Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Wednesday

11 September 2024

Watch: Farage attacks ‘two tier’ Keir at PMQs

With two months to go until his successor takes over, Rishi Sunak only has a handful of PMQs sessions left. But never fear: with the end of the Starmer/Sunak show comes a new leading man in the latter's place. Nigel Farage – the man who loves to claim he's the real 'Leader of the Opposition' – today got a chance to put that assertion to the test. He faced off against Sir Keir in the Commons as the Reform leader was called by Speaker Hoyle to ask his first question of the new Prime Minister. In typical Farage style he didn't disappoint, asking Starmer the following: Yesterday we witnessed some extraordinary celebratory scenes outside Britain's prisons where, in some cases, serious career criminals were released.

Steerpike

Watch: Scholz loses his temper as Germany’s migration debate rages

Ding ding! It’s not just in Westminster that the debate over illegal migration has got politicians tearing chunks out of each other. Over in Berlin, an emotional Olaf Scholz got up in front of the Bundestag to give his opponents a piece of his mind. The Chancellor's speech was meant to be about the budget, but soon veered off track onto migration. In front of a room of rowdy, heckling parliamentarians, the Chancellor attacked the CDU leader of the opposition, Friedrich Merz: ‘You are the type of politician who believes that he has solved the migration issue simply with an interview in Bild am Sonntag. That’s not how it works in reality!’ Scholz shouted.

Steerpike

Labour MP: Afros should be a ‘protected characteristic’

Prisoners are out, the unions are striking and pensioners are having their winter fuel payments pulled. With Starmer's Britain now bearing increasingly less resemblance to the land of milk and honey we were promised before the election, it's good to see Labour MPs resorting to their default setting: banning things they just don't like. Whether it's smoking outside nightclubs, chicken shops near schools or hereditaries in the House of Lords, reaching for the legislative button to avoid having to tax or spend even more. Now it seems there's a new example to add to the list. Labour MP Paulette Hamilton is teaming up with, er, Spice Girl Mel B, to try to make the UK the 'first western country to introduce a law to end afro hair discrimination.

Steerpike

Donald Trump’s Taylor Swift nightmare

Look What You Made Me Do. It seems that last night's debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris convinced one of America's biggest icons to nail their colours to the mast. Fresh from conquering Wembley on her 'Eras' mega-tour, Taylor Swift has now thrown her lot in with the Democrat Vice-President. Writing on Instagram, the megastar shared her support for Harris, saying that she 'fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them”. 'I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,' the Shake It Off singer wrote.

Steerpike

Watch: the key moments in the Trump-Harris debate

On Tuesday night the former President Donald Trump and the current Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in Philadelphia for the first presidential debate since Joe Biden’s disastrous fall from grace earlier this year. The debate, moderated by ABC, took place over 90 minutes, and saw the candidates clash on immigration, Trump’s rallies, and Afghanistan. A snap CNN poll commissioned after the debate saw 63 per cent say Harris had won, compared to 37 per cent for Trump. Here are the key moments from the debate: Kamala Harris goads Trump over his rallies As the section of the debate on immigration began – arguably one of Kamala Harris’s weakest areas – the current VP abruptly changed topic to the subject of Donald Trump’s rallies.

Tuesday

10 September 2024

Steerpike

Keir Starmer’s prisoner endorsement

Happy prisoner release day, one and all! Today's move to let out the lags is all part of the Ministry of Justice's efforts to ease the pressures on Britain's overburdened prisons. To mark this auspicious occasion, hacks across the country have descended on various prisons to interview inmates being released to the outside world. And after doing time at His Majesty's pleasure, the hardened 'crims certainly seem to have a way with words... Quote of the day surely has to go to the Daily Mail for this dispatch from HMP Isis, a Category C young offenders institution in Thamesmead. The paper writes evocatively that 'as the sun rose in London today' the first inmates to be released were 'greeted by family members'.

Monday

9 September 2024

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Neil and Piers Morgan ask – has Trump lost his mojo?

It's less than 60 days to go until polling day in America and the race could not be closer. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are due to debate on Tuesday night in what could be one of the most consequential clashes of modern times. So, with all eyes on the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia, who better to ask about Trump's mindset than the Brit who knows him best? Step forward Piers Morgan, who appears on today's Americano podcast with Andrew Neil and Freddy Gray. After the shocking assassination attempt in July, Gray asked, has The Donald now softened and changed?

