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
‘Betgate’ might be giving us some laughs but there’s one person who clearly isn’t cracking jokes. A notably vexed Rishi Sunak gave an interview to STV this afternoon on a visit to campaign with the Scottish Conservative party. He told the broadcaster that he was ‘angry’ about allegations that Tory candidates put bets on the
Back to Scotland, where Rishi Sunak is attending the Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto launch in Edinburgh. Leaving the ongoing betting scandal in London, the Prime Minister walked into another controversy – about the football. Before Sunak launched into his speech he made a point of agreeing with Scottish Tory leader and linesman Douglas Ross that Scotland should
Uh oh. In the latest election drama, Tory candidate for North West Essex and business secretary Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at Labour’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell. The lefty spinner has a well-documented history of Brexit-bashing and Badenoch, it seems, has had enough. Urging readers of the Daily Mail to ignore Brexit sceptics and
Oh dear. In the latest election campaign blip, it’s the Green Party in the spotlight. It has now transpired that despite the Greens long urging voters to swap out gas guzzling boilers for heat pumps, the co-leader of Green Party herself has, er, a gas boiler. Rules for thee but not for me… Carla Denyer’s
With ten days to go until polling day, all signs point to a Conservative wipeout. In such tough times, celebrity support counts for all the more. And while few stars are lining up to snap selfies with Rishi Sunak, at least one is willing to take the fight to Labour. Step forward Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps
Oh dear. It seems that ‘honest John’ Swinney is embroiled in another fine mess, this time about taxpayer-funded election expenses at Holyrood. Strict rules state that MSPs are entitled to claim up to £5,500 per year for stationery, but it must be used only for parliamentary duties. Yet now one of the Scottish First Minister’s
What is Nigel Farage up to? The Reform leader has doubled down over the weekend on his claim that the west helped provoke Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following his comments to the BBC on Friday, he then wrote a piece in the Telegraph on Saturday arguing that ‘What I have been saying for the past
Is there anyone in CCHQ currently not under investigation? The Sunday Times today reports that Nick Mason, the chief data officer of the Conservative Party, is now being probed by the Gambling Commission over allegations he placed ‘dozens of bets’ in the run up to the election being announced. With just 11 days to go
There’s been a lot of focus on splits on the right during the election campaign – but what about splits on the left? With less than two weeks to go until polling day, Mr S has been keeping tabs on those Corbynites who are deserting their former party for greener pastures. Quite literally, as many
It’s not just the Conservatives who are facing difficulties this election season. Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has found itself in hot water with one rather influential women’s rights campaigner. Renowned author of the bestselling Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has now come out against Starmer’s army, blasting Sir Keir for ‘abandoning women’ concerned with
Dear oh dear. With less than two weeks to go until polling day, Rishi Sunak’s campaign has been hit with more bad news. Over the last 24 hours, it has emerged that now two Tory candidates – Laura Saunders in addition to Craig Williams – are under investigation by the Gambling Commission after placing bets on the general election
Starmer Chameleon strikes again. Sir Keir hadn’t taken to the stage long in the BBC’s Question Time special last night before the issue of his tendency to U-turn cropped up. Turning to the trans debate and Starmer’s rather, um, checkered history on the matter, one audience member asked the Labour leader: ‘Three years ago you
Over the first four weeks of the general election campaign, Sunak has so far personally made his way around 37 constituencies across the UK. With less than two weeks to go until the national poll, the Prime Minister has only ventured out of England on three occasions, and made just four trips to non-Conservative held
Just how much worse can the Tory campaign get? With a fortnight to go until polling day, the party’s field director is now being investigated by the Gambling Commission. It’s a somewhat sub-optimal development for a campaign dogged by tortuous metaphors, D-Day disasters and torrential rain too. In such circumstances then, it is no surprise
Dear oh dear. Now it transpires that a second Tory election candidate is facing scrutiny over an alleged bet related to the timing of the national poll. Laura Saunders, the party’s candidate for Bristol North West and a former CCHQ staffer, is being investigated by the Gambling Commission – the second Conservative candidate to face
Good heavens. One of the many polls released today has suggested that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could become the first sitting Prime Minister to lose their seat at a general election. The Savanta and Electoral Calculus poll for the Telegraph predicts that the Conservative party could be left with just 53 MPs – with the
Now they’ve gone and done it. The juvenile antics of the eternally brain dead Just Stop Oil will be familiar to readers by now – with the group recently diversifying from road blockages to defacing objects of cultural or historical significance in their misguided attempt to protect the climate. Still, the group may have outdone itself
As the election date draws ever closer, this morning it was the turn of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to face callers on LBC’s phone-in. And as the questions rolled in, the PM found himself doing a rather lot of defending: of his decision to have the national poll in July, on his party’s plans to
It’s a day ending in ‘y’ which means that a political party somewhere is having candidate drama. This time it’s Sir Keir Starmer’s lefty Labour lot, who have had to drop their Aberdeenshire North and Moray East candidate over controversial social media posts about Russia and antisemitism. Oh dear… Andy Brown shared contentious posts about
Following last week’s manifesto launches, Mr S has been looking into the fine print. As part of Labour’s plans to reform the House of Lords, Starmer says that he now wants to forcibly retire British peers at 80 years old when – he believes – they will be unfit for public service. But Steerpike is