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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As more and more people identify as ‘gender-fluid’, there is growing hostility in some quarters towards traditional gender stereotypes. In fact, for some the term ‘masculinity’ has become a dirty word. Grayson Perry — the cross-dressing Turner prize-winning artist — is one such person. Perry has recently spent his time creating a whole television programme for
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With the junior doctors’ strike now in full swing, it’s fair to say that these aren’t the most harmonious days staff at the Department of Health have ever seen. Perhaps that’s why they are looking for a new Director of Communications to take charge of the department’s ‘external and internal communication activities across a complex
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Given that the last time Dennis Skinner criticised a Tory Cabinet member in the Chamber he was ejected from the Commons, the Beast of Bolsover was on remarkably mild form today. Following Jeremy Hunt’s statement on the planned junior doctors strike, Skinner told the Health Secretary that he ought to ‘wipe that smirk off his face’: ‘When the
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In recent weeks, Labour’s Sadiq Khan has faced flak over his decision to share platforms with extremists. In a recent Evening Standard article, Khan was criticised for sharing a ‘platform with five Islamic extremists’ at an event organised by Friends of Al-Aqsa. At the 2004 conference titled ‘Palestine — the suffering still goes on’, both Khan
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As Sadiq Khan continues to lead the polls in the mayoral race, the Labour candidate has managed to brush off much criticism over his links to unsavoury characters by putting it down to ‘dog whistle’ politics. However, the MP for Tooting may have greater difficulty fending off the latest line of attack to come his way. Writing in
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There was something odd about Obama’s ‘back of the queue’ Brexit comment yesterday — and it wasn’t just that he felt he could dictate US trade policy for a time when he wouldn’t even be in power. The thing that struck Mr S was the phrasing of his message: ‘I think it’s fair to say that
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As Barack Obama urges the UK to stick with the EU on his final official trip to Britain, there has been a security clampdown ahead of his arrival. Large parts of London have become no-go zones for drones while the President is in town. Happily, Obama appears to be taking no chances himself either. Mr
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As Sadiq Khan continues to face flak over his links to unsavoury characters, even a night at home in front of the television could now prove problematic. In this week’s episode of the BBC’s American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson, John Travolta acts out a scene about a man who Khan would no doubt like
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Although Julian Fellowes recently promised to take a backseat in the EU debate after growing tired of celebrities telling people what to do, he is still able to grace us with his thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. In an interview with BA High Life, the Conservative peer — and Downton Abbey writer — discusses the current state
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Although Jeremy Corbyn’s aides refused to confirm whether he would give a tribute to the Queen on her 90th birthday, the Labour leader did manage to put his republican tendencies to one side today in order to mark the happy occasion. After wishing Her Majesty a happy birthday, he went on to give his football team
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It fell on Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, to defend George Osborne’s dodgy EU dossier on the BBC’s Daily Politics. As you might expect, he didn’t do a very good job of it. Could he explain why the Chancellor used his new, misleading metric of “GDP per household” instead of the proper (and lower) figure of household income? No,
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Popcorn at the ready! Today Vote Leave’s Dominic Cummings has been hauled before the Treasury committee to answer questions on ‘the economic and financial costs and benefits of UK’s EU membership’. To begin this, Cummings — who has been described by former colleagues as a Tory Che Guevara — was grilled by the committee’s chair
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Students have been getting a bad rep of late. Whether it’s safe space advocates proposing motions to ban free speech societies or equality officers tweeting ‘kill all white men’, the mood on campus has changed dramatically in the past five years. So, will this change with the election of a new National Union of Students president? It’s not
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This week Jeremy Corbyn has faced an MPs’ revolt over the Labour party’s decision to ban McDonald’s from having a stall at its party conference. A number of MPs have accused the Labour leader of snobbery, while Corbyn’s spokesman has had to admit that he does not know what the vegetarian Labour leader could even eat
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To Aqua Nueva on Regent Street where the Spanish bar was transformed into a Mediterranean getaway for one night only to celebrate the Ibiza Preservation Fund… or Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign, depending on who you spoke to. While guests including Bryan Adams and George Lamb gathered at the champagne-fuelled bash to show their support for
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In More Human, Steve Hilton describes the EU as ‘a stinking cesspit of corporate corruption gussied up in the garb of idealistic internationalism’. So given his strong words on the issue, in theory it would seem that David Cameron’s former director of strategy — who is also one of the Prime Minister’s closest friends — has
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After Vote Leave were awarded the official designation to campaign for Brexit in the EU referendum, there was much disappointment from Grassroots Out and Leave.EU. So much so that the campaigns’ main funder Arron Banks toyed with the idea of launching a judicial review. However, in the end the Brexit backer decided to be the
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Earlier this year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer used Treasury Questions to take a swipe at Paul Mason. Osborne described the former Channel 4 economics editor as a ‘revolutionary Marxist’. Mason responded by denying the claim in a blog post, even though he is a former member of the Trotskyist Workers’ Power group. Happily Mason
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During last night’s BBC mayoral debate, Zac Goldsmith was asked whether he had run a racist campaign against Sadiq Khan — following negative press surrounding the Labour candidate’s links to extremists. After Khan found himself under fire for sharing platforms with characters like Suliman Gani, as well as for his work for Louis Farrakhan — the man who claimed Hitler
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George Osborne’s claim that the Treasury thinks Brexit would make you £4,300 worse off has gone down like a cup of cold sick with the Leave camp. While many Brexiteers have hit back in less than polite terms, it’s Leave.EU who win the award for ‘most blunt response’. In light of the claims, Arron Bank’s
