Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Tuesday

Steerpike

Gamblers are putting their money on a Trump triumph

It’s polling day across the pond and Steerpike is keen to have a flutter. Opinion polling in the US election suggests the safe money is on Kamala Harris, but his fellow gamblers seem to be telling a different story. Data analysed by Mr S’s friends in the Speccies’ data dungeon shows money is pouring in behind The Donald. Trump has a nearly two thirds chance of returning to the White House in January, according to an analysis of implied probabilities. Do the punters know something the pundits don’t?

Monday

Steerpike

Scots revealed to be biggest Trump fans in western Europe

In a rather surprising development, it transpires that Scottish people are Donald Trump's biggest fans in Europe. A Norstat poll for the Times has revealed that support for the US presidential candidate is higher north of the border than in the rest of the UK – and indeed western Europe. Who'd have thought it, eh? According to the survey, a quarter of Scottish adults back the former president for the win this week – while, of the rest of the country, just 16 per cent would throw their weight behind the ex-businessman. Italy is closest behind the Scots in terms of Trump hype, with 24 per cent of Italians hoping the Republican candidate sees victory.

Steerpike

Labour’s tuition fee U-turn

Dear oh dear. It now transpires that Starmer's army will increase university fees in line with inflation from September next year, as announced by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in the Commons today. It's the first hike to tuition fees in eight years after university payments have remained frozen at £9,250 a year since 2017 – and accompanies growing concern about the financial state of the country's higher education institutions. The move, which Phillipson says is the 'first step' to reform of the sector, comes after Russell Group universities complained that the tuition fee cap means that they make a £4,000 loss per UK student – and will be accompanied by a slight increase in maintenance loans to help students with living costs.

Steerpike

Guardian removes Israeli whisky reference

Well, well, well. It seems that the Guardian, the self-proclaimed bastion of 'clarity and imagination', has been acting rather censoriously of late. It transpires that, in a column navigating the world's great whiskies by wine critic Henry Jeffreys, a reference to an Israeli single malt whisky was first removed from the print copy – before subsequently being deleted from the online version. How very curious. Taking to Twitter to point out the baffling omission, Jeffreys posted a screenshot showing which clearly showed his reference to Israel's M&H beverage. 'Even so, world whisky isn't going away any time soon,' the wine critic had written. 'The best offer something unique: Israel's M&H, for example, ages its whisky in old pomegranate wine casks in the heat of the Dead Sea.

Steerpike

Watch: Home Secretary flounders over small boats

Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot are desperate to get the press and public talking about anything but the Budget this week – and so the issue of Channel crossings is where the Prime Minister is focusing his attention today. Yvette Cooper was quizzed on the airwaves this morning ahead of the PM's speech to Interpol's general assembly in Glasgow over Labour's small boat plans – but the Home Secretary seemed a little uncomfortable on the specifics... Grilled on BBC Breakfast, Cooper was asked when Labour expects to see a drop in the number of migrants crossing the Channel. 'We obviously want to make progress as far and as fast as possible,' the Home Secretary started, adding: 'We know of course it does take time to get the investigators in place.

Steerpike

Southport suspect: A timeline of what was said and when 

Three months after the Southport attack in July, suspect Axel Rudakubana has been charged with two new fresh offences. With his trial set to go ahead in January, there has been much comment in Westminster as to when the authorities were first informed. To try and make sense of the case, Steerpike has laid out a timeline of events – from the day of the horrific attack up until the latest charges were announced. Monday 29 July: Around noon, reports emerged that a knifeman had entered a Southport dance class and attacked the children present. Tragically three young girls are killed, with others injured before Merseyside Police detain the attacker.

Steerpike

Michael Caine turns on Labour’s taxes

Taxes, thousands of ‘em! In her bid to alienate the bulk of the British electorate, it seems that Rachel Reeves can add another to her enemies’ list: film legend Sir Michael Caine. The Zulu star – a true working-class talent made good – used an interview this weekend to send a warning about the Budget changes unveiled on Wednesday. Caine, 91, famously left Britain in the late 1970s because of punitively high taxes under Jim Callaghan’s Labour government that peaked at 92 per cent. And he now warns about the same thing potentially happening again. Caine raised the spectre of multi-billion-pound tax rises being seen as a ‘punishment for success’, telling the Sunday Times: Rich people can move their money about, and they do, especially nowadays.

