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
The row over the immigration status of Ed Miliband’s American guru Arnie Graf rumbles on (with a question at PMQs). Sprung with the story on TV yesterday, Labour’s Chris Leslie dismissed it as ‘mischief’ and then mumbled something incomprehensible about Lynton Crosby, the Tories’ Aussie guru. I’m told, however, that Crosby has a Tier 1 visa
Ed Balls had a tricky time at Treasury Questions today. But fortunately, it seems he had his colleague Chris Leslie watching his back. Or, more specifically, his backside. Mr Steerpike was intrigued to see that Leslie’s contribution during a particularly robust round of heckling was to pat the Shadow Chancellor on the bottom as he
‘[T]he old tax havens have no place in this new world. We now call on all countries to apply international standards,’ said Gordon Brown back in 2009 when he was prime minister. Mr Steerpike only mentions this because Brown’s philanthropist wife Sarah has made an odd choice of home for her charity. Sarah Brown is the
Jon Snow’s interview in the Standard today makes for perfect post-lunch reading: ‘Sex comes into every evaluation of a woman, there’s no doubt about it. It’s there. Once you’ve established a friendship or a working relationship with a woman, it’s parked. But it’s an interesting barrier. When you’ve gone through it and arrived at the
Restauranteur Richard Caring is leading the charge against Labour for their pledge to reintroduce the 50p tax rate. The billionaire owner of Caprice Holdings, which includes Le Caprice, The Ivy and Scott’s, said over the weekend: ‘I am deflated to see this negative political attack on those trying to support the fragile recovery in these tough
Mr S has long admired Essex Tory MP Douglas Carswell. Not only does the rebel with a cause bring a fascinating aspect to the political debate, it also turns that out the lawmaker fights lawbreakers: Just chased and caught a shop lifter in Clacton…, waiting for police — Douglas Carswell MP (@DouglasCarswell) January 24, 2014
More unwanted drama for the Lib Dems. Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock’s son has been filmed allegedly assaulting a photographer outside his father’s home, with Hampshire police saying that ‘a reporter received an injury to his nose’. The alleged assault by Hancock’s 37-year-old son comes just as the MP is suspended from the Lib Dems following
Robin Birley’s 5 Hertford Street, the eye-wateringly expensive club in Mayfair, has been given until March to sort out its kitchens or face serious consequences after receiving an abysmal one star rating for hygiene from the food inspectors of Westminster Council. This comes after the departure last summer, in apparently acrimonious circumstances, of the designer
Mr S was in the bath thinking ‘My word, isn’t nature wonderful?’ when he heard the pleasing sound of an email hitting his inbox. It contained the photograph above. The man in the picture is none other than Richard Royal, who is on the Conservatives’ candidates list for the 2015 general election. RR is what we euphemistically call a “political consultant”, and he is also a former
Roy Greenslade has set the hare running with his claim that Alexander Lebedev and his mini-mogul son Evgeny are looking to offload the Independent titles. The ‘viewspaper’ is understood to be haemorrhaging cash. ‘This is not new news,’ one insider tells me; although, as Greenslade reports, ‘the official line’ is that Independent Print (which makes
Bruce Springsteen spent years ignoring his self-proclaimed biggest fan Chris Christie, but relations thawed between the two beasts of New Jersey last year in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. The Republican governor and the staunchly Democratic legend ‘hugged it out’ backstage at a fundraising concert for storm relief, which Christie failed to remain cool about: ‘When we
Evan Harris, the former Lib Dem MP turned Hacked Off campaigner, told the Daily Politics that he was ‘quite happy’ to serve on party policy committees with panjandrum Lord Rennard. Harris was camped next to Bridget Harris, a former Special Advisor to Nick Clegg and one of the women at the centre of the scandal.
President Hollande’s private life continues to fascinate the whole world (other than the French press pack, obviously); but it is worth noting that the embattled president signalled a major shift in economic policy yesterday. France is a couple of years late to the austerity party; but it will experience €50 billion worth of cuts in
Francois Hollande, was framed by a set of panto-esque red curtains as he attempted to conduct a gigantic U-turn on fiscal policy while simultaneously fending off interest in the identity of the First Lady of France. The President wanted to sound and appear dignified; but it seemed to Mr S that his make-up had been
Russell Brand is in the naughty boy’s corner today after he jokingly told raucous members of the Cambridge Union last night to: ‘Shut up, you Harry Potter poofs.’ Naturally, there have been absurd calls for the millionaire revolutionary to apologise for cracking an inoffensive and tame quip Mr S is delighted to see that the
Some MPs really will do anything to get noticed. Today Alec Shelbrooke pitched up on the Daily Politics in a tiger onesie. Apparently it’s all for a good cause, but that didn’t seem to reassure fellow guest Charlotte Leslie all that much…
Last week the sugar police were on the beet beat. This week the ‘thinnist’ lobby is claiming that a 2007 report into obesity, which predicted that half the country would be obese by 2050, was ‘an underestimate’. The National Obesity Forum says that ‘it is entirely reasonable to conclude that the determinations of the 2007
There was a moment when it looked like French Closer had done President Hollande a favour. His poll ratings have been abysmal and the economy has tanked. What better distraction than a little ooh la la? Scandals such as these reveal the character of a nation and its politics. If a British minister had dispatched
Fancy owning a slice of media history? Or living in a notorious crime scene? Well now you can lay your press hat where you call home at ‘Fortress Wapping’, home of the UK branch of Rupert Murdoch’s empire ever since the antipodean mogul’s 1986 battle with the print unions. With News Co moving to the
Yesterday’s PMQs was a sombre affair, because of the untimely death of well-liked Labour MP Paul Goggins. The party leaders made a concerted effort to be a little more civil to one another. And backbenchers seemed subdued by the loss of one of their own. There were a few exceptions, though. Labour’s Chris Bryant took
