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

Ed Balls is dodging the airwaves

Ed Balls has gone to ground after his BBC interview surfaced from January undermining Labour's big policy announcement on non-doms. So far his disappointing deputies Chris Leslie and Shabana Mahmood have been deployed to clean up his mess on the airwaves. With a limited degree of success. Mr S can reveal that this is no accident. According to telly sources, the shadow chancellor is currently refusing media bids from Sky News, Channel 4 News and Newsnight. Surely he won't be able to hide behind Leslie and Mahmood all day?

Steerpike

Labour ignore the yellow peril

Labour have not had much luck in this campaign when it comes to buses. Leaving aside the brouhaha over the sexist 'pink van', the travelling Miliband entourage and press pack were lucky not to get towed in Warwick today. The official Labour campaign bus spent the entirety of Ed Miliband's speech on a double yellow.

Steerpike

Labour’s non-dom millionaire donor stays silent over Ed’s proposals

Today Ed Miliband has announced with all guns blazing that the Labour party will abolish non-dom status if they are elected in May. The party has labelled the current non-dom tax rules as 'ridiculous'. However, according to an interview Ed Balls gave earlier this year, cutting it would 'cost Britain money'. Even if this is the case Labour doesn't appear too rattled, seeing this as a moral point rather than just a financial one. Still, Mr S couldn't help but recall the £5.1 million Labour accepted from the non-dom donor Lakshmi Mittal. The steel tycoon multi-millionaire is a British citizen with non-dom status as his company ArcelorMittal is largely based in Luxembourg.

Steerpike

Ed Balls on tape admitting his non-dom policy will ‘cost Britain money’

Oh dear - it looks like Labour’s new non-dom policy is unravelling already. Everyone knows that Ed Balls did not abolish non-dom status while in government because he knew that people would scarper. So it would lead to less revenue, less money from the rich – and, ergo, a greater share of the burden to be paid by the poor. So it sounds progressive, but is actually regressive. Balls now denies ever holding such a belief.

Steerpike

Is Ed Balls running scared from debating George Osborne?

When Ed Balls appeared alongside George Osborne on the Andrew Marr Show earlier this year, the Shadow Chancellor told viewers how much he wanted to have a TV debate with the Chancellor. Balls was so keen that he made Osborne shake on a debate live on air. ‘In fact I'd like to go further,’ he cried. ‘George and I do not need the broadcasters to sort things out. George is not a coward.’ Indeed Osborne is not a coward, but could it be that Balls is a chicken? Mr S only asks as word reaches him that plans for a Chancellors' debate this week have been shelved after Balls demanded the involvement of Ukip. Broadcasters had initially agreed on a three-way debate, which would include Osborne, Balls and the Liberal Democrats' Danny Alexander.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Salman Rushdie sets the record straight on the classics

Salman Rushdie became embroiled in a literary row over the weekend after he rated a number of books on the website Goodreads thinking these would be private when in fact the information was viewable to the public. The Satanic Verses author's list soon began to circulate online with many viewers aghast to read his mediocre three star rating of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird alongside the singular star given to Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim. Other critically acclaimed books that ranked low include Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart and Max Beerbohm's Zuleika Dobson. F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby did at least manage to make the grade with a full five star rating.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Puppy love for Yvette Cooper and Will Straw

Could this photo beat Nick Clegg’s hedgehog photo call to be the strangest animal election campaign snap? Here Yvette Cooper and Labour’s candidate for Rossendale and Darwen Will Straw are posing on a pavement with a slightly flattened-looking dog under their hands. Handily, in the background, a girl carries a spare dog past, just in case the first one does manage to escape. Thx to @YvetteCooperMP for joining us in Whitworth to talk about risks of Tory police cuts & meet our local mascot pic.twitter.

Steerpike

Journalists jeered for asking Tony Blair questions at Labour press conference

Labour have continued their bizarre war on the media with aplomb. As Mr S has reported in the past, pesky journalists that have the audacity to ask awkward questions are given the full hairdryer treatment from the audience at Labour’s set piece events. Today’s speech by Tony Blair was no different: This Tony Blair event very nostalgic. A member of the audience even called me "Tory scum" for asking a question. — James Landale (@BBCJLandale) April 7, 2015 Modern trait of crowd booing journalists who ask the most relevant questions. Expect more of it to come. #Blair — Chris Gibson (@ChrisGibsonNews) April 7, 2015 All stirred up by the party’s chief press-slayer Tom Watson: Tony Blair speech on Europe.

Steerpike

Revealed: Desperate Clegg takes £50,000 in last-minute donations in fight to keep his seat

According to a recent Ashcroft poll, Nick Clegg is on course to lose his seat in the general election. If he is ousted from Sheffield Hallam, the Deputy Prime Minister will follow in the footsteps of the Liberal leaders Archibald Sinclair and Herbert Samuel, who both lost their seats while leading the party. Clegg is of course keen to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. So keen in fact, that Steerpike can now reveal the desperate lengths the Liberal Democrats leader has gone to in his fight to keep Labour from taking his seat. According to the latest register of interests, Clegg has taken a total of £50,000 in donations since mid-March.

Saturday

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Election fatigue sets in

With just five weeks to go till polling day, one happy voter in Bedford has had enough. Mr S suspects that it's for the best if Patrick Hall, the Labour candidate for Bedford and Kempston, doesn't pay a personal visit to this address.

Thursday

Steerpike

Max Hastings reveals the contents of a Prince Charles letter about homeopathy

Last month the Supreme Court ruled that Prince Charles's 'black spider memos' to government ministers should be made public. The decision comes following a ten year legal battle between Buckingham Palace and the Guardian, after Clarence House argued that the contents of the letters were private. With the release now impending, Max Hastings has offered a taste of what could be to come in this week's issue of the Spectator.

