Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Friday

November 1, 2024

Reform warns Starmer of ‘national crisis’ over immigration data

From our UK edition

One of the key issues at play in this year's July election was the matter of immigration. Sir Keir Starmer promised voters that his party would 'cut immigration' and yet this week alone more than 1,500 irregular migrants arrived on Britain's shores. Much like with everything else, Brits are losing faith in Sir Keir's government and frustration is growing over poor public comms, sleaze scandals and a failure to deliver fast on manifesto promises. And now it seems that Nigel Farage's MPs have had enough. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Reform's five MPs have called for the release of a selection of immigration data, accusing the government of information being 'withheld or deliberately concealed' from the public.

Steerpike

Has Labour given up on the City?

From our UK edition

It seems that the Budget isn't going down terribly well in the City. Ministers have been out on the airwaves, desperately insisting that Labour's borrowing plans are fiscally credible. Yet the markets don't appear convinced, with the cost of gilt yields spiralling. Given the need to reassure the international financiers, it looks sub-optimal then that the party's much-vaunted business group, Labour in the City, appears to have simply given up. Barely a hundred days into government, a number of pages seem to be missing from the group’s website, while its homepage looks rather bare – with the embedded Twitter widget completely disconnected from the group’s existing account feed.

Steerpike

Labour’s by-election nightmare

From our UK edition

Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party has not had the easiest time in government so far – and last night's local by-election result will have done nothing to raise spirits. Nigel Farage's Reform UK party snatched a council seat from the Labour lot, taking over a third of the vote in Wolverhampton's Bilston North ward. Starmer's army meanwhile suffered a staggering loss of support, taking only a quarter of the vote, down by over 46.1 points, and less than two percentage points ahead of the eco-activist Greens. Good heavens... The Starmtroopers haven't fared so well in the rest of the council by-elections that have taken place this week. In Rochdale, support for Labour plummeted by almost 12 points, with Sir Keir's candidate unable to oust the Independent contender.

Steerpike

Watch: Darren Jones admits Budget will hit working people

From our UK edition

Well, well, well. It's day three of the Budget and it appears that Rachel Reeves's fiscal statement has begun to rather quickly unravel. Appearing on Sky News this morning was Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In a rather awkward interview, Darren Jones faced a grilling from Sky's Wilfred Frost on just how much people in the UK will be hit by newly-announced budgetary measures and specifically on whether this Budget really does protect working people after all. It's quite the watch... WF: Yesterday the Chancellor said wage increases might be slightly less than they otherwise would have been. De facto that is clearly a hit on working people.

Thursday

October 31, 2024

Steerpike

China hawks hit back at Lammy rapprochement

From our UK edition

First, it was the Chagos Islands. Then it was David Lammy's visit. Now many in Westminster are asking: when it comes to China, where does this government draw the line? In recent weeks it has been reported that Labour is both dropping plans to classify Beijing's treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a 'genocide' and is pushing to reopen trade talks via the Jetco forum. So much for getting tough on Xi eh? Mr S hears word though that already a backlash is under way. The seven current and former parliamentarians who were sanctioned by China in March 2021 have fired off an angry reprimand to Lammy, in the wake of his visit to Beijing.

Steerpike

Treasury staff leave a mess after Budget tax hikes

From our UK edition

For most Brits, there was little to celebrate in Rachel Reeves's fiscal statement – but that didn't stop Treasury staff from toasting the Budget. Just hours after the Chancellor delivered her 80-minute speech to MPs on Wednesday, Treasury aides made the short hop across St James's Park to Westminster’s Two Chairmen pub. From 4 p.m. onwards, while gilt yields continued to rise and markets tried to make sense of Labour’s plans, Whitehall mandarins drank the afternoon away in a post-Budget bash. But not everyone was left feeling merry by the end of the night... Despite Reeves enthusiastically announcing that pubgoers can now enjoy a ‘penny off a pint’, Steerpike noted that a number of trollied Treasury staffers had the audacity to turn up with shop-bought tinnies in hand.

Steerpike

Businessman tears up over Labour’s Budget

From our UK edition

The first full day post-Budget has not been a happy one. While Labour's spinners are hard at work trying to convince the nation – and themselves – that Rachel Reeves's fiscal statement was a success, real people across the country are reeling from Wednesday's announcement. Mr S wrote yesterday about how leading figures in the hospitality industry were quick to express their outrage at Reeves's call to raise alcohol duty – but this isn't the only sector in shock at the Chancellor's proposals. Salon Employers Association founder Toby Dicker spoke on Sky News today about the impact Labour's Budget will have on his business.

