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

Deepfake porn site targets female politicians

From our UK edition

Just when you think the election campaign can't get any madder, it does. Now it transpires that a 'deepfake' porn site has posted a slew of doctored images bearing the likenesses of 30 female politicians – including deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner to senior Tory Penny Mordaunt. You couldn't make it up... The targets of the dodgy photos – produced using artificial intelligence – are not confined to one particular party. As well as Rayner and Mordaunt, an investigation by Channel 4 News found that outgoing Tory Dehenna Davison and left-wing Labour candidate Stella Creasey were also featured.

Steerpike

Labour will ‘destabilise’ Reform, Badenoch warns

From our UK edition

Election day is just around the corner and politicians across the country are pulling out the stops. Now Kemi Badenoch has taken to the fine pages of the Telegraph to urge voters not to back Reform – after new analysis splashed across today's papers (detailed by Katy here) suggests that 130,000 voters across 100 seats could result in a very different election outcome. The Business Secretary has opined on the threat posed by an incoming Labour government – which she suggests is Reform's favoured outcome. 'Reform leaders have been clear about their aim in this general election,' Badenoch writes. 'Not to win it, but to ensure that the Conservatives lose so badly that the party cannot recover.

Steerpike

Reform candidate called for Sturgeon to be shot

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Just two days to go until polling day and Reform is once again in the limelight after yet more controversial comments by a candidate have come to light. It transpires that the party's Orkney and Shetland choice, Robert Smith, is responsible for a series of damning social media posts – in which he takes aim at JK Rowling, Nicola Sturgeon and Ursula von Der Leyen amongst others. Between 2016 and 2023, Smith took to social media to post about a number of political and public figures using rather derogatory language. The Times reports that Smith targeted journalist and broadcaster Andrew Marr, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and London mayor Sadiq Khan using vulgar sexual language.

Monday

Steerpike

Will Starmer be a part-time PM?

From our UK edition

'Sir Sleepy', it seems, is back. On the eve of taking up the most important job in the country, Keir Starmer has revealed that he will refuse to work around the clock should his party win Thursday’s election. Speaking to Virgin Radio this afternoon, the Labour leader contrasted himself with the current premier, well known for keeping long work hours. Starmer, who has two teenage children, said that he 'will not do a work-related thing after 6pm [on a Friday] pretty well come what may.' He claimed that spending time with his kids 'takes me away from the pressure [and] relaxes me', adding that the time away from work made him a better decision maker.

Steerpike

JK Rowling slams Swinney over gender stance

From our UK edition

Another day, another drama. This time Scotland's First Minister John Swinney is in the spotlight, after he conducted a rather odd radio interview with BBC Five Live on the trans debate. With three days to go until the general election and some polls predicting Swinney's nationalists could lose more than half of their Westminster seats, the FM is under pressure to persuade more voters to back the SNP on the big day. The Nats are no strangers to being out of touch with the general public and one issue that exemplifies this rather well is the party's stance on self-identification.

Steerpike

Rory Stewart’s centrist squirm

From our UK edition

With three days to go until 4 July, who else would you want to hear from but Rory Stewart? Cometh the hour, cometh the king of the centrist dads as the ex-cabinet minister today temporarily swapped his podcast for Times Radio. Appearing on Andrew Neil's show this afternoon, Stewart was asked to give his thoughts on how to fix the world's woes. With apathy and cynicism on the rise, the former Tory leadership contender suggested that one way of tackling the issue would be that age-old favourite, constitutional reform.

Steerpike

Jill Biden revealed as Vogue magazine cover star

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Vogue magazine's August cover dropped this morning and it transpires that its editorial team has decided on a rather curious cover star in the form of, er, Jill Biden. The First Lady has been revealed as the central focus of the summer cover a mere four days after her husband gave a pitiful performance at the presidential candidate debate on Thursday. Talk about bad timing... President Biden stumbled and mumbled his way through his disastrous debate with Donald Trump last week – so much so that media outlets across the world questioned just how the President could remain the Democratic party's choice for the 2024 US election. Yet while Democrats across the country try to forget Biden's chaotic showdown, the First Lady seems determined to remind them of it.

Steerpike

Are the Scottish Tories facing a civil war?

