Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Monday

13 January 2025

Watch: Just Stop Oil protestors graffiti Darwin’s grave

Readers might have hoped Just Stop Oil would have left their bizarre stunts in 2024 – but sadly it wasn't to be. This morning two eco-activists decided it would be a good idea to graffiti Charles Darwin's grave at Westminster Abbey in protest at rising global temperatures. Er, right. Alyson Lee and Di Bligh sprayed '1.5 is dead' in bright orange paint across the memorial today. It's reference to last week's report that that 2024 was the first year that warming rose 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures – breaching a significant climate emergency threshold. Bligh – who is a former Reading council boss – insisted that: Darwin once said, ‘It is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives.

Steerpike

Nicola Sturgeon announces divorce

To Scotland, where there is trouble in nationalist paradise. Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has this morning announced that she will be divorcing her husband – and former chief executive of the Scottish National party – Peter Murrell. The shock news was published as a short statement on Sturgeon's Instagram story, with the SNP's Dear Leader writing: With a heavy heart I am confirming that Peter and I have decided to end our marriage. To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are. It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and alway will. We will be making no further comment. Good heavens.

Sunday

12 January 2025

Steerpike

When will Tulip Siddiq be sacked?

It’s rare that a world leader knows the name of a junior minister in the British government – let alone is calling for them to be sacked. Yet that is the feat achieved by Tulip Siddiq, No. 4 in Rachel Reeves’ Treasury team. The anti-corruption minister is now facing calls to resign from an unlikely source after the leader of Bangladesh condemned the use of properties gifted to her and her family by its former regime. Muhammad Yunus told the Sunday Times today that the London properties used by Siddiq should be investigated and returned if she is found to have benefited from ‘plain robbery’. Yunus has some authority here: he, after all, is the Nobel peace-prize winning economist who has led the interim government of Bangladesh since last year.

Steerpike

Press barred from grilling Starmer’s Chagos chum

There are just eight days to go until Donald Trump takes office. So the question much of Whitehall is asking is: will David Lammy’s Chagos deal get over the line in time? The agreement to hand the valuable cluster of islands to Mauritius has been attacked by China hawks in the U.S – including Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State. He has decried the deal as ‘a serious threat to our national security interests in the Indian Ocean.’ Given those risks, why is the Labour government so intent on pressing ahead? After all, handing over British territory isn’t cheap: the current bill stands at £9 billion for UK taxpayers. One reason why the Labour government might be keen on settling the issue is direction from the top.

Steerpike

How green is the government’s car service?

The government’s green credentials are in the firing line – and not for the first time. In office, Keir Starmer has sparked headlines with seemingly endless plane trips abroad. And now Mr S has done some digging to find out what ministerial cars are being used to ferry our leaders around. A Freedom of Information request on the Government Car Service reveals that the Department for Transport invoiced more than £1.3 million to government departments making use of ministerial motors over Labour’s first three months in power.

Saturday

11 January 2025

Steerpike

Ex-Labour MP arrested – days after attacking ‘unacceptable’ Elon

It was just six days ago that the Ivor Caplin, the former Labour MP for Hove, emerged from obscurity to offer his thoughts on Elon Musk. Tony Blair's former defence minister went on GB News last Sunday to offer his thoughts on the Tesla billionaire's tweets about Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips. Such posts, Caplin declared, were 'not acceptable' and 'it would be even more unacceptable if he was to become a serious and senior member' of the Trump administration. Fast forward less than a week and what has old Ivor been up to? It transpires that he was arrested today on suspicion of child sex offences after a sting by paedophile hunters. Footage of Caplin in handcuffs was live-streamed on Facebook and lasted 30 minutes, attracting more than 36,000 views and 3,000 comments.

Steerpike

Morrisons turns on Rachel Reeves

Poor old Rachel Reeves. Whether it's being besieged by the bond markets or savaged by the Sinosceptics, it has not been the best of weeks for our under-fire Chancellor. So what better way to cap it all off then a full-barrelled broadside by one of the UK's most beloved supermarkets? For food giant Morrisons tonight joined the chorus of criticism over Reeves' planned Budget changes to agricultural property relief, amid dire predictions that it will 'kill' Britian's family farms. The supermarket giant has tonight released a pithy 47-second video on Twitter/X, featuring Sophie Throup, the head of agriculture at Morrisons. She declared: We want to send a message of support today for the whole of the farming community.

