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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Sore heads over at the Guardian this morning after yet another leaving party for Alan Rusbridger. In what Mr S makes to be Rusbridger’s third leaving do, politicians and celebrities gathered at the Battlebridge Room of Kings Place to raise a glass to the departed editor. Ed Miliband chatted away to Benedict Cumberbatch over a bottle
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Jemima Goldsmith’s love life has been well documented by the red tops in recent years, with her former loves including Imran Khan and Russell Brand. So Mr S was pleased to hear that – in the name of research – she has been adopting a new approach and experimenting with the dating app Tinder. Goldsmith took
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Jacob Rees-Mogg told the House on Thursday that his favourite activity is making speeches on Europe and ‘if the House isn’t sitting, I do it at home’. That’s not the only place he opines on the subject. Mr S was enjoying some supper at the Savile Club on Wednesday evening, with his comrades from ‘Conservatives for
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Members of the House of Commons were reprimanded in the media for splashing out £11,000 in just one week in Parliament’s subsidised bars. Still, credit where credit is due, at least the politicians paid for their drinks. This is more than can be said for some members of the House of Lords. Despite the restaurants and
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The Ukip civil war may be over for now but that doesn’t mean its casualties aren’t still reeling in the aftermath. Nigel Farage’s former aide Raheem Kassam has carried out a ‘tell-all’ interview with the Guardian, after he was forced to step down last month. Speaking about his time working for Ukip, Kassam offers some parting shots
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When Alan Rusbridger stepped down as the editor of the Guardian last month, there were emotional scenes at Guardian HQ as he handed his crown to his successor Katharine Viner. In fact so emotional, that some bright spark thought the storyline was perfect for a film: The video – which Mr S titles ‘Alan Rusbridger
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With the Labour party under increasing scrutiny for taking donations from the trade unions, they may have to start to rely more heavily on private donors. So it’s good news that Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory deputy chairman, is willing to help the party out financially. Ashcroft says that if Labour wish to sell the now
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The Prime Minister was on boisterous from at PMQs today, welcoming the Labour Party’s new found support for an EU referendum in the division lobbies last night. Cameron described it as ‘the biggest mass conversion since that Chinese general baptised his troops with a hosepipe’. The green benches were left baffled to what on earth
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Steerpike has long been a champion of the fight to get America to lift the ban on Scottish haggis being imported into their country. So Mr S was cheered to hear that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing her bit to fly the flag for the national dish on her trip to America. The New York Post reports that Sturgeon’s team made
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Earlier this month Patrick Wintour wrote an in-depth profile of Ed Miliband’s failed election campaign for the Guardian. In it, he went through the different things which had gone wrong for the Labour Party in the lead up to the election. He began the piece by focussing on Miliband’s speech in September at the Labour Conference where
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After Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the Ukip party following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. The move led to a Ukip civil war which saw Patrick O’Flynn rebel against the party leader, leading to both of Farage’s senior aides standing down. Now one of his advisors has had their resignation rejected
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When Ivan Massow appeared on LBC last month, the London mayoral hopeful had a car crash interview. He was outed on air for advertising for a campaign assistant for his mayoral bid at a rate of £6.50 per hour, below the London living wage, despite preaching about how expensive it is to live in London. What’s more, the
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David Cameron’s recently departed speechwriter Clare Foges earned the affectionate nickname ‘the Prime Minister’s Larynx’ for her work assisting Cameron with his public speaking, so her Times column today will make for some interesting reading for her former colleagues in No. 10. Despite the Tories winning a majority in the election, Foges, who used to work
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Sorry was not the hardest word in Gloucester last night after Sir Elton John lost it live on stage with a lowly crowd steward, yelling: ‘You f–king stewards, who do you think you are? This is my f–king concert, who are you? …. especially you with the f–king blonde ponytail, you’re a f–king c— …
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Mr S isn’t sure who would win in a fight between Angela Merkel and Barack Obama. However, judging by this photo of the duo together at the G7 summit we may soon get to find out. A lively game of charades? A reenactment of the Sound of Music? Or, have relations between America and Germany
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Sol Campbell has thrown his hat into the ring to represent the Conservative Party in the 2016 London mayoral election. The official announcement comes after the former England footballer voiced his interest in the position earlier this year when he was rumoured to be lined up as a parliamentary candidate for Kensington. This means the Tories now have
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Given that Zac Goldsmith once likened the possibility of himself running for City Hall to ‘a suicide mission‘, it comes as little surprise that not everyone in the Tory camp is ecstatic about the Richmond Park MP’s rumoured London mayoral bid. Mr S understands that there are concerns that after Labour increased its control of the
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‘Perhaps the most superb work in the language’ said Thomas de Quincey of Shakespeare’s rarely-performed The Two Noble Kinsmen. It’s a shame then that the ‘Instant Classics’ theatre company, who are putting the work on at the White Bear Theatre in South London this summer, do not have the same grasp of the English tongue. In a
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Just in case you missed the memo, the reason Ed Miliband lost the election has now been revealed. Labour supporter and founder of the Twitter account @cooledmiliband, Richard Biggs, appeared on the Daily Politics to discuss the future of the Milifandom now their beloved leader has returned to the backbenches. Revealing his disgust at the result of the
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Since the 56 SNP MPs entered Parliament, they have taken to ‘rebelling’ against the establishment in a number of ways. So far they have focussed their time on trying to nab Dennis Skinner’s seat, going against Commons’ etiquette by clapping in the chamber, and purchasing white roses for the Queen’s Speech. Now they also appear to have had enough of corridors. Stewart McDonald, the SNP