Steerpike

MPs swap booze for soft drinks

Whither the future of parliament's pubs? It was less than three months ago that Keir Starmer's chief of staff Sue Gray reportedly wanted to close permanently all of Westminster's watering holes – including the famous Strangers' Bar – to stop novice MPs falling prey to the House of Commons' historic drinking culture. But eight weeks after Labour's stonking election, Mr S hears that the new boys and girls are demonstrating something of a puritanical streak themselves. Among long-time veterans of the Strangers' Bar, there is consternation and surprise at the new-found popularity of alcohol-free replacements in place of old favourites. Pints of Estrella Galicia 0.

Steerpike

Will David Lammy apologise to the Grenfell judge?

In the fall-out from last week's devastating report on the Grenfell report, it seems one question has not been asked of the various Labour spokesmen out on the airwaves. In a 1,700-page report that apportioned blame for the 2017 tragedy widely, retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick spared no one in his excoriating judgements. Ministers, officials and the cladding companies were all lacerated for the disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people. Such findings must have come as a surprise to the man who is now our Foreign Secretary, David Lammy. As Dominic Lawson notes in today's Daily Mail, Lammy's reaction to the appointment of this distinguished judge in July 2017 was to trash his integrity.

Friday

6 September 2024

Steerpike

Veterans’ champion quits with blast at Starmer

Labour have been encouraging plenty of controversy recently with the growing allegations of cronyism surrounding recent civil service and public appointments. Today, however, it’s a resignation that’s bringing yet more heat upon the flailing government. Northern Ireland’s Veterans Commissioner, Danny Kinahan, appointed in 2020 to champion the cause of 60,000 veterans yesterday left his position after an 'open and frank' conversation with Hilary Benn. In his resignation letter, he blasted the government for their approach, declaring that: 'I cannot provide the independent voice that veterans require. There is a feeling among some veterans in Northern Ireland that they have been forgotten and… do not enjoy the same protections as their counterparts in Great Britain'.

Steerpike

Top Labour donor in ‘operation integrity’ storm

It's a day ending in 'y', which means another Labour scandal. Today marks the return of Lord Alli, the media luvvy with more money than sense. Alli, famed for perfecting TV 'presented by morons for morons', hit the headlines last month for the 'passes for glasses' row. Now it seems he has also been making recommendations for posts and public appointments which are due to open up over the course of this parliament. Talk about the grift that keeps on giving... According to Bloomberg News, Alli was making recommendations while he was soliciting donations for the Labour party. The project, which he has apparently been worked on since early 2024, was unbelievably named, er, 'Operation Integrity'.

Steerpike

BBC bias on Israel set to be probed

More bad news for the BBC. Following the fall-out from the Corporation's catastrophic handling of the Huw Edwards affair, a long-running controversy threatens to re-ignite once more. Steerpike understands that next week a major report is set to be published on the Beeb's coverage of the conflict in Gaza, with a 100-page publication by a team of lawyers prepared to drop on Monday morning. Talk about a way to start the week off right... It is the first of two reports planned for successive weeks. The one released on Monday will use artificial intelligence to analyse the Corporation's dispatches on the conflict, which has seen the broadcaster repeatedly accused of being biased against Israel.

Steerpike

Watch: Miliband blasted over energy bill ‘false promises’

Another day, another drama. This time Ed Miliband is in the firing line after his opposite number took aim at him in parliament on Thursday. Shadow net zero secretary Claire Coutinho pulled no punches as she attacked Labour's Energy Secretary over his government's controversial pensioner palaver, Sir Keir Starmer's much-lauded GB Energy proposal and exactly how much money Labour policies will save the public. Addressing Miliband in the Commons, Coutinho poured scorn over his party's claims that GB Energy would save voters from paying an extra £300 a year on their energy bills.

