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

Monday

Steerpike

Even Italians are horrified by the NHS

Anyone who has the misfortune of stepping foot into a hospital recently will know how bad things are with the NHS, where the only good thing about the long waits is that they stave off the subsequent terrible treatment. Still, it is helpful sometimes to see how other countries view our health service – which has for years been described by politicians as the ‘envy of the world’. In that vein, Mr S was alerted by Spectator commentator Susucat to a revealing article which was published yesterday by the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, based in Milan. In the piece, the paper’s correspondent, Luigi Ippolito, explains his experience of dealing with the NHS over the last 12 months after suffering from diverticulitis, a condition which affects the large intestine.

Steerpike

Holyrood exodus: iPad scandal MSP’s worst moments

The Holyrood exodus continues as more SNP MSPs throw in the towel ahead of the 2026 election. While some of the party's Westminster politicians gear up to contest the next Scottish parliament election, a number of famous faces are stepping down – including one Michael Matheson, who announced on Sunday that he would not be standing for re-election. How very interesting. The SNP's former health secretary was forced out of his ministerial job after an unedifying few months, where he was accused of using a parliamentary device on holiday and, incredibly, attempting to make taxpayers pick up the tab. After serving in the Scottish Parliament for over a quarter of a decade, the £11,000 iPad scandal left a rather large black mark by Matheson's name.

Steerpike

The Royal College of GPs’ curious assisted dying U-turn

A curious decision by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP). The UK governing council of the group – which represents GPs across Great Britain and Northern Ireland – opted on Friday to change its long-standing policy on assisted dying. It has now shifted to a position of neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying, prompting Kim Leadbeater to hail the decision as 'welcome'. In a glossy graphic, she added that 'evidence from other countries where similar legislation has been passed' suggests 'more and more health professionals come to support it and participate in it'. But Mr S is a little confused as to why the College should choose now to perform such a striking volte face.

Steerpike

Shakespeare Trust: celebrating Bard ‘benefits white supremacy’

In a society obsessed with political correctness and progressiveness, nothing is sacred – not, it seems, even William Shakespeare. It transpires that the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which owns a number of buildings in the bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, is working on plans to ensure the writer's place of origin will be 'decolonised'. The move, as reported by the Telegraph, follows concerns that depicting Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights 'benefits the ideology of white European supremacy'. Er, right. In a bid to push a 'more inclusive museum experience', the Birthplace Trust has announced it will distance itself from Western views on the poet and decolonise its vast collection.

Steerpike

Did Prince Harry lie on his immigration files?

Once again, the spotlight is back on the monarch of Montecito. A US judge has now ruled that Prince Harry's visa documents must be made public by Tuesday – in a bid to find out whether the Duke of Sussex lied on his immigration files about drug use. In the end, truth will out… The release of the documents will help shed light on whether the Prince misled authorities over historic drug use. It is thought that the visa paperwork may include forms that would show whether the California-based monarch ticked 'no' when asked if he used illegal drugs – after both his own memoir, Spare, and his Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, revealed the renegade royal had dabbled with cannabis, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms. It's hardly the most noble of habits, eh?

Saturday

Steerpike

Did Blair persuade Carney to run for PM?

To Canada, where Mark Carney is settling into his first week in the top job. The former Bank of England governor won a landslide victory in Sunday’s election and has been quick to turn his attention to the growing animosity between his nation and its neighbour over Donald Trump’s tariffs. But what prompted the new Liberal party leader to go for the gig in the first place? The answer, it transpires, lies with one Tony Blair.  According to Monday’s episode of the News Agents podcast, it was the New Labour stalwart who inspired Carney to run – after a luxury dinner and jaunt around West London. Co-host Emily Maitlis insisted that Carney had been considering going for the leadership ‘for a long time’.

Steerpike

Reeves reignites freebies row over Sabrina Carpenter show

It’s shaping up to be a difficult year for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is struggling to get many within her own party – and Cabinet – onside with proposed spending cuts. But fear not, Reeves has managed to find some downtime amid the drama. It transpires that she nabbed free tickets to US singer Sabrina Carpenter’s recent London show, with the Busy Woman letting her hair down at the weekend. Alright for some! As revealed by the i paper, the Chancellor rocked up at the sold-out show last weekend with free tickets – after other attendees had paid up to £900 to attend the Espresso singer’s gig.