From our UK edition

Uh oh. All is not well within the Scottish Conservative party and just days before polling day, senior figures have dubbed the election campaign ‘the most inept [and] shambolic’ in the party’s history – called for a clear-out of the party hierarchy. Good heavens. Senior party figures have told the Times that Scottish Tory candidates have been ‘badly let down’ by ‘disastrous errors from the top’. One MSP blasting campaigning efforts said that ‘no one involved in the leadership of the campaign should ever be allowed near one again’.

Steerpike

Nigel Farage turns on Marine Le Pen

From our UK edition

Ooh la la! After a tricky few weeks for Reform UK, leader Nigel Farage has aimed his sights towards the old enemy. Reform’s polling figures first dipped following that Nick Robinson interview and in recent days Farage has faced serious questions over the behaviour of both candidates and activists. The party’s former candidate in Erewash, Liam Booth-Isherwood, yesterday disowned the outfit and backed his Tory rival instead. Now, as he battles to keep momentum up ahead of 4 July, Farage has distanced himself from fellow Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen. Following yesterday’s Reform rally – with 4,500 attendees in tow – the leader used an interview with Unherd to distance himself from Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN).

Steerpike

Harington endorses Labour – after in-law backed Brexit party

From our UK edition

With the general election just three days away, the celebrity endorsements have started to roll in. Now Dragon’s Den judge Deborah Meaden, singer-songwriter Elton John and comedian Jason Manford have come out for Labour – all with snappy video messages gushing praise on the party. Steerpike has spotted one rather interesting addition to the celeb lineup however, in the form of one Kit Harington of hit TV series Game of Thrones. The Jon Snow actor was seen in a Twitter video shared by the party on Sunday telling viewers to back Sir Keir’s lefty lot. In his endorsement of Starmer’s army, a dressed-down Harington told the camera: One issue that is really important to me in this election is the climate crisis.

Sunday

Steerpike

Reform candidate ditches party over ‘racism and sexism’

From our UK edition

Another day, another election campaign drama. Now it's Nigel Farage's Reform UK party in the limelight with more candidate controversy. Only this time it's not the party defending contentious comments. Instead, one of the party's candidates has turned on Reform. Oo er. Liam Booth-Isherwood, formerly a Reform candidate for Erewash, has today disowned the party over allegations of racism. The former Farage man has instead decided to endorse the Conservative party, backing the Tory contender – Maggie Throup – in the election.

Saturday

Steerpike

Kemi Badenoch blasts Nigel Farage

From our UK edition

With a week to go until polling day, the Tories are stepping up their attacks on Reform. Following Channel 4's programme on Thursday, the Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has taken to the airwaves. Speaking to Times Radio today he warned that 'there is a real pattern of racist and misogynistic views' in Nigel Farage's pattern and that the conduct of some of their activists is 'horrific'. And Tugendhat – a Tory Remainer seen as being on the left of the party – is not alone. For Kemi Badenoch, the centre-right favourite to be the next Conservative leader, has today stepped up her attacks on Farage. The Business Secretary has previously displayed a wariness about engaging with the Reform leader – unlike rivals Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick who would welcome him into the party.

Friday

Steerpike

Will Michelle Obama run? The runners and riders to replace Joe Biden

From our UK edition

After a lamentable performance in Thursday’s debate, much of the Democrat press corps is demanding that Joe Biden step aside. Last night, the New York Times ‘Editorial Board’ said that, ‘to serve his country’, the President must go. If the octogenarian President were to throw in the towel, who could possibly replace him? Below are the bookies’ favourites, with Mr S running an eye over their odds and likely chances come November against ‘The Donald’... Gavin Newsom - 10/3 (Getty Images) ‘You don’t turn back because of one performance’, said Gavin Newsom after last night’s debate. ‘What kind of party does that?’ He knows the answer: the kind of party that wants to win and thinks it’s more likely to do so with him at the help.