Steerpike

Revealed: Reeves’s tax rises expose Labour’s misleading manifesto claims

From our UK edition

Casting his mind back to the election, Mr S recalls a heated debate about which party would raise taxes most. In the final televised debate before the national poll, Sir Keir Starmer was quick to accuse then-PM Rishi Sunak of ‘repeating a lie’ – that Labour were going to raise taxes by £2,000 per person. And, to be fair, he had a point: on Sunak’s own maths the Tories would have raised taxes by, er, £3,000 per person. Awkward... Mr S’s friends at The Spectator’s DataHub have crunched all the manifestos put out at the time to see just who really would be responsible for the greatest tax hikes – with some rather interesting results. After removing the Green eco-zealots (who planned to raise the tax burden off the scale of any graph), the Lib Dems were in the lead.

Steerpike

Sturgeon paid £25,000 for election night punditry

From our UK edition

The SNP's Dear Leader has not had the smoothest 18 months since her resignation last year – what with the police probe into SNP finances, the exodus of members from her party and the nationalists' staggering loss of support in the general election. But it's not all bad news for Nicola Sturgeon. It has now emerged that Scotland's former first minister was paid a whopping £25,000 for playing pundit back in July, after Sturgeon controversially appeared on Channel 4's election night special. Alright for some... The rather generous payment was logged by the SNP politician on the Scottish parliament's register of interests', which was published today.

Steerpike

Is Ofcom guilty of double standards over GB News fine?

From our UK edition

GB News has dealt with a number of Ofcom complaints in its time, but now things have become a little more serious. The media regulator has today announced that it plans to impose a whopping £100,000 fine on Gbeebies for 'breaking due impartiality rules' after it aired a pre-election interview with outgoing Tory leader and former prime minister Rishi Sunak. Crikey. The programme with which Ofcom took issue – titled People's Forum: The Prime Minister – was, according to the media watchdog, 'in breach of Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code' after Sunak was given 'a mostly uncontested platform' to big up the work of the government. The regulator explains that 'given the seriousness and repeated nature of this breach', a six-figure fine is necessary.

Steerpike

Reeves runs scared from GB News viewers

From our UK edition

Budget day has been and gone and this morning Rachel Reeves was expected on the media morning round to discuss the fallout from her fiscal statement. Only it appears that the Chancellor seems to think she has better things to do than speak to the usual selection of broadcasters about her tax-raising Budget the morning after. It transpires that, at the very last moment, Reeves pulled out of a scheduled interview with Times Radio this morning – before pulling the same stunt an hour later with GB News. So much for transparency... While the Chancellor isn't keen to reiterate her own Budget – a rather flimsy excuse, Mr S thinks – the GB News presenters were rather unimpressed, not least given Reeves chose to appear on other broadcasters like Sky News.

Wednesday

October 30, 2024

Steerpike

Watch: OBR denies review legitimises Labour’s £22bn claim

From our UK edition

Rachel Reeves's fiscal statement has been and gone but the fallout from today's Budget is still being assessed. One rather interesting element of the Chancellors' speech this afternoon concerns the Labour government's claim that the Conservatives left a £22bn blackhole in the economy after the party's 14 years in government. Despite shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt and outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak vehemently denying this is accurate, Reeves insisted to the House today that she will publish a 'line by line' analysis of her claim. On the topic of publications, the OBR has been no great ally to Starmer's army. It released a review of its own today on the contents of Reeves's budget – and reached some rather damning conclusions.

Steerpike

What’s the real reason behind the Tory leadership delay?

From our UK edition

At long last, the Conservative leadership race is about to come to an end. After four months of hustings, debates and backroom deals, voting ends tomorrow in the Tory membership round. Yet despite the ballot closing at 5 p.m. Thursday, the result will then not be announced until late Saturday morning. It has got some in the party asking: why the delay? As one MP put it to Mr S: It means we’re going to announce our new leader in an empty conference room on a weekend. No one’s going to be there! The official line is that a two day gap was required so votes can be counted on Friday with the result then announced on the Saturday. The argument goes that the process takes time given postal votes need to be opened, checked and then added to electronic voting.