Friday

Steerpike

Treasury: employer tax hikes could reduce employment

It has not been Rachel Reeves's year. From accusations of CV embellishment to noisy backlash over the farmer's tax, the Chancellor has been fighting on all fronts as she battles her way towards the Spring spending review. And now, in yet another blow for Reeves, it transpires that her plans to increase the amount of tax paid by employers are predicted to lead to, er, a decrease in Britain's active workforce. Talk about lose-lose… The Treasury's James Murray admitted today, in response to a parliamentary question from Tory MP Wendy Morton, that the impact assessment of the effects of Labour's proposed employer national insurance contribution (NIC) hike hasn't yielded wholly positive results.

Steerpike

Lammy’s soft power council splurge

Is Keir Starmer a Tory? That's the question much of Westminster is asking after his recent talk of welfare cuts, planning reform and raiding the aid budget to pay for defence. But while the Labour leader seems happy to talk the talk, some of his ministers are less keen to walk the walk. For while the PM was trumpeting his plans yesterday to abolish NHS England, it should be noted that his government has created at least 27 new quangos since July 2024. Hardly a bonfire eh? Among those new vehicles created is the ironically-named Office of Value for Money: a body whose first act ought to have been recommending immediate self-immolation. Alas, it limps on, under the chairmanship of the man who saw the 2012 Olympics budget treble on his watch.

Steerpike

Sturgeon still under investigation as probe costs top £2m

Nicola Sturgeon may be leaving Holyrood next year, but the spectre of Operation Branchform isn't going away any time soon. It transpires that Scotland's former first minister is still under investigation by the police over the probe into the SNP's finances and funding – with the four-year investigation running up costs of over £2 million. And it hasn't wrapped up yet… The SNP's former Dear Leader and the party's ex-treasurer Colin Beattie remain under investigation after their arrests in 2023, as the National reports today.

Thursday

Steerpike

Watch: Reynolds grovels over solicitor claim

Well, well, well. After Guido Fawkes revealed that Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds had previously – and inaccurately – referred to himself as a solicitor, the Labour man has now been forced to rather publicly correct the record. While the Stalybridge and Hyde MP did receive solicitor training at Addleshaw Goddard for ten months, he left without qualifying to pursue a political career. Yet, similar to another of his colleagues, Reynolds was later found to have embellished his CV – even referring to himself as a 'solicitor' in a spoken contribution in the Commons. Not only has Reynolds never been registered on the Solicitors Regulation Authority's register, the job title is legally protected – and using it incorrectly puts one at odds with the Solicitors Act 1974.

Steerpike

Seven in ten Reform voters don’t recognise Rupert Lowe

It was only a few weeks ago that Reform UK was flying high in the polls. Now a fallout between the party leadership and MP Rupert Lowe has left their voters shaken – with Lowe currently suspended from the group over allegations of bullying made against his office and under investigation by the Metropolitan Police. But while Lowe’s social media supporters are outraged by his treatment, it doesn’t appear like much of the rest of the public know quite who he is… According to polling by JL Partners for GB News carried out between 10-11 March, when a ‘nationally representative’ sample of 2,065 Brits were shown a picture of Lowe and asked to identify him, a whopping 86 per cent of the public failed to do so.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Labour MP U-turns on benefit cuts letter

There's drama in Labourland today as one backbencher appears to have had second thoughts about her stance on benefits payments – after the Get Britain Working group's open letter went out with her name on it. The letter, which has called upon Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to introduce a 'new social contract' to get disability benefit claimants back to work, has ruffled feathers both with left-wing MPs and, er, one of its own signatories. Allison Gardner has taken to social media today to fume that her name 'shouldn't have been added' to the petition and assure her constituents she has requested its removal. Talk about a reverse ferret, eh? Slamming the note, Gardner raged: My name shouldn't have been added to that letter.

