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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Mark Carney’s charm offensive continues. I hear that the new governor of the Bank of England was laying it on thick last week when he bumped into Faisal Islam, Channel Four’s Economics Editor, after he gave his first public speech. ‘Don’t you have a book out?’ The Canadian smoothy asked Faisal, who offered to send
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Organising around the Living Wage may well be a policy development that is really linked to the lives of ordinary people, but it isn’t linked to the language of ordinary people.
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Tory MP John Whittingdale has found himself on the frontline of the row between Spain and the UK. Originally in Gibraltar to investigate gambling, the Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is staying to talk to residents and report back on the conflict. I hope he has a little more success at
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John Prescott took to Twitter today to congratulate all the pupils receiving their AS and A-level results today. His message to them? To all those waiting for #ALevels! Get one of these for your #ALevelsJumpForJoyPics #PrezzALevels pic.twitter.com/mTVuQjIG3P — John Prescott (@johnprescott) August 15, 2013 He certainly doesn’t look like your average A-level celebrator, as seen
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Poor old Ed Miliband, attempting a comeback and ending up with egg all over his face instead. Mr Steerpike isn’t a vicious chap and feels for the Labour leader, now cowering in a South London greasy spoon after being egged by a man who said he’d have voted for David Miliband and that Labour no
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Listeners to the Today programme were treated to some comedy this morning, when noted Ed Miliband fan-boy Sunny Hundal tried to claim that Labour’s summer of discontent is part of a grand plan. Hundal was supposed to be countering the view that Ed is not doing enough to get to Downing Street, but ended up
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Is this the end of business attire? The slow degradation of the standard issue suit has reached the Institute of Directors — the Pall Mall-based bastion of all things business. Its website says that members should ‘make the decision on what they would normally wear to do business, as long as it is not deemed
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There is a glaring omission from the shortlist of Ukip’s approved MEP candidates. Neil Hamilton, the self-proclaimed ‘writer, actor, broadcaster and entertainer’, has had his application rejected, despite speculation that he would top the bill. But this is not the end for Hamilton. Mr Steerpike made some enquiries and received this enigmatic reply: ‘Although he
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Former Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins, who has become a ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’-style rent-a-quote in middle age, was never going to applaud the appearance of names like Riley, Isla and Mia in the top ten popular baby names of last year. In high dudgeon, she interrupted elevenses to hit the airwaves: ‘These are the sort
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When the history books tell the story of peace in the Middle East, the name of Lord Stone of Blackheath, managing director of Marks & Spencer and a Labour peer, will be up there in lights. For he is a soothsayer with unique insights on the region. At least, that is the impression given by his ‘out of office’ email
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The Prime Minister’s love in with President Obama is blossoming. Not only has he recruited Barack’s campaign manager, but he’s also become one of those annoying acquaintances who jumps on your music taste and tries to make it their own. Hip Dave has declared that Bruce Springsteen, who was a key Obama fundraiser, is his
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Roll up, roll up, Cameron-bashers everywhere. Peter Cruddas is planning to blow some of the £180,000 he won in libel damages against the Sunday Times with a ‘Victory Party’ at his City offices on 17 September. Cruddas was falsely accused of charging donors for access to Number 10, and he’s somewhat piqued at having got
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Ed Miliband is rumoured to be on the verge of sacking shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg, who is simply no match for Michael Gove’s flair and intellect. I hear that Vernon Coaker, who was Children, Schools and Families Minister under Brown and Balls, is in line for promotion. Coaker is a former teacher and seasoned political pugilist, so he would
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Today’s award for Westminster nominative determinism goes to Labour’s duty spinner over the weekend. Sending out press releases for the red team was one Victoria Street. This name is not a group account reflecting the old location of Labour HQ – 83 Victoria Street – but, as a source confirms, is that of a junior staffer. It
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Steerpike particularly enjoyed this close-up.
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Forget the unedifying spectacle of today’s appointments to the House of Lords; a much more sought-after list is doing the rounds: that of the presents our political leaders sent wee Prince George and his proud parents. Mr Steerpike detects the hand of Mrs Clegg in the Deputy Prime Minister’s choice of a blanket handmade by
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Some years ago, soon after he ploughed £30 million into the Independent titles, Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev proclaimed: ‘I’m taught to be more Marcus Aurelius than Caracalla if you know your Roman history.’ He said even nicer things about his new employees: ‘If we’re lucky to find somebody like Mark Twain, who used to be
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Charming little spat between the Conservative Party and George Orwell’s old literary haunt, Tribune. The magazine, which is edited by a former Labour councillor, is up in arms because the Tories will only give it one free pass to their autumn conference. Given that the periodical has only three members of staff and is the chosen reading
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Any MP will tell you that the summer recess is not a holiday. Colleagues on all sides of the House spend the long break working very hard in their constituencies, they say. So here’s a way to take a break from those pesky voters. All MPs were recently emailed the following: ‘URGENT | HMG Election
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The House of Lords’ committee rooms are not ordinarily the setting for a ruckus; but there was rumpus in the Moses Room on Tuesday night, when the greybeards were musing over the Energy Bill. A witness tells me that Baroness Worthington of Cambridge, also known as the environmental campaigner Bryony Worthington, who was elevated from