Steerpike

Labour’s pint promise is small beer

From our UK edition

There were few silver linings in today's Budget announcement – but one measure the Labour lot are rather keen to harp on about is the cut to draught duty by 1.7 per cent. What exactly does this work out at? Er, a rather measly one penny off the cost of a pint. How very generous... While the announcement received one the most enthusiastic cheers in the chamber, it seems that industry experts are not quite as thrilled about the move. Rachel Reeves was rather fast to glaze over the fact that the Labour government will raise alcohol duty rates on products like spirits and wines in line with the retail price index from February next year.

Steerpike

Reeves snubs Thatcher Chancellor pic for ‘Red Ellen’

From our UK edition

To the subject of office decor, with Rachel Reeves now in the spotlight for matters other than her Budget. It now transpires that the Chancellor has made some rather controversial alterations to her workspace’s wall art — in replacing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor with a founder of the, er, British Communist party. Good heavens. The swapping out of Nigel Lawson’s portrait for one of Ellen Wilkinson was revealed after the Treasury published a picture of Reeves in her No. 11 study ahead of Budget day. While it had been reported that the Chancellor had removed Lord Lawson’s portrait over the summer, there had been no confirmation over what would be taking its place.

Tuesday

October 29, 2024

Steerpike

Have Labour’s budget leaks breached the ministerial code?

From our UK edition

Well, well, well. Budget announcements are meant to be made in the House of Commons chamber – yet despite all Sir Keir Starmer's talk of 'grown up politics', his Labour government has opted to trail a number of announcements in advance of Rachel Reeves's big speech. As Mr S wrote on Monday, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle made a furious intervention to scold the Chancellor over the leaks, raging that announcements should have been made 'in the first instance in this house and not to the world’s media'. That's them told... Now the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott, has used an urgent question to further bash the lefty lot over the matter.

Steerpike

Badenoch: My superpower would be reading minds

From our UK edition

The Tory leadership contest has entered its final week and both finalists are ramping up their media appearances in a last ditch attempt to pick up votes. While she initially opted not to spend too much time on the airwaves, Kemi Badenoch has in recent days accepted more interview invites as concerns about voter turnout grow. The leadership hopeful has now appeared on today's episode of BBC Newscast – in which she was quizzed on her temperament, 'principles-first' approach and, er, superpower. Priorities, priorities... 'If I could pick one single superhero power, it would be to read peoples' minds,' the straight-talking candidate admitted to the Beeb's Adam Fleming and Chris Mason, noting shrewdly: 'It would help a lot in politics.

Steerpike

Full list: Brits who don’t count as working people

From our UK edition

It's the great game obsessing all Westminster: who exactly constitutes a 'working person'? During the election, Labour regularly said that the tax burden on ‘working people’ was too high. In the manifesto, the party again pledged to protect ‘working people’ from paying more. Now, ahead of a tax-raising Budget, various groups are discovering that while they might think they get up every day and do something resembling hard work, they are, in fact, not actually a working person after all. On Monday morning, Starmer referenced the term 26 times in a speech before telling journalists: 'The working people of this country know exactly who they are.' Sounds like self-ID isn't dead yet eh?

Steerpike

Listen: Streeting accuses private schools of ‘pleading poverty’

From our UK edition

There are now less than 24 hours until Budget day, and this morning Wes Streeting was sent onto the airwaves ahead of the Chancellor's statement. The Health Secretary was in a fighting mood, however – particularly on the issue of VAT hikes on private schools. Quizzed by LBC's Nick Ferrari about the tax plan, Streeting was quick to take a pop at privately-funded institutions. Dismissing concerns about the move from independent educators – including those catering for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND schools) – the Health Secretary accused institutions of 'pleading poverty'. Crikey.

Steerpike

Sir Keir suffers worst approval rating plunge of any new PM

From our UK edition

While the Labour lot try and prepare the nation for Wednesday’s Budget announcement, the Prime Minister has had yet more bad news. According to one poll, Sir Keir Starmer has had the biggest drop in approval ratings after winning an election than, um, any new PM in modern times. Talk about a short honeymoon… Starmer saw a post-election high of +11 in July, according to More in Common, after his party’s landslide victory. But his positive reviews weren’t to last long — and since then, less than four months into the top job, the survey of 1,012 adults shows his rating has plummeted by 49 points to -38. In fact, Sir Keir’s individual rating has fallen so far that the PM sits below even Rishi Sunak — whose post-election score was -37, improving to -31 this month.