Thursday

5 September 2024

Steerpike

Night czar’s City Hall no-show

Over to the Mayor of London and his minions. While the Prime Minister has been busy giving pay rises to train drivers, it seems London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan continues to employ Amy Lamé as his night czar on, er, £132,846 per annum – after already receiving, as Mr S revealed, a 40 per cent pay hike. Good heavens... However it appears Lamé hasn’t being doing much work for that payout. Following six weeks of 'unplanned sick leave' – during which London's night czar curiously still managed to host her BBC radio programme – Lamé then proceeded to take yet more time off work for a holiday in August, leaving the Beeb's Emily Pilbeam to fill in for two weeks.

Steerpike

Tories call for watchdog inquiry into Labour cronyism row

Back to Whitehall, where the row over civil service appointments continues to gather pace. It transpires that the Conservatives have called for a watchdog inquiry into recent perks awarded to Labour donors – after one was offered a civil service job and another received a pass to No. 10. It certainly doesn't seem like this cronyism row is going anywhere soon for Sir Keir... Now shadow Commons leader Chris Philp has informed MPs that he is requesting the civil service commissioner and the adviser on ministerial interests to examine the rather curious cases of Sir Ian Corfield and Lord Alli. Philp slammed Sir Keir Starmer's Labour lot for 'improper appointments', fuming: 'A "government of service"... They mean just service to their cronies and their donors.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour blasted over ‘shoddy’ Lords reforms

To the Lords, where this afternoon an urgent question was granted on the subject of hereditary peers. It follows today's news that Sir Keir Starmer's Labour government will remove the remaining 92 seats in the second chamber reserved for the hereditary position in 18 months, meaning these peers will be unable to both sit and vote in the House. But not everyone, it transpires, is particularly thrilled by the prospect... This afternoon, Lord Strathclyde grilled the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, on why the government had been courteous enough keep peers informed of its reform timeline before the latest development made its way to the media.

Steerpike

SNP faces budget fears as cross-party relations break down

All is not well in Holyrood. The SNP announced its programme for government on Wednesday – but it hasn't left many impressed. And now it transpires that the governing party is set to face further problems in passing its budget, as it continues to fail to work with its political opponents. Not like the Nats to rub people up the wrong way, eh? Once in a co-operation agreement with the SNP, it seems the Scottish Greens are still rather upset with the nationalists. Patrick Harvie's barmy army has thrown its toys out the pram after Swinney's speech revealed that policies the parties had formerly worked on together were to be delayed. One decision blasted by the pro-indy eco-zealots is the removal of the pledge to deliver universal free school meals to all primary students.

Wednesday

4 September 2024

Steerpike

SNP health secretary slammed over Oasis ticket fiasco

To Scotland, where the SNP's newest health secretary has found himself in a rather large, Oasis-sized mess. At the weekend, Neil Gray was called out by the Sunday Mail for taking his eye off his day job and attempting to buy tickets to see the newly-reformed band during a conference event on Alzheimer's disease. Mr S is rather unsurprised to learn Gray knows a thing or two about the Importance of Being Idle... The initial story reported how, after Glasgow University's Terry Quinn had finished a heartfelt speech on dementia, Scotland's health secretary looked up from his phone to confess: 'I'm in the queue to buy Oasis tickets on multiple devices. Hope is very important... that I get these tickets.

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer defers to ‘prime minister’ Sunak at PMQs

They say old habits die hard, and Sir Keir Starmer is finding that out for himself today. It's the first PMQs back after recess and it seems as though some in the Commons are rather struggling to adjust to the change of guard. Mr S notes that the Labour leader has today referred to his opposite number Rishi Sunak multiple times as, er, 'prime minister'. The Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has also been caught making the same rather impertinent mistake. Talk about a slip of the tongue... And it hasn't taken long for the Tories to use the PM's blunder to their advantage.

Steerpike

SNP government finally accepts Cass review findings

Well, well, well. After all of the SNP's sniping at Dr Hilary Cass's review into UK gender clinics, it transpires that the Scottish government has – finally – accepted the findings of a gender clinic report in full. The revelation comes months after Cass found ‘remarkably weak evidence’ to support gender treatments for children and concluded that the ‘toxicity’ of the gender debate meant professionals were ‘afraid’ to openly discuss their views. Oh dear... After much ado, the SNP government has now said it will implement a gender treatment review's recommendations, with public health minister Jenni Minto confirming that a second report – entitled 'The Cass Review: Implications for Scotland' – has been accepted.