Steerpike

Once Jess Phillips was the queen of Twitter, harrying and hounding the Tories at every chance. But these days it's a very different story. Having been handed government responsibility for safeguarding back in July, the Home Office minister swiftly parked a social media back lash after suggesting she got better NHS treatment for her Gaza vote. She then was accused of 'making excuses' for a masked mob in Birmingham. And today she has found herself the face of another Twitter/X storm after GB News reported that she has formally rejected repeated requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham. Phillips wrote that 'it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene'.

It's been an eventful year in British politics, with a snap general election and multiple leadership contests keeping political journalists across the country busy. And how have political party leaders fared? With the help of the Spectator's data hub, Mr S has examined which party leaders, both north and south of the border, have had the best (and worst) 2024. At the start of the year, hapless Humza Yousaf was forced to step down as First Minister after he rather abruptly ended his government's coalition agreement with Patrick Harvie's barmy army. The SNP establishment became rather concerned about the prospect of yet another leadership race – given just how unedifying the previous year's had been – and negative briefings about possible contenders began in earnest.

Farewell to 2024, the year in which no incumbent was safe. Whether it was the Democrats in the White House or the Tories in Downing Street, the tide of change carried all before it, from the LDP in Japan to the BDP in Botswana. But one man successfully bucked the trend: Sadiq Khan was re-elected for an historic third term as mayor of London. Who says democracy doesn’t work, eh? And now Khan has added reason to celebrate: he has been given a knighthood in the New Year Honours List. Yes, that’s right, Sir Sadiq has been handed a ‘K’ by King Charles for ‘Political and Public Service.’ One wonders what failure looks like. Other ex-MPs to be given a gong include Ranil Jayawardena, Marcus Jones and Nick Gibb. Former West Midlands mayor Andy Street gets one too.

It's certainly been an eventful year for Britain, what with the snap election, a change in government and yet another new Tory leader. But 2024's drama hasn't only been political. The UK media landscape has also faced a number of challenges this year – with our public service broadcaster very often making the news rather than, um, breaking it. This year, the Beeb has come under fire over dodgy presenters, the accuracy of its own verification service and what it does and does not choose to report.

Dear oh dear. The Labour lot have not fared well in opinion polling this year and More in Common’s New Year poll has certainly not bucked that trend. The new survey, which quizzed more than 2,400 people, reveals that half of Brits believe 2025 will be worse than 2024 – while less than a quarter think it will be better. It’s yet more bad news for Starmer’s army… The new polling suggests that nearly 20 per cent of people are concerned next year will be ‘much worse’ than the last 12 months – while a quarter believe 2025 will remain the same. Even a third of Labour voters are convinced things will get worse next year, while almost two-thirds of Reform and Tory voters feel the same. Crikey.

Not even the Christmas season can keep attention off Labour’s controversial policies for long. The furore around this year’s early prison releases is still haunting Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot – and those criminals let out early are doing nothing to reassure the public. As Steerpike revealed in October, Isaac Donkoh – a gang member and drill music artist also known as Young Dizz – was among those released under Labour’s new prisons policy. Yet despite the scheme being meant to exclude those convicted of serious violence from getting out ahead of time, Donkoh was still released despite the police chief on the case describing Donkoh’s crime – the kidnap and torture of a 16-year-old boy – as ‘extremely violent’.

Well, well, well. It now transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has spent thousands of pounds on media training for its ministers since winning the July election – yet, despite this, senior politicians have still managed to make a series of rather embarrassing gaffes. Hardly money well spent, eh? Starmer’s army spent almost £17,000 on broadcast coaching, according to answers to parliamentary questions, with frontbenchers from three government departments getting help for their first few months in power. As reported by the Telegraph, Ministers in the Treasury, the Foreign Office and the Scotland Office received £9,700, £1,848 and £5,416 respectively to aid their media appearances.

In some rather strange news this festive season, it transpires that the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) has banned John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from being studied at GCSE level in Wales. The news comes amid concerns about the use of racist language in the novel, with the move to come into force from next September. Good heavens… Critics, including Wales’ Children’s Commissioner Rocio Cifuentes, have slammed Steinbeck’s novel for being ‘psychologically and emotionally’ harmful to black children who have been reading it in schools. Cifuentes herself has insisted that the move is ‘not censorship’, adding: This is safeguarding the wellbeing of children who have told us how awful those discussions have made them feel in those classrooms.

It’s been a pretty good year for Nigel Farage. At the beginning of 2024, he was out of politics and fresh out of the jungle, having returned from I’m A Celeb… with no imminent plans of a comeback. Now, fast forward 12 months, he is an MP, party leader and beating Keir Starmer as a more popular choice of PM. Oh, and his bestie is back in the White House too. It might be a difficult act to top all that in 2025. Still, those eager beavers in Reform UK are nevertheless doing their damnedest to make life miserable for Kemi Badenoch and the Tories. Fresh from their Mayfair Xmas bash on Wednesday, staff have now pulled together a ‘live membership tracker’ to publicise their ever increasing number of card carrying activists.

Another day and another thumping defeat for Keir Starmer. This time, it's for one of three seats in the previously safe ward of Brockmoor and Pensnett in Dudley. Labour previously won here in July with almost 64 per cent of the vote. But, this morning, it transpires that they have now slumped to third in the West Midlands, winning just 28.9 per cent of ballots cast. The party's candidate, Karen Jordan, finished beneath both Reform's Richard Tasker and the Tories' Alex Dale, who won on 35.4 per cent. Talk about a three-way split. Such is the anger of the local Labour group at the loss of this seat that one of Karen Jordan's colleagues has now taken to social media to vent his displeasure.

When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. The Prime Minister is now facing ridicule today after making a rather, um, strange pronouncement at this afternoon's liaison committee. At Sir Keir's first appearance before the group, he faced questions everything from public services, foreign affairs and the economy. But one of his answers has gone down particularly badly with, er, just about everyone. Quizzed by one interrogator on whether there was anything he wished he had done differently in his first five months in the top job, our self-aware Prime Minister responded with an unequivocal 'no'. 'We had to do tough stuff,' he added, 'and we're going on with it.' Er, right.

Christmas may be just around the corner, but not everyone is in festive spirits quite yet. The mood has certainly soured among the WASPI women campaigning for government compensation over changes to the state pension age. On Tuesday, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced that no payouts would be forthcoming, with costs of up to £10.5 billion not deemed 'fair or appropriate' by the Labour lot. Now, Kendall is not only facing backlash from pension activists but from within her own party too. The now-Secretary of State has been on quite the journey over the issue, as Mr S revealed yesterday, blogging on her own website as recently as 2019 that she was a 'longstanding supporter of the WASPI campaign' and that 'this injustice can't go on'.