Steerpike

Parliament splashes £4 million on traffic marshals

If you, dear reader, have visited parliament in recent years, you might have had the misfortune to be confronted by one of the new-fangled orange traffic marshals popping up around the estate. Given the crumbling state of the Commons, Mr S is constantly querying whether this army of apparatchiks is really necessary – given that most cars crawl through the estate at around five miles per hour. But, alas, it seems that the bosses in the Palace of Westminster know best... Still, all that 'elf n safety shtick does come with a price. Steerpike has done some digging and it turns out that the price tag is quite considerable. An impressive £4.

Steerpike

Sturgeon to step down at Holyrood election

Farewell Nicola Sturgeon. The former first minister took to the professional platform that is Instagram today to announce that she will be stepping down as an MSP at the next election. After much speculation, the SNP's ex-Dear Leader has confirmed that she does not plan to stand for Holyrood in 2026 – after spending more than a quarter of a century in the Scottish Parliament. Talk about a long slog, eh? Writing on the social media platform today, Sturgeon told her faithful followers that: I have decided not to seek re-election to the Scottish parliament next year. As members of the SNP in Glasgow Southside, I wanted you to be the first to know. Reaching this decision has been far from easy.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Douglas Murray wins defamation case against Observer

Today brings the news that the flailing Guardian Media Group has had to pay out ‘substantial damages’ to The Spectator’s Douglas Murray – after the Observer was found to have defamed him. In a court statement, lawyers for the paper said it ‘apologises unreservedly’ for the ‘false’ allegations it made about Murray in a piece about last summer’s riots. Oh dear… Last August, the Sunday newspaper published an article by journalist Kenan Malik on the summer riots, titled: ‘The roots of this unrest lie in the warping of genuine working class grievances.’ In his piece, Malik alluded to an interview between Murray and the ex-deputy prime minister of Australia John Anderson – in which the pair discussed Israel, Islam and immigration.

Steerpike

Third of Reform voters want a new leader

Is Nigel Farage's position under threat? Most inside Reform don't seem to think so – but a new poll offers a warning shot to the Clacton MP. It transpires that a third of the party’s voters think Reform would be performing better if he stepped down and allowed another to take his place. Who might they have in mind? With the explosive events of the weekend threatening to derail the party, the YouGov survey could hardly land at a worse time… The civil war that has engulfed the right-wing party over the last week appears to have left its supporters feeling split too. The fallout between Farage and Rupert Lowe – whose relationship couldn't be described as rosy at the best of times – has not been particularly edifying.

Steerpike

New SNP chief shared violent anti-monarchy posts

To Scotland, where the beleaguered Nats have appointed their third chief executive in two years. Yet Carol Beattie wasn't able to celebrate for long after some of her rather unsavoury social media interactions aimed at the royal family were dredged up by her opponents. The most egregious example came after the Princess of Wales was praised for making a public appearance during her battle with cancer. At the time, Beattie reposted a tweet that made an apparent reference to the, um, guillotine, reading: 'F*** all the way off with your gold-plated serfdom! Time for the French solution to monarchy.' Charming!

Steerpike

Rupert Lowe’s team rally around him

It was Alastair Campbell who declared that ‘if a story stays front page news for more than ten days, the chances are it is a real issue.’ Well, we are now on day five of the great Reform fall out and it is still making waves. Nigel Farage spoke to ITV Anglia about Rupert Lowe last night, saying that ‘there is a behaviour problem here – outbursts, anger, that kind of thing’ with regards to ‘these allegations of a bullying culture going on in his offices.’ He added that ‘I could do without this, it’s a huge distraction for the party, for me.’ You suspect Lowe could do without it too… And, this morning, the Honourable Member for Great Yarmouth has hit back in his own inimitable way.

Monday

Steerpike

Michael Gove takes aim at Jolyon Maugham

To the Covid Inquiry, the longest-running farce outside of the West End. With costs for the great gravy train now expected to top £200 million, Fleet Street hacks are certainly getting their money's worth. There was the mammoth grilling of a brooding Boris Johnson in December 2023. The ritual humiliation of 'simple' Simon Case back in May. And the spectacular sniping of Matt Hancock too at which the former Health Secretary concluded almost everyone was to blame except, er, himself! So who would be the latest ex-politician to enter into the crosshairs of Baroness Hallett today? Step forward Michael Gove, up before the inquiry to face questions about his role in Covid contracts.