Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Wednesday

Steerpike

Margaret Beckett: I’m a ‘moron’ for nominating Jeremy Corbyn

Last night Tony Blair's former adviser John McTernan said MPs who offered their nominations to Jeremy Corbyn to 'broaden the debate' in the Labour leadership race were 'morons' after a poll predicted Corbyn will win. While the bulk of the MPs who helped Corbyn get onto the ballot have remained quiet since his comments, Margaret Beckett chose to come clean on Radio 4's World at One. When asked if she was a 'moron' for nominating Corbyn, the former Foreign Secretary replied: 'I am one of them'. Beckett -- who is supporting Andy Burnham in the race -- says she only nominated him as MPs were advised to widen the debate: 'At no point did I intend to vote for Jeremy myself - nice as he is - nor advise anyone else to do it.

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn wins a celebrity backer

Although the majority of the MPs who helped to get Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper have remained mysteriously silent since a poll predicted that he is on course to be the next Labour leader, Corbyn can at least count on support from one well-known name The Silk actress Maxine Peake has voiced her support for Corbyn. Writing on her website last week, Peake labelled Corbyn 'our only beacon of hope to get the Labour Party back on track': 'For me Jeremy Corbyn is our only beacon of hope to get the Labour Party back on track, get the electorate back in touch with politics and save this country from the constant mindless bullying of the vulnerable and poor. Aspirational? Surely we should all aspire that everyone living in this country has the right to a decent quality of life.

Steerpike

Wanted: Christian Lib Dem to aid party interaction

Tim Farron has come under fire this week over concerns that he is prejudiced against gay rights as a result of his evangelical Christian beliefs. His opponents have suggested that he cannot lead a liberal party if he thinks that being gay is a sin. However, those hoping that the new Lib Dem leader will tone down his Christian values need think again. The party is advertising for a director to head up the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum. The chosen candidate will be responsible for 'interacting at all levels with Liberal Democrat politicians and staff, LDCF members, other Christian and political organisations, and members of the public' as well as organising 'prayer meetings in Parliament'.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn reunites with his old ‘comrade’ Gerry Adams in Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn just can't help making friends wherever he goes. He previously described Hamas operatives as 'friends' and now he has found time out of his Labour leadership campaign to meet up with his old 'comrade' Gerry Adams in Portcullis House. The Sinn Féin president has tweeted a picture of their meet up, which Martin McGuinness also attended: https://twitter.com/GerryAdamsSF/status/623530633055313920 Of course the pair go way back. Corbyn, who supported ending British status for Northern Ireland, was heavily crtiticised after he invited Adams -- along with other Sinn Féin members -- to the House of Commons shortly after the Brighton bombing in 1984.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: David Miliband bids Britain farewell

Last week David Miliband flew all the way from America to Britain to celebrate his birthday. However, the former New Labour sweetheart made sure not to invite his brother Ed Miliband to the celebrations that just happened to be being held close to where his sibling resided. With the party over and his brotherly snub widely noted by the media, it's time for David to bid Britain farewell. A snapper has spied Miliband sitting comfortably on a plane out of the country. That seat doesn't look like economy to Mr S.

Steerpike

Revealed: The ‘Blairite’ crime policy that never was

With rumours flying around the Commons that if elected, Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn would appoint a Shadow Peace Secretary in the place of a Shadow Defence Secretary, Mr S is also looking forward to hearing Corbyn's plans to reform judicial punishment. However, Mr S is happy to place a bet on his approach not being as radical as a crime policy Tony Blair heaped praise on while in power. In today's Times, Blair's former chief speechwriter Philip Collins reveals what happened when he put forward a paper which suggested Blair take a less liberal approach when it came to dealing with crime: 'The Blair government was, to my mind, daftly authoritarian on crime and punishment so I submitted a paper in which I suggested we ignore all the namby-pamby liberal nonsense.

