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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It’s been a busy first few days in the new job for Jane Ellison, who took over as Public Health Minister this week. She’s been dealing with big bottoms – those belonging to builders and hanging over trousers, no less. A cheeky press release from the Department of Health – which features a man with
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It was one of those parties where it was more interesting to see who wasn’t there, than who was. Last night, Damian McBride raised a glass at the Intercontinental in Westminster to his book Power Trip, which its publisher says is now on the third print run. After it dominated the Labour conference, it was no
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No, not Tony Blair in a big tent in the desert, but our man Taki in the Big Apple. In tomorrow’s Spectator, Taki writes, with characteristic tact, on the Middle East. Mr Steerpike particularly liked this snippet: ‘My friend Saif Gaddafi… was ‘detained’ while fleeing [Libya] and is held by some nice guys south of
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In his Times notebook today, Matthew Parris fires off a warning: don’t mess with me when I’m sober. On The World Tonight last Wednesday, he reveals, he had not had his customary evening drink, and was therefore sharper than usual towards the BBC panel. Drink mellows him, you see. Sobriety has the opposite effect. Which
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Take note of the date Tuesday 8 October 2013, for it was on this day a politician actually made a funny joke. Giving a speech at the fortieth birthday party for London’s talk radio station, Boris Johnson described LBC as the ‘the teaming womb of broadcast radio’, quoted Plato and labelled the Office of Deputy Prime Minister
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Where better to celebrate the launch of a book about Britain’s age of austerity than in the gritty surroundings of 5 Hertford Street, quipped Standard Editor Sarah Sands last night as she threw a party for the launch of Matthew d’Ancona’s In it Together. Luckily the Chancellor had already worked the room and ducked out
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Mr Steerpike was sitting in the auditorium at New Broadcasting House, waiting for Tony Hall to unveil his plans for the BBC. Lord Hall was expected to announce further cuts to the corporation’s vast bureaucracy, as part of an efficiency drive necessitated by the decision to freeze the licence fee until 2017. Mr S was, therefore,
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It’s been a mixed day for two of the pushiest MPs of the 2010 intake. Widely tipped for great things (usually by himself), Tory Matt Hancock has climbed another step of the ladder by becoming a minister of state. The former Osborne apparatchik has been appointed Minister for Enterprise, which may reflect his enterprising spirit.
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Historian turned Tory MP Chris Skidmore will be hoping for something good in today’s reshuffle, especially after he was bigged up by Michael Gove from the stage at the Tory Conference last week as an old friend and one to watch on the backbenches. Praising his former adviser’s brain, the Education Secretary added ‘and most importantly of
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Observe (above) one Mehdi Hasan in full flow on last night’s Question Time. Then look at the tweets below from the Mail’s Tim Shipman. Try not to cackle; it’s rude. Mehdi Hasan, who so vociferously attacked the Daily Mail on Question Time, asked for a job in 2010 & praised the paper equally floridly —
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Godfrey Bloom has finally rescheduled his postponed book launch. The Ukip MEP, who resigned after his unguarded comments at the party’s recent conference, was due to launch his book A Guinea a Minute in London, but the event was cancelled when the media scrum engulfed the Ukip conference. Well, the invitations have gone out again. They state
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Just as the Miliband/Mail row was dying down, along comes the next tranche of fury — and more justified this time. Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig has gone into full damage-control mode (suspending two journalists and issuing a grovelling apology) after Ed Miliband complained that a MoS reporter had infiltrated a family memorial service
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The conference is over but the mystery continues: are the Tories trying to help hardworking people or hard-working people? This, I assure you, has been the talk of the town, which is covered in slogans about ‘hardworking people’. Mr Steerpike was unsure; so, having left his trusty copy of Chambers in London, he asked the education secretary, who
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The Tory leadership tried to stop ministers, MPs and staff from drinking champagne at the conference. The Spectator party broke all the rules, obviously.
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No corner of Manchester is safe from the Tories’ attempt to plaster their conference slogan anywhere and everywhere.
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The Mayor of London has been upstaged this year as the rebel darling of the delegates. Noting his new rival for attention – Nigel Farage – Boris charmed conference goers by regaining a tale about Mrs Farage: ‘I was so flattered and amused that I almost said yes – and then I thought, no, no!’ Uncharacteristic
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Normally party conference exhibitions are made up of stalls from special interest groups on high-speed rail, trade unions, campaigns for responsible drinking or real ale, and some confusing stands advertising big companies with a large TV in the middle. But every year at the Conservative party conference, delegates enjoy a shopping spree, as well as
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Our world has been rocked by revelations that Bridget Jones — described as ‘the world’s most famous literary singleton‘ — is now a widow. Her ex-husband Mark Darcy has left her with two children and a life lived through social media. Bridget is now obsessed with a toyboy called Roxter, a 29-year-old she met on
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Viewers of Saturday’s edition of Final Score on BBC 1 would have seen former Liverpool and England striker Robbie Fowler apologising (doubtless after a prompt from the voice in his ear-piece) for using the expression ‘like a couple of girls’. He was referring to Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Torres’s silly tussle during the 1-1 draw between Tottenham Hotspur
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There can only be one winner when you play the Game of Thrones. Any fan will tell you that. The victor, though, always comes as surprise: witness below Tory backwoodsman Alec Shelbrooke resplendent on the Iron Throne. The bombastic MP for Elmet, who is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern