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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Why was Melanie Phillips ousted as the Monday columnist for the Daily Mail? The Guardian suggests that she was frustrated by the ban on writing about Israel, which is not a restriction placed exclusively on Mel. Meanwhile, the peaceniks over at the Indy claim that Mel’s incendiary appearance on Question Time in June made Paul Dacre hit the red
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Vince Cable is apparently the darling of his party. But not according to this highly scientific poll being conducted by the Campaign for Real Ale at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, where the Business Secretary is currently the least popular pick from the top dogs in the party for the best person to have
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More adventures in television from new Newsnight boss Ian Katz. Fresh from his truthful-if-embarrassing slating of Labour’s Rachel Reeves, I hear that Katz has upset another Labour big-wig, Alistair Darling. Apparently, Katz wants to shoot a Scottish referendum debate on a real bridge (presumably the 130-metre Union Bridge in Berwick) between Scotland and England. After the
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Looks like a spinner has got himself in trouble this morning. Nick Sutton from the BBC has just tweeted this briefing that probably wasn’t mean to go to the press this morning: Whoops… “five things to remember for every interview” – I don’t think this was meant to be sent to us… #ldconf pic.twitter.com/QBQcG9SmuQ —
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Jesse Norman MP, who used to lead the Prime Minister’s policy forum, is using his spare time to write for ConservativeHome. About twerking. For those of you who have missed this craze, the Oxford English Dictionary, in a shameless PR stunt, added the term to their latest edition: ‘To dance to popular music in a
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After spilling the communion wine down his cassock in an attempt to wade into the ongoing Wonga-row, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been rather quiet of late. Justin Welby faced acute embarrassment when he tried to throw the pay-day loan lenders out of the temple, only for it to be revealed that the Church of
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Toby Young has rattled some Labour cages by publicly mooting a bid for the Tory nomination for Hammersmith. ‘Z List Toryboy celebrity Toby Young wants to be an MP’ spins a Labour adviser Imran Ahmed. Then came the hammer blow: ‘Think he’s gotten House of Commons mixed up with Big Brother house.’ Oh, that one will
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Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey were leading the government’s representation at the launch party last night for Iain Martin’s book Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy. David Davis and Liam Fox were also leading the laughter at the Travellers Club as Martin explained that many tried
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The Tory whips come in for plenty of criticism when things are going wrong in the party. But you can’t accuse them of taking their fingers off the sartorial pulse. Mr Steerpike has seen an email sent out to all Conservative MPs explaining the meaning of that terrifying term ‘smart casual’: Following Keith Simpson’s recent
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Downing Street and the press are rarely a productive coupling, though it seems the PM’s spin team have, for once, inadvertently spawned something positive. Introducing his new book about journalistic cliché to the world at a star-studded occasion’ in ‘London’s glamorous West End’ this week, Bloomberg hack Rob Hutton told how No.10 had triggered him to
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Poor Ian Katz. Just days into his new job as editor of Newsnight and he’s already in hot water. Accidentally panning a guest behind their back is hardly the most dignified of starts. Mr Steerpike would love to know who this was really meant to be seen by rather than Katz’s thousands of followers: While
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The First Minister of Scotland is masterful at mixing anti-English rhetoric, rose-tinted recollections of Scottish history and no gloves politicking. When he does it right, it can be devastating. History is at the heart of his campaign for Scottish independence in the run up to the referendum, so I was surprised to see how quiet
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Barely a day goes by without Ukip’s gaffe-prone senior MEP Godfrey Bloom getting into a spot of bother. Fresh from arguing companies should be allowed to sack pregnant women, claiming ‘most women can find the mustard in the pantry quicker than a man and most men can reverse a car better than a woman,’ it
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The People’s Princess is back in the papers, thanks to the latest film about her life, and one minor royal couldn’t resist re-opening old wounds. According the New York Post, Lady Pamela Hicks, Prince Philip’s cousin, began gently: ‘[Diana] had enormous charisma, she was beautiful, [and] she was very good at empathy with the general
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The world of social media often goes through the looking glass, but today has been particularly bizarre. Housing minister Nick Boles has decided to join the fun and games on Twitter, announcing his arrival this afternoon. The problem is the popular parody account, General Boles. The General’s satirical pictures (such as the one above) and
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On this balmy summer’s evening, George Osborne has popped over to east London to get down with some of the tech kids at the Campus Party in The O2. Judging from the above picture, the chancellor is quite impressed at what Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, had to show him: Just don’t expect tax rates
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As Mr Steerpike reported late last night, the gloves were off between Russell Brand and Charles Moore at the GQ Man of the Year awards. But that was not the only fight to split the audience. After American comedian Seth MacFarlane’s disastrous turn at this year’s Oscars, you would have thought that award ceremony hosts
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The Foreign Secretary was left not knowing where to look at tonight’s GQ Man of the Year awards, when this parish’s very own Charles Moore declared war on the media luvvies. Invited to present the award for Writer of the Year, Hague looked noticeably relieved to hand over the gong for Moore’s epic biography of
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Thuggish footballer turned terrible actor Vinnie Jones has gone all man-down-the-pub over the state of the nation. Speaking from his LA home to the Radio Times, the US immigrant said: ‘There’s nothing to come back to here. To me, England is past its sell-by date. It’s not the country I grew up in. It’s a
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Marketing types are desperately jostling for a piece of the action at London Fashion Week, which starts at the end of the month. Take an irony-free press release trying to flog ice cream off the backs of catwalk models. This is not any old ice cream but ‘the world’s first protein ice cream’, inspiringly called ‘Wheyhey’.