Monday

Steerpike

John Bercow enjoys (yet another) sports jolly

Last year John Bercow proudly boasted during an interview with Roger Federer on Radio 4 that he had watched 65 of the tennis ace's matches that year. An impressive feat perhaps, but also one that led taxpayers to ask how exactly the Speaker had found time to watch 65 Federer matches alongside his work duties. Michael Fabricant went on to accuse Bercow of behaving like royalty over the number of sports freebies he took. Not that the Speaker has let the criticism get to him. In fact, Bercow appears to be doing his very best to keep up his sports attendance record for the year 2015. The Speaker has so far racked up £2630.90 worth of sports jollies since the beginning of the year.

Steerpike

Is the Guardian about to endorse Jeremy Corbyn?

Despite frequent claims from both sides of the political spectrum that Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn is 'unelectable', he has so far managed to win the endorsement of Unite as well as the highest number of nominations from constituency Labour parties. Could he now be on his way to an endorsement from the Guardian? Steerpike only asks after the Labour leadership hopeful was the guest of honour at today's news conference at the paper. While it was Andy Burnham's turn last week to grace the newsroom, Mr S is assured that Corbyn was the more popular of the two guests. In fact, such fan-mania hasn't been witnessed since Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch paid the paper a visit: https://twitter.

Friday

Steerpike

Jeremy Vine finds his exit poll prediction is no laughing matter

Nick Robinson recently revealed Jeremy Vine's off-air reaction to the exit poll on election night. ‘So Scotland will go independent and the BBC will be shut down,' the Radio 2 presenter quipped on hearing the poll predict a Tory majority. While Vine's predictions are yet to come good in full, he did correctly foresee that the Tories would crack down on the BBC, with reports emerging yesterday that the government could decide to close Radio 1 or Radio 2. Despite John Whittingdale stating that there are no current plans to close the station down, Vine took to Twitter to voice his opposition: https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/621997521452277760 However, Vine may have to rejig that figure following today's radio show.

Steerpike

George Osborne crashes Number 10 for Treasury party

When George Osborne stepped in for David Cameron at PMQs, it was seen as the Chancellor's chance to show that he had what it takes to be Prime Minister. With that bit of housekeeping done, the Chancellor seemed to let his ambition to move into Number 10 go to his head last night. Osborne broke with tradition by hosting his summer party in the Number 10 garden, rather than the Treasury courtyard. However, as guests wandered through the Number 10 door to raise a glass to the Conservative leadership hopeful, there was one snag. Rather than the usual supply of delicate canapés, hungry hacks were invited to feast on an austerity-friendly spread of Doritos and pretzels. Osborne may be in, but he doesn't have access to the kitchen yet.

Thursday

Steerpike

First James Naughtie, now John Humphrys slips up over Jeremy Hunt

When James Naughtie steps down from the Today programme this autumn, his Jeremy Hunt gaffe will stand out as one of his more memorable moments. The Scottish presenter accidentally introduced him by the wrong surname in 2010: 'First up after the news, we're going to be talking to Jeremy C--t.' The health secretary continues to cause problems for the staff of Radio 4. This morning, Naughtie's colleague John Humphrys also got Hunt's name wrong. Reading the news bulletin at 7am, Humphrys said the 'health secretary James Hunt' is setting out plans for NHS consultants to work at weekends. While the slip wasn't an expletive this time around, given that the BBC are currently at war with the Tories, it's probably the wrong time for presenters to get Cabinet ministers' names wrong.

Steerpike

Labour’s new donor: #ToriesForCorbyn

Oh dear. According to a recent poll Jeremy Corbyn could win the Labour leadership. This news has brought joy to left-wing activists and Tories alike, though granted this is for two very different reasons. A lot of the swing towards Corbyn has been attributed to the #ToriesForCorbyn campaign, which has seen Conservatives sign up as supporters of the Labour party in an attempt to sabotage the party's leadership election. With more than two thirds of Labour's new recruits reportedly supporting Corbyn, the Telegraph have tried to boost the leader hopeful's chances even further by publishing a step-by-step guide on how to sign up and 'condemn Labour to years in the political wilderness'.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Andy Burnham: how Arthur Scargill inspires me

