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

BBC presenter grovels after Farage jibe

It seems these days that the BBC is doing a better job of creating the news than presenting it. Today’s row is about one of the broadcaster’s stars entering into a spat with Reform’s Nigel Farage — and losing rather spectacularly... The I’m a Celeb finalist was out today helping promote Richard Tice’s party in Dover as he made his first big speech of the election campaign. At a gathering of party supporters and journalists, Farage spoke of immigration problems seen in Europe. Quoting remarks made by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Reform founder pointed to ‘the wave of — and I’m using his words not mine — “aggressive, young males” that are coming into Poland’ adding: ‘He has said that this is now a matter of national security’.

Steerpike

Reeves reprises her Wikipedia tribute act

Once we had New Labour: now we have Changed Labour. As part of Sir Keir Starmer's bid to prove that his party is different (honest!) since the far-off Corbyn days of, er, April 2020, Labour has been out today banging the drum for business. The Opposition is terribly proud of itself for stitching together a letter of support for its economic policies, signed, no less, by some of the country’s leading business experts. What a coup! But Mr S could not help but wonder about some of the names signing the letter that Rachel Reeves touted today in her big speech in Derby. For one thing, there were no FTSE 100 company chief executives putting their pen to paper – perhaps out of fear of Angela Rayner's trade union package.

Steerpike

Watch: Ed Davey struggles to stay afloat during campaign tour

It's a gaffe a day in British politics, as poorly-planned campaign visits are fast turning party leaders into laughing stocks. The latest victim is none other than Sir Ed Davey, who is currently on a UK tour to spread the word that the Liberal Democrats are putting the issue of sewage dumping at the top of their manifesto. This morning, Davey joined local MP Tim Farron on a constituency visit to Windermere in the Lake District to campaign on water cleanliness. For that reason alone — never mind the fact that the Lib Dem leader is not exactly an, um, experienced paddleboarder — it's certainly rather brave of Sir Ed to take to the lake. But the trip hasn't gotten off to the best of starts.

Steerpike

Labour takes down Tory attack TikTok video

Another day, another gaffe. Only this time it's the Labour party in the firing line, not so long after the launch of its brand new TikTok account. It has been live for all of four days and Starmer's army has been busy getting to work on their latest form of social media self-promotion — posting 30 videos, gathering 75,900 followers and amassing 1.5 million likes. But it's not all been plain sailing for the Sir Keir's lefty lot. Labour's comms team seems to have gotten a little ahead of itself in its rush to take the platform by storm and there are concerns the party may have, er, broken some rather important rules in the process.

Steerpike

Will Sunak debate Farage on small boats?

It's a big day for Reform UK as Nigel Farage hosts his first campaign event down in Dover. But prior to his speech this morning, the former Brexit MEP decided to kick things off by throwing the gauntlet down to Rishi Sunak. In his Daily Telegraph column today, Farage challenges the beleaguered premier to have a one-to-one debate on Channel crossings. The honorary president of Reform says that if Sunak refuses to debate him on this 'national security emergency', it will prove that he 'can’t stop the boats'. According to Farage: The Channel crossings must be designated a national security emergency. For two years, we have been promised a Rwanda plan and a solution. Despite a bill of £140 million, not one person has been forced to go.

Monday

Steerpike

Tory MP suspended for backing Reform successor

It never rains but it pours for poor Rishi