clive Lewis had his speech changed at last minute by Seumas Milne to remove a pledge that Labour ‘would not seek to change’ its support for
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It’s been a long day for John McDonnell. On top of making his conference speech, the Shadow Chancellor has spoken at fringe events and given several interviews. So, perhaps that’s why his appearance on Monday’s Newsnight didn’t go quite to plan. In the interview with Evan Davis, McDonnell failed to shine as he put forward
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In a crowded field, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s more controversial suggestions during his time as Labour leader has been putting forward the idea of a ‘power sharing deal’ with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. That plan was called a ‘repugnant surrender’ by war hero Simon Weston, while Michael Fallon said Corbyn posed a bigger threat
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As Labour MPs and members alike turn on one another at their annual conference, the Conservatives get on with their work. So, spare a thought for Matt Hancock who was attempting to do just this at today’s Radio Festival when he encountered and unusual — if eye-catching — obstacle. While giving a speech at the event,
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Well that didn’t last long. After Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as Labour leader on Saturday, Corbyn sceptic MPs appeared to put their differences to one side as they took to the airwaves to claim that Corbyn could be Prime Minister. At tonight’s Progress rally at conference, that facade was lifted. MPs including Liz Kendall and Ian Murray took to
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While the mood at Labour Conference is notably low this year, across town at Momentum’s ‘The World Transformed’ festival the crowd can be described as buzzing. Although Mr S’s taxi driver dropped him off while remarking that after the leadership result ‘the Monster Raving Loony party has as much chance of winning power as Labour’,
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Earlier this month, Derek Hatton told Mr S of his dismay after the former deputy leader of Liverpool Council’s application to attend this year’s Labour conference was denied. Although he had just wanted to attend in the capacity of a journalist, the former Militant member — who was expelled from Labour 29 years ago —
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In the EU referendum campaign, Alan Duncan penned a piece for the Telegraph entitled ‘why this lifelong Eurosceptic is now voting to stay in’. In this, the Conservative MP explained the heartfelt reasons he backed Remain. Alas, these were later placed in doubt when Vote Leave’s Matthew Elliott claimed that Duncan had met with him
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Although David Cameron’s political career took a nose dive after the EU referendum result, he has been doing his best to ensure that his old chums don’t too badly out of the situation. Take for example, Ed Llewellyn — Cameron’s former Chief of Staff. As well as being given a peerage in Cameron’s resignation honours,
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Well, that didn’t take long. George Osborne has had dinner with the FT and the write-up shows him as ambitious as ever. Having never held down a job outside of politics, the former Chancellor isn’t looking for one now. ‘I am not going anywhere,’ he said, ‘I want to see what happens next.’ It seems
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Earlier this year, Oxford’s Rhodes Must Fall co-founder Ntokozo Qwabe made the news after he revelled in making a waitress shed ‘white tears‘ at a restaurant in Cape Town. The incident occurred after his friend wrote a note to the waitress explaining they would only tip her when she ‘returned the land’. Since then, the Oxford
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It’s difficult being a Lefty. You come up with principled positions and stances and then people expect you to stand by them. So, spare a thought for Caroline Lucas. Although the Green Party has campaigned for a £10 per hour minimum wage, today the Green MP’s team placed a job advert looking for a press assistant for the
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A few years ago, the pollster Nate Silver wrote a best-selling book saying (in effect) that political pundits talk rot and that only data-armed policy analysts like him could be relied on to know what was going on. He’d based his reputation on the 2012 US election, whose results he predicted. YouGov predicted it too, but Silver has
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To describe John Bercow and his wife Sally’s marriage as colourful, could be seen to be an understatement. The Speaker’s wife has regularly made the news, just last year hitting the headlines after she temporarily left her husband to be with his cousin. So, Mr S was intrigued to learn that Bercow offered guests at the launch of
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Last summer as Corbyn-mania swept the country, the MP for Islington North’s appeal proved so far-reaching that even his ex-wife had high praise for him. Ahead of the election result, Professor Jane Chapman — who was married to the Labour leader between 1974 and 1979 — told the Daily Mail that her former husband had