Friday

10 January 2025

Steerpike

Scottish Labour admin slip-up sees party lines sent across Holyrood

Well, well, well. It's not been a great start to the year for Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party in Westminster and it seems the Scottish lot north of the border are having a tough time of it too. Leader Anas Sarwar has seen his popularity fall towards the end of 2024 while his SNP rival John Swinney experienced a slight bounce at the end of 2024. Meanwhile combined poll predictions suggest that while the reds are likely to make gains in the 2026 Holyrood election, they have their work cut out if they want to become the party of government. And now questions are being raised about just how well operations are going behind the scenes – after the party's policy team tonight sent a briefing of Scottish Labour's lines for next week to, er, all Holyrood's parliamentary staffers.

Steerpike

Reform faces councillor exodus as 12 set to quit over Farage

Uh oh. There's trouble in paradise this evening as it has emerged that 12 Reform UK councillors are set to quit over Nigel Farage's leadership. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that the mass exodus could begin as early as tonight, with the announcement that the group intend to resign en mass timed to take the shine off Nige's Surrey conference. The group of Derbyshire councillors have, reports note, alleged that Reform was being run in an 'autocratic manner' and blasted Farage of 'disloyalty' to long-term members. While the party's five MPs are staying put, the loss of these councillors will notably dent the party's local authority representation. The outgoing 12 currently hold two district council seats, nine town council seats and five parish council seats.

Steerpike

Does the UK have more mandarins than communist China?

Mr Steerpike was interested to read over the Christmas break that young people are currently flocking to join China’s civil service, attracted by the job stability it offers compared to the volatile private sector, and seeking to escape the country’s relatively high youth unemployment. According to the Reuters piece, the civil service is still seen by young people as an ‘iron rice bowl’, or job for life. Readers may be reminded of our own ‘Rolls-Royce’ civil service, where even the most incompetent bureaucrats are shuffled between departments rather than ever fired – the ‘iron hot desk’, perhaps.

Steerpike

China hawks could cause a fresh headache for Labour

It used to be said that parties were Eurosceptic in opposition but Europhile in government. The same might be true of China too. Under Keir Starmer's leadership, Labour initially adopted a Sinosceptic stance, calling out the Hong Kong crackdown and backing calls to formally recognise China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide. Yet in office, they have abandoned such postures and instead sent various ministers out to East to tout for trade and promises of friendship. How's that working out eh? The latest to go cap in hand is Rachel Reeves, in her never-ending quest for growth. But at home, China hawks are not prepared to make life easy for her colleagues. For the House of Lords is currently debating Labour's flagship bill on Great British Energy.

Thursday

9 January 2025

Steerpike

Mick Lynch’s top five lowlights

Well, well, well. Mick Lynch, RMT’s infamous general secretary, has today announced he will be stepping down from the top job after four years in post. In a statement, the trade unionist remarked: It has been a privilege to serve this union for over 30 years in all capacities, but now it is time for change… RMT will always need a new generation of workers to take up the fight for its members and for a fairer society for all, and I am immensely proud to have been part of that struggle. Lynch has led RMT members through a number of pay battles in recent years and found himself at the centre of a rather lot of controversy along the way.

Steerpike

Andy Burnham demands grooming gangs inquiry

Following the defeat of the Tory amendment in parliament last night, No. 10 might have hoped that calls for a public inquiry into grooming gangs are now dying down. But the impetus for such a move has been given fresh life today by another helpful intervention from that well-known Starmer ally, Andy Burnham. Yes, that's right – the Mayor of Greater Manchester has decided that today of all days is the perfect time to add his voice to the chorus of demands.