When Martin Freeman endorsed Labour ahead of the election, his credentials were called into question after Steerpike reported that Freeman was a former supporter of Arthur Scargill's far-left Socialist party. So Mr S was curious to hear Burnham last night reveal his own admiration for Scargill - who formed the Socialist party because he was so angry that Labour had ‘abandoned any pretence of being a socialist party'. As the Tories raised a glass to Lynton Crosby at the election strategist's bash in Kensington, the Labour leadership hopeful was across town setting out his brand of self-titled 'aspirational socialism' over at Soho House, the £1400 private members' club.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Mhairi Black: I’m the only 20-year-old George Osborne will help with housing

Last week the SNP MP Phil Boswell made a 'depravity' gaffe in his maiden speech. Happily, his colleague - and Parliament's youngest MP - Mhairi Black had more luck today when she gave her first speech in the House of Commons. The 20-year-old SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South began by praising her predecessor Douglas Alexander, Labour's election strategist. 'Firstly in my maiden speech I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Douglas Alexander, he served the constituency for many years.

Steerpike

Lord Adonis ‘stranded in Philippines’: send cash immediately

This morning's mailbox gave Mr S cause for alarm. A message popped up from Lord Adonis explaining that he had been mugged on holiday in the Philippines and was 'freaked out'. While Tony Blair's former adviser had managed to keep possession of his passport, he apparently needed cash fast: Just as Mr S was about to dig deep, he noticed something in the email that was uncharacteristic of the Labour politician - the real Lord Adonis would never use a capital P for 'point in time'. Happily, Lord Adonis assures Steerpike that none of his friends have fallen for the scammer's email. However, that doesn't mean the scammer isn't expecting a lump sum to land in his account shortly: Mr S suspects he will be waiting a long time.

Steerpike

Joan Bakewell suggests over-75s pay their own licence fee

Much has been made of the threat the Tories pose to the BBC after they said the corporation must take on the £750m cost of free TV licences for the elderly, which the government previously covered. As the BBC plan cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, in order to carry the financial burden, could the answer lie in the over-75s themselves? Joan Bakewell has written a lively editorial in the Radio Times criticising the 'sneaky' Conservative government for rolling out 'social policy disguised as a BBC contribution to austerity'. Her solution? That the over-75s dig deep: 'Plenty of people over 75 could afford to pay the licence fee and would be pleased to do so to save the BBC they love.

Steerpike

Revealed: the documentary the BBC doesn’t want you to see

Nate Silver has a lot to answer for. Yes, he called the US general election correctly - but he then led the fashionable view that opinion polling technology is now so advanced as to be able to predict what people are feeling to a high degree of accuracy. So confident was Silver in his computers that he thought he could, from the other side of an ocean, predict the UK general election with '90 per cent confidence.' The BBC lapped this up, and filmed a Panorama with the hubristic title "Who will win the election?". Richard Bacon joined Silver as he visited the UK 'to try and forecast the outcome of the most uncertain British election in decades'.

Monday

Steerpike

Jeremy Clarkson completes final lap of Top Gear test track

Earlier this year Mr S reported how Jeremy Clarkson got on stage at a glitzy charity auction and told the audience that the BBC were ‘f—ing b—–ds’. Happily, during the expletive-filled rant over his Top Gear suspension he also managed to raise £100,000 for the Roundhouse arts charity by offering attendees the chance to join him for his last lap around the Top Gear test track: ‘I’ll drive somebody around in whatever I can get hold of, I’m sacked so it’s probably a Nissan Maestro. But anyway it will be my last ever lap of the Top Gear test drive. There was an 18 year waiting list to be in the audience of Top Gear, but the BBC has f—ed themselves.

Steerpike

Has Andy Burnham’s wife kissed a Tory?

When Andy Burnham attended London Pride, the Labour leadership hopeful proudly sported a t-shirt which read 'never kissed a Tory'. While Mr S is yet to track down a Tory who found romance with Burnham, there are doubts that the same can be said for his wife, Marie-France van Heel. During Victoria Derbyshire's Labour leadership hustings this morning, Burnham revealed his wife's cross-party past: 'My wife and I have been together for 25 years but in the early days she was on Blind Date and she was the picker, and to add insult to injury she picked Will from Surrey, who ended up being the director of communications for the Conservative party.