Steerpike

The New York Times turns on Joe Biden

From our UK edition

Politics is a fickle business. One day, the idea that Joe Biden is unfit to be president is heresy; the next it is progressive orthodoxy. No greater example of this can be found than in the comment pages of the New York Times. Overnight, the great-and-the-good of liberal opinion has turned on their former hero, delivering a series of withering verdicts on the 81-year-old White House incumbent. 'Joe Biden failed at his key task,' began Josh Barro 'showing voters he’s still cut out for the presidency.' 'Biden cannot go on like this' declared Frank Bruni; Jamelle Bouie called him 'raspy and stumbling.' He 'looked ancient and sounded lost,' concluded Clinton enthusiast Michelle Goldberg. 'There will now be a new chorus of cries for him to drop out, and I’ll be joining it.

Steerpike

Channel 4 hit back at Reform over ‘actor’ activist claims

From our UK edition

When you're in a hole, stop digging. It seems that those words of wisdom aren't being heeded by Reform as the party battles to handle the fall-out from last night's Channel 4 exposé. The broadcaster released an undercover report into the party's campaign in Clacton, featuring examples of anti-migrant rhetoric, homophobia and one canvasser called Andrew Parker 'making racist and offensive remarks'. Parker was swiftly booted out of the party but attention has now focussed on his professional background as a part-time actor. Both Reform's leader Nigel Farage and party chairman Richard Tice have been quick to jump on suggestions that this might explain his comments in the programme.

Steerpike

Fact check: how many of Biden’s debate claims stack up?

From our UK edition

Most presidential debates tend to be underwhelming but last night certainly was not one of them. Much of the subsequent coverage focused on Joe Biden's hesitant, stumbling performance, prompting Donald Trump at one stage to remark that ‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.’ But Mr S was more struck by the sheer number of times that Joe Biden seemed to make statements that were either misleading – or simply downright untrue. Below are eight of the worst instances... Trump ‘bleach’ comments on Covid Biden began the debate by accusing Trump of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously, saying Trump told Americans, 'It's not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm.

Steerpike

Biden’s descent: the five worst debate moments

From our UK edition

Can Joe Biden cling on? That’s the question being asked in Washington DC after a painful performance from the US President in the first debate of the contest. While there’s still plenty of time between now and the November election debate, even dedicated Democrats are struggling to shrug off Biden’s performance. There’s already talk that the upcoming Democrat convention in August could provide on opportunity to change course. So, how bad was it? To let readers decide for themselves, Mr S has compiled Biden’s five worse debate moments. Warning: painful viewing ahead. 1. Medicare JUST IN: Trump seizes the moment after Biden completely froze on stage.Biden: "What I've been able to do with the, with, with, with the covid, excuse me.

Steerpike

Full list: every controversial Reform candidate

From our UK edition

After storming out of the blocks at the beginning of this campaign, polls suggest that Reform's support has now tailed off slightly in the past week. So what's the reason for this? Nigel Farage himself suggested to ITV yesterday that he had been 'wilfully misinterpreted' over his Ukraine comments but added that: 'I think the other thing that's perhaps had a bigger impact is we've just had too many candidates who've said stupid things. I think that's perhaps the reason that we've dropped off a little bit.' So who are these candidates saying 'stupid things'? Mr S has started pulling together a handy guide of Reform's nominees across the party who have all found themselves in the headlines in recent weeks.

Steerpike

‘That was painful’: Democrat pundits mourn Biden implosion

From our UK edition

Oh dear. The Democrats are reeling from Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate of the election. After the US president stopped and started, looked puzzled and struggled to answer questions, commentators are out in force suggesting Biden is not fit for a second term. Yet this time something has changed. It's not just the usual critics. For a sense of how this time, Biden is in real trouble take a look at what Democrat pundits are saying. The CNN debate panel was a case in point. The US broadcaster is known for being the channel for Democrats – and against Donald Trump at all costs. Yet during and after the debate, there was a funereal feel to proceedings. Joe Biden’s former director of communications could not hide her disappointment.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Green candidate advocates ‘Climate Nuremberg’

From our UK edition

The Greens like to portray themselves as the party of hope and change. But what exactly does that entail? An enlightening answer perhaps comes from Joe Taylor, the Green candidate for Battersea. In his zeal to save the planet, he advocates using legal action against those whom he holds responsible for climate change. But not just any ordinary legal action – Taylor has previously argued that ‘Conservative politicians’ have ‘already cast their die and booked their places at the climate Nuremberg.