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
Utter the word ‘retirement’ in 4 Millbank at your peril. The bods at Sky News are waiting for the arrival of their new political editor, Faisal Islam, who is working out his notice period at Channel 4. Mr S hears that Adam Boulton, the outgoing political editor, is snapping at anyone in the office who
Osborne protégé Matt Hancock has climbed rapidly up the government ranks; leaving plenty of enemies in his wake. The ruthlessly ambitious Education and BIS minister is always in a hurry; but that does not look like it has done him much good for an actual race: ‘When Haverhill decided to host its first ever half
More trouble for Ukip this morning: it seems that yet another party official has some colourful views about ‘people of color’. David Challice, who is understood to work at Ukip HQ, once suggested that ‘cash-strapped Moslems’ should have multiple wives. In a bizarre newspaper advert placed in the Exeter Express and Echo in 2009, Challice said that he
Ukip have suspended a member and Merton council candidate who appeared in their party political broadest, Andre Lampitt, for a series of ‘repellent’ tweets. Here are those offensive tweets, which have now been deleted, in full: Nigel Farage has said he is ‘deeply shocked’ by the tweets and has pledged to root out ‘real extremism
Mr and Mrs Clegg attended the launch yesterday evening of Cityfathers, a group designed for fathers working in the Square Mile. With the kind of spontaneity that smacks of an organised PR stunt, they set about finishing each other’s sentences. The double act hit its stride when the deputy prime minister was taking questions from
Mr S was saddened to hear of the untimely death of Mark Shand, the Duchess of Cornwall’s brother. He was a kind and witty man: a natural bon viveur. Parties for his charity, Elephant Family, which campaigned to protect the habitats of the endangered Asian elephant, were always splendid affairs. Shand’s vivacity and generosity came
Russell Brand won’t let go of his row with the BBC. He popped up as the mystery guest at Letters Live (a spin off from the wonderful Twitter account @LettersOfNote, where assorted luvvies read great letters from the past). Inevitably, Brand screwed up his reading. He tried to rescue the situation by quipping: ‘Is this
If the French are flocking to Britain, it’s not just down to a 75 per cent tax hike on the super-rich. Multi-millionaire designer, Jean Paul Gaultier comes to the UK for a different reason. “The British have a lot of connection with the sexual, which is something that I appreciate. None of this ‘No sex-
Fun times for our country cousins over at Country Life: they have compiled a list, drawn up with the help of Jeremy Paxman and Jilly Cooper, of dos-and-don’ts to guide the modern gentleman. Mr S has chosen not to comment on their unprovoked attack on coloured trousers, or the usual jazz about pre-tied bowties and
Ukip is the Common Sense party that listens to ordinary people. So says Lizzy Vaid, who appears on the party’s European elections manifesto as someone thrilled that Nigel Farage’s party is ‘listening to what people want’. She should know: although Vaid looks like she’s an ordinary voter on the street, she is in fact Nigel
First it was a jellyfish that blighted the Prime Minister’s Easter break in Lanzarote. Now, according to Trip Advisor, fellow guests at the discreet Casa Tomaren might have had more than the PM’s swarming security detail and travelling aides to worry about. One happy punter writes: ‘We just spent a holiday at Casa Tomaren and I
Is Mr Steerpike alone in thinking that Jeremy Paxman can’t be bothered anymore? First there was his wet rag interview with the ‘Chrystal Methodist’ Paul Flowers, the former Co-op chairman. Now he’s turned his (still potent) guns on the BBC itself. In an interview with the Guardian, the well-remunerated Newsnight presenter has slammed Aunty’s ‘closed
Nigel Farage is feeling the heat after saying that the electricity bill for his 620 square foot office is over £3,000. According to Consumer Futures, the average household dual-fuel energy bill is £1,200 and that is for an average 1,042 square feet home, so one can see why he’s under pressure. Farage went on to
Former Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans stood on the steps of Preston Crown Court last week and said: ‘This isn’t a time for celebration or euphoria. Bill Roache just a few weeks ago from this very spot said there are no winners in these cases and that’s absolutely right. There are no winners. So no celebrations.’
Keith Vaz was in full oil slick mode on Friday night when he found himself as the only Labour MP at the Asian Business Awards in Waterloo. Surrounded by dozens of Tories, including Priti Patel, Alok Sharma and Shailesh Vara, Vaz laid it on thick, telling the audience ‘that was the best speech I’ve ever
For months now the Tories and Labour have each been trying to out-do the other by revealing embarrassing examples of spending. Labour has generated the odd story about pot plants, biscuits and tellies by using written parliamentary questions to get departments to spill the beans. Eric Pickles’s Department for Local Government has never played ball
There was only one topic of discussion at the launch of Nadine Dorries’s novel Four Streets last night – will Maria Miller survive? The conversation was particularly pointed because Ed Vaizey and Helen Grant — Miller’s now former colleagues at the Department of Culture Media and Sport — were both present. They at least tried
As the two leading British political weeklies, the Spectator and the New Statesman, have for many years enjoyed a relationship of jocular antagonism. This amiable sort of rivalry can been maintained as their differences are over relatively trivial matters such as how the country should be run and the world ordered. But now they have come head to head
Mr Steerpike longs for the day that he has a bar named after him, so he went to doff his cap to Gerald Scarfe at Scarfe’s Bar last night. Cartoonist Scarfe has spent the last four months decorating the bar at the Rosewood Hotel in Holborn. Politicos or royal junkies will love it: Farage, Brown,
Maria Miller is losing friends, fast. Furious briefing over the last 24 hours has seen a host of Tory MPs withdraw their support for the embattled Culture Secretary – and question the judgment of the Prime Minister. One ‘senior minister, speaking on condition of anonymity’, twisted the knife in the Telegraph: ‘In my view she has clearly behaved
