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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Another day, another City Hall scandal. Mr S can today reveal that Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan has splurged a whopping £2.1 million on a statues commission. So much for sensible public spending, eh? In a Freedom of Information response returned to Mr S, the Greater London Authority admitted that, so far, £2,138,888 had been
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It’s a busy day for the Labour lot, what with Rachel Reeves’s big growth speech this morning and Sir Keir Starmer’s PMQs at noon. But as viewers tuned in to watch the back-and-forth play out between the Prime Minister and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, there was one rather notable absence on the Labour benches. Energy
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To Scotland, where today the SNP government’s embattled Health Secretary Neil Gray is in the firing line. The Scottish Tories have tabled an amendment – which will be voted on today – calling for the ‘Limogate’ minister to step down after Gray admitted to inadvertently misleading parliament over using taxpayer-funded cars to transport him to
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Growth is the flavour of the month for Sir Keir Starmer’s government, with Rachel Reeves this morning delivering a big speech on Britain’s economic potential. As the Chancellor attempts to woo the public with a number of talking points in today’s address, all eyes remain on the rather controversial matter of Heathrow’s expansion – which,
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Oh Mandy. It’s now nine days since Donald Trump was elected – and our new man in Washington is still yet to get final sign-off. Peter Mandelson was named as the new UK Ambassador to the US last month in a move that did not go down well with all in Trumpworld. Mandelson has made
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They say that sunlight is the best of disinfectants. But MPs haven’t always be so keen on having their voting records online. Some take issue with how their votes are portrayed; others suggest disproportionate weight is given to divisions they do attend. Still, Mr S is always keen to see which Honourable Members are turning
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Another week and another U-turn on Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill. The 23-man committee scrutinising the legislation is supposed to be calling a diverse range of witnesses. Yet Leadbeater’s panel has repeatedly come in for criticism for only inviting those on her side of the argument. Last week it was the Royal College of Psychiatrists,
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There are just two days to go until Rachel Reeves’ big growth speech. The Chancellor is expected to turn her fire on Nimbys – Not In My Back Yard residents – and give Heathrow’s third runway the long-awaited green light. Naturally, a bigger airport is not something Reeves herself would support near her own constituency:
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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. Trump might be back in the White House but here in Whitehall, woke remains the prevailing orthodoxy. Officials have reportedly now approved a Royal Navy request to change the name of HMS Agincourt to avoid offending the French. Yes, that’s right: military triumph is now apparently
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It is sometimes claimed that Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones’ Diary series is based on Keir Starmer. One is an upright, priggish human rights lawyer: the other is a character played by Colin Firth. The book and then the film were set in the 1990s, when ‘Cool Britannia’ was at its peak and New
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To govern is to choose. So what have Labour’s ministers chosen to hung on their walls? Raiding the Government Art Collection for the pick of the portraits is one of the perks of being a minister, along with a red box, car and driver. Mr S has done some digging and via a Freedom of
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As the new Labour government continues to struggle with voters, support for Reform UK only seems to be growing. New survey results released today by pollsters Find Out Now sees Nigel Farage’s party top the charts – beating both its Tory and Labour rivals. Talk about moving into pole position, eh? The new data –
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The Church of England has received a rather lot of bad press, to put it mildly, after the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to resign over the handling of a child abuse scandal. Now, rather than let salvation take its course, the Bishop of Dover has decided to wade into the conversation with some rather
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As Donald Trump starts clamping down on diversity, equality and inclusion practices, it’s a shame that the same can’t be said on our side of the pond. In the same week that the new president ordered all of the US government’s DEI staff to go on paid leave ‘immediately’, Mr S has spotted a rather, er, odd
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This afternoon, the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in jail – for the murder of three young girls and the attempted murder of ten other people at a dance class last summer. The 18-year-old murderer also admitted to producing ricin and being in possession of terrorist material
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Well, well, well. The former footballer and pundit Gary Neville has been spotted on the streets of Davos during the 2025 conference of the World Economic Forum. The ex-BBC presenter is not known to keep quiet about his views, with the former sports star keen to highlight his Labour membership and speaking up on British
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Growth, growth, growth is back on Rachel Reeves’ agenda – having been conspicuously absent in her first Budget last October. Still, no matter, the Chancellor now insists she is storming ahead with pro-business plans. Speaking at Davos – where else? – Reeves heavily hinted this morning that she will next week back a third runway
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Sadiq Khan may have collected a knighthood – but he is still missing a czar. It is now three months since Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as the Mayor’s ‘Night Czar’ and a successor is yet to be found. Lamé role was to champion London’s nightlife – so it is a shame then
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Well, well, well. It seems that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is looking to row back on its non-dom rules after Britain suffered an exodus of millionaires after the introduction of the policy. Talk about a quick turnaround… Speaking at a fringe event in Davos with the editor of the Wall Street Journal, Rachel Reeves
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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has had a rather good few months, with a number of opinion polls showing the Clacton MP’s party topping the Tories – and, occasionally, even Labour – among Brits. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has rubbished the idea of a Reform merger – but it would appear her backbench colleague Suella Braverman