Sunday

Steerpike

What will Robert Jenrick do next?

Poor old Robert Jenrick. He has spent eleven gruelling months touring associations, existing on a diet of Ozempic and rubber-chicken, only to lose to Kemi Badenoch by a double-digit margin on Saturday. Badenoch may yet offer Jenrick a role in her shadow cabinet. But if she doesn't – or if Jenrick politely declines any such offer – the question then becomes what will he do next? Prior to entering politics, one career that Jenrick did try his hand at was journalism. Mr S has done some digging and it turns out that the Newark MP actually has something of a flair for words. A history student of St John's College, Cambridge, Jenrick served as News Editor for the famous student newspaper Varsity. Past contributors include the likes of Charles III, Stephen Hawking and, er, Andy Burnham.

Steerpike

Will Dawn Butler lose the whip?

With his super-majority in the Commons, Keir Starmer isn't afraid of losing the odd MP or two. Back in July he was was willing to remove the whip off seven of his colleagues after they had the effrontery to dare vote against lifting the two-child benefit cap. So the case of Dawn Butler – the gaffe-machine otherwise known as the Honourable Member for Brent East – offers a useful test case for how seriously Sir Keir takes matters of discipline. Butler yesterday shared a social media post accusing Kemi Badenoch of representing 'white supremacy in blackface' and suggesting her election amounted to a 'victory for racism'. It also called the new opposition leader 'the most prominent member of white supremacy’s collaborator class'.

Saturday

Steerpike

Labour’s embarrassing Badenoch blunder

So Kemi Badenoch is the new leader of the opposition. How best should Labour respond? One person who has shown the perfect example of what not to do is Dawn Butler, the gaffe machine otherwise known as the Honourable Member for Brent East. Shortly before the result was announced she shared a post on Twitter/X accusing Kemi Badenoch of representing ‘white supremacy in blackface’ and suggesting it amounted to a ‘victory for racism.’ Work that one out. The post has subsequently been removed from Butler’s profile. So much for a new Dawn eh? Next up, it was the turn of Zarah Sultana - Coventry’s answer to Citizen Smith. The teenage Trotskyite declared that ‘her election marks a shift to the far-right.

Steerpike

Revealed: Tory membership falls by almost a quarter in two years

Will the last person to leave the Tory party please turn out the lights? After an exodus of Conservative MPs from their jobs before the election (75 of them decided to quit rather than contest) we found out at today’s leadership announcement, courtesy of Bob Blackman, chair of the 1922 Committee, that members have bolted from the party too. The Tories don’t like to release their official membership numbers, but Blackman, just before announcing the results, said that the ‘total number of eligible electors’ (really meaning members) was 131,680. Now, if Mr Steerpike’s memory serves him correctly, in the 2022 run-off between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, there were allegedly 172,437 ‘eligible electors’.

Steerpike

Truss blasts ‘dishonest’ Sunak on his last day

Happy Tory leadership results day! Much like teenagers collecting their A-levels, there will be plenty of tears, cheers and multiple beers, as one of either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick seizes the crown. But one person who might not be smiling this morning is Rishi Sunak, whose final morning as Conservative leader has been overshadowed by a no-holds-barred assault by his predecessor.  In today’s Daily Mail, a seething Liz Truss uses a 2,000-word article to eviscerate the man who replaced her as prime minister. Truss claims Sunak was ‘complicit in amplifying Labour’s lies and spreading smears about me and my premiership’.

Friday

Steerpike

Tories overtake Labour in Sunak’s final poll

It’s Rishi Sunak’s final week as Tory leader, but should he be asked to carry on? On Wednesday he charmed the Commons at PMQs before stealing Rachel Reeves’s thunder with a virtuoso Budget speech. And now, in the final poll of his leadership, it transpires that the Conservatives have, at long last, overtaken Labour in the polls. Autumn election anyone? The BMG research poll, which was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday in the immediate aftermath of the Budget, found the Tories ahead in the polls for the first time since the partygate scandal began in December 2021. Asked how they would vote if a fresh general election were held now, 29 per cent of respondents said they would back the Conservatives with 28 per cent opting for Labour.

Steerpike

Reform warns Starmer of ‘national crisis’ over immigration data

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?

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

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

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

Steerpike

China hawks hit back at Lammy rapprochement

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

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

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.