Steerpike

Revealed: The reason behind Alex Salmond’s pink champagne order

After Alex Salmond was outed as ordering pink champagne in not one but two interviews last week, naysayers were quick to ridicule the former Scottish First Minister for his lavish choice of tipple. However, Mr S has it on the highest authority that Salmond was guzzling in the name of the people. The rosé tipple, Mr S is told, is not Salmond's regular order. Instead, he was simply raising a toast to his football team Heart of Midlothian.

Steerpike

Nigel Farage causes problems for Alison Jackson ahead of leaders’ debate

Tonight's leaders' debate will see the seven party leaders battle to be heard on ITV. The set up has given organisers a headache as they work out how to arrange it without the debate descending into chaos. For Alison Jackson who is going to shoot a lookalike version in its aftermath, she has another issue to contend with. The English artist, who is known for her lookalike photographs of celebrities, is in the process of assembling a team of political doppelgangers. While David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been located, there are still a few more to be found, including Nicola Sturgeon. However, the man causing her the biggest problem is Nigel Farage. 'I am still looking for a Farage.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Camilla Rutherford backs Ed Miliband’s 007 campaign

Yesterday Ed Miliband declared that it was high time the James Bond films moved with the times and cast a woman as the next 007. Although the comments were met with outrage from some of the more traditional Bond fans, the Labour leader can take heart that Camilla Rutherford has picked up his rallying cry. Speaking at Spectator Life's third birthday party, the Gosford Park actress urged the producers to cast a female lead. 'It's definitely time we had a Jane Bond instead of a James Bond. I think a woman would be great in the role. The only thing is that with a man it can be quite a suave move to go from drinking a martini at the bar to being in a car chase whereas Jane Bond would probably need time to get out of her dress first.

Steerpike

Jim Murphy’s popularity surges (in England)

There's not much love for Labour in Scotland at the moment, with Mr S reporting this week that Jim Murphy has failed to mention his own party on campaign leaflets. As the SNP come out on top in the polls and the reds hope for a 'late swing' to Labour north of the border, the Scottish Labour leader can take comfort that he is at least popular down south. Word reaches Mr S that at a London fundraiser last week for the Scottish Labour Party, a jog with fitness freak Jim was auctioned off for well over £1,000. Meanwhile a bottle of House of Commons whisky signed by Ed Miliband failed to reach £100 in bids, barely covering the cost of the grog. And they say Scots don’t make healthy lifestyle choices.

Steerpike

Spectator Life celebrates its third birthday

Mr S was a guest at Spectator Life's birthday party at Belgraves. To mark the magazine's third anniversary, party-goers including Princess Michael of Kent, Pippa Middleton, Rachel Johnson and Mick Hucknall joined editor Olivia Cole to raise a glass in celebration. [caption id="attachment_9058232" align="alignnone" width="510"] Mick Hucknall and Olivia Cole[/caption] Gosford Park actress Camilla Rutherford stuck to water at the event, revealing to Steerpike that she is expecting her fourth child. Meanwhile over at the bar, Daily Politics's Jo Coburn reminisced about meeting her fellow guest Hucknall during her university days – something which the Simply Red singer struggled to remember.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Lord Ashcroft jets off into the sunset

So farewell then Lord Ashcroft: well, not quite. The former Tory Party treasurer has announced today that he has resigned his life peerage, yet will be able to keep his title for life, under changes to the rules passed in 2013. Having fallen out with Cameron in 2010, the billionaire one-time Tory backer and in-house pollster is said to have been severely put out that there was no job forthcoming after having kept the party afloat for the wilderness years. Since then, he has rebranded himself as an independent pollster, though there is still some bad blood with No 10.

Steerpike

Ed Balls gives speech in graveyard about Labour’s help for small business

This morning Ed Balls gave a speech promising to help small firms succeed if Labour get into power. However, with Balls keen to inspire voters Mr S is curious as to why he chose to such an uninspiring location. Sky's Sophy Ridge reports that the speech took place in a graveyard: Ed Balls is giving a speech on Labour's help for small business. In a graveyard. #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/OuvRWst7qr — Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) March 31, 2015 Could it mean that the party are taking business gravely seriously or is simply an omen as to what may happen to British business under Labour's rule? Either way the party seem to be making a habit of choosing curious locations for their speeches of late.

Steerpike

Order is restored to Pall Mall club scene

Last week Mr S reported on the poshest squatters ever: dozens of angry militant lefties had taken over a building on Pall Mall to protest against a multitude of right on issues. However, the dopey hippies got the wrong building. They thought they were 'occupying' the Institute of Directors but it wasn't the case as the lease on the building was handed back by the IoD last summer. Sadly, Steerpike can now report that Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians (ANAL) have been evicted by six police vans and dogs. There were a few minor scuffles, but all over in time for lunch. 'No sign of water cannon, alas, so they're still unwashed,' guffaws a pinstriped onlooker at the scene.

Steerpike

Revealed: How Labour’s election broadcast star supported Arthur Scargill’s Socialist party

Tonight Martin Freeman will take on a starring role in the latest Labour election broadcast. In the short film, the Sherlock actor says that for him 'there's only once choice' and that's Labour. Alas for Labour, that hasn't always strictly been the case. Mr S recalls the 2001 general election during which Freeman voted not for Labour, but instead for Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour party. At the time, Scargill's party pledged to leave the EU, create a four-day working week, abolish the monarchy and axe the House of Lords if they took power.