Steerpike

BBC presenter loses job after releasing anti-Starmer song

Back to the Beeb, which continues to get better at being the focus of news headlines rather than, er, producing them. Now a freelance weekend newsreader is on the warpath, with the ex-BBC presenter claiming he was let go from the public service broadcaster after it emerged he made an anti-Keir Starmer charity Christmas single. Good heavens… Chris Middleton worked at BBC Radio Newcastle for six years before producing the 'Freezing This Christmas' hit. The tongue-in-cheek tune intended to make a serious point about the winter fuel payment cuts introduced by Starmer's army, with the rather creative lyrics including: And she told me that she doesn’t get out of bed till midday, Because she didn’t want to turn the heating on.

Steerpike

Watch: Scottish Tory leader mocks FM over Musk comments

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been the talk of London town this week and north of the border things are no different. The first First Minister's Questions of the year has just concluded in Holyrood and, surprise surprise, the tech titan got a pretty prominent mention. In a speech on Monday, First Minister John Swinney rather bizarrely suggested that if the SNP government's budget failed to pass next month it would play into the hands of 'Elon Musk and other populists'. Er, right. Keen to clarify exactly why Swinney decided to throw that rather odd warning around, new Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay was quick on the attack today.

Steerpike

Watch: Steve Reed heckled by farmers

Who was the least popular man in Oxford this morning? Environment Secretary Steve Reed was certainly up there. The Labour man travelled through to the City of Dreaming Spires today to deliver a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, with the Environment Secretary keen to discuss matters like how farmers can 'diversify' their incomes and how Labour will help 'tear down the barriers to trade' with the EU. But the farmers in attendance had other ideas… Anger over Rachel Reeves' inheritance tax hike on farmland has certainly not dissipated and farming delegates were more than happy to remind the Labour MP of this fact.

Steerpike

SNP government could boycott Twitter, FM warns

Elon Musk has kept the British media busy in recent days, after persistently posting criticism of UK politicians over the grooming gangs scandal – and even calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be incarcerated. But actions have consequences and the billionaire businessman may soon be about to see what happens when he's deemed to have gone too far. In fact the Twitter CEO may be about to feel the wrath of the Scottish National party which, reports claim, is considering leaving the social media site for greener pastures. However will Musk cope? Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has admitted that he is still on Twitter at the moment because he wants to 'use all channels to communicate with the public'.

Wednesday

8 January 2025

Steerpike

Theresa May’s Brexit negotiator handed top Foreign Office job

A number of new Whitehall appointments have been made since the election, but there have been a couple of returning figures too. Sir Oliver Robbins is from the latter camp, with Theresa May's former Brexit negotiator set to make a political return after accepting a top civil service job at the Foreign Office. He just can't stay away… As first reported by the Guardian, Robbins is the preferred choice of current Foreign Secretary David Lammy with the civil servant to replace the current permanent under-secretary at the FDCO, Sir Philip Barton. Barton announced he would be stepping down last November after a rather turbulent time in the post – and certainly not helped by the criticism he earned himself over his handling of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2022.

Steerpike

Tory attack ad gives Labour taste of its own medicine

What goes around, comes around. In producing their latest attack ad, it seems Kemi Badenoch's Conservative crowd has taken inspiration from their very own political opponents. Back in 2023, Sir Keir Starmer's lefty lot conjured up a campaign poster in the run-up to that year's local elections which showed then-Tory PM Rishi Sunak grinning cheerfully next to the words: 'Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn't.' Ouch. The image prompted widespread outrage, with former Tory MP Tobias Ellwood calling the attack 'appalling' while former Labour home secretary David Blunkett slammed it as 'deeply offensive'.

Steerpike

Mandelson won’t represent UK at Trump inauguration

It's the big question all Westminster is asking right now. Who has got a golden ticket to Donald Trump's inauguration? The quadrennial bash is happening in just twelve days' time, with the great and the good all fighting to get a seat. Nigel Farage will be there, keen to show he's still besties with '47' after his falling out with Musk. But while the Reform leader missed out on bagging the plum post of becoming 'our man in Washington', at least he gets a seat when Trump gets sworn in. For Mr S has confirmed that Lord Mandelson will not be representing the UK at the ceremony, with the role instead performed by outgoing ambassador Karen Pierce. Now, Pierce is a well-respected member of the DC diplomatic corps.