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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Ed Miliband appears to have found some safe ground for his party this week, attacking the Tories whenever he can over tax avoidance claims. If he plans to continue on this note, Mr S suggests that he picks his words with more care in the future. Speaking at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday about his plan to launch an
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Former First Minister Alex Salmond has backed Steerpike’s campaign to overturn the US haggis import ban, gleefully admitting it ‘looks like we might be getting somewhere.’ Welcoming last week’s developments, that saw Tory chairman Grant Shapps promise to make haggis a key part of the UK negotiations around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Salmond
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Mr S witnessed an awkward moment for Harriet Harman before the microphones were switched on for Friday night’s episode of Any Questions. During the off-air warm-up at BBC’s Broadcasting House, Labour’s deputy leader took umbrage with the fact that her water bottle had a pink lid, jumping to the conclusion that it was a dig about her
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Nigel Farage wrote in the Spectator of his struggle to complete Dry January, while Jean-Claude Juncker is reported to be partial to a glass of cognac to kick start the day. So it came as little surprise to Mr Steerpike that the leader of Ukip named the President of the European Commission as his preferred drinking partner. Asked
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With the Tories currently getting flak for holding a ball for the party’s super rich donors in the same week queries were raised about their tax habits, Ken Clarke appeared on the Sunday Politics to deny any suggestions of wrongdoing. He did, however, say that a ‘more defensible system’ should be put in place with a ‘donation cap’
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When Tom Hollander met Joan Collin on the set of The Clandestine Marriage the pair hit it off. In fact, they got on so well that Hollander attended the Dynasty star’s Christmas party alongside Conrad Black and William Hague, before receiving an invitation to stay with her in St Tropez. However, as Hollander writes in this week’s edition
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One of the more glamorous attendees of this week’s Tory Black and White ball was Nancy Dell’Olio. The former girlfriend of Sven Goran Eriksson attended the Conservative fundraiser as the guest of Ivan Massow, the London mayoral hopeful. When Mr S caught up with Dell’Olio after the ball, it seemed the presence of political leaders was starting
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The names for the Guardian‘s staff ballot are in, and judging by the shortlist the publication could be close to following in the footsteps of the Economist by appointing its first female editor. Of the four candidates on the list, three of the candidates are members of the fairer sex. The four names selected for the ballot are: Emily Bell, former director
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Conservative HQ might want to think a bit more carefully in the future when it comes to the guest list for their events. Mr S only makes the suggestion after they asked a businessman who is currently in jail in Dubai to attend an event happening this Saturday. A tweet from the Conservative’s Team 2015 account saw them
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Yesterday Harriet Harman claimed that Labour’s pink ‘Woman to Woman’ van is not patronising after a public backlash saw the feminine choice of colour ridiculed online. Now the deputy leader faces further backlash, after Karen Danczuk accused Harman of patronising her when they first met. The Labour councillor and wife of Simon Danczuk claims that Harman told her she was
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Haggis was on the menu at the Tories’ Black and White Ball on Monday, and now it’s on the political agenda too. In an otherwise dry speech on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership at the Institute of Directors this morning, Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps threw his weight behind Mr Steerpike’s campaign to have
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Speculation has been rife that John Bercow’s decision to let cameras into the commons for a BBC documentary will backfire on him. Reports have claimed that the Speaker of the Commons is to be depicted in a negative light in the series, Inside the Commons. Given this, Bercow has so far got off remarkably lightly in the first two episodes.
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Sebastian Faulks has just finished work on his latest book, Where My Heart Used to Beat. Rather than go on holiday now the deadline has been met, the Birdsong author is on the look out for a nine to five job. Writing in this week’s edition of The Spectator, Faulks says he is open to
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After Paul Cottingham passed away last year following a battle with cancer, Ed Miliband led the tributes for the long-term partner of Lord Cashman. Miliband, who described the pair as the ‘Posh and Becks of the Labour Party’, said that he felt deeply privileged to have known Cottingham, who was a human rights activist. Now Mr S can disclose that Cottingham left an estate
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While Samantha Cameron very rarely airs her political views in public, the same cannot be said for her sister. Emily Sheffield has taken to Twitter to vent about Labour’s new pink van for women. Sheffield, who is the deputy editor of Vogue, claims that the van looks like its selling tampons rather than policies. The pink Labour
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Millionaire hippy Dale Vince OBE has written Ed Miliband a cheque for a quarter of a million to counter the struggling Labour leader’s business credentials. Worth some £107 million, Vince, who founded Ecotricity, claims ‘there’s no way to my mind that the Labour Party is anti-business’. And that’s not the only daft thing he has
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First, Wolf Hall upset a number of members of the Catholic faith with its depiction of St Thomas More. The Bishop of Shrewsbury went so far as to claim that it inaccurately depicted More as a villain. Now, the show has managed to anger ardent gardeners too. In today’s letters page in The Telegraph, a
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The Green Party have finally admitted that their numbers are a bit squiffy. No, not their bonkers universal minimum income plans, rather their artificially inflated membership data. Mr S has been digging around these figures since the Green leader Natalie Bennett boasted their membership had hit 52,000, yet he was assured – on the record
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As part of David Cameron’s efforts not to appear as the leader of the party of the posh, the Prime Minister is rarely seen in black tie. Last night’s Black & White Ball was no exception, with guests told to dress in ‘winter cool’ for the lavish Grosvenor House bash. Mr S isn’t sure what ‘winter cool’ looks like but judging
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With the Tory’s Black & White Tie Ball to prepare for yesterday, it’s understandable that the brains at Conservative HQ may not have been 100 per cent focussed. This could explain why an error on the website appeared to reveal the party’s non-target seats for the election. Images of the varying candidates on the Conservative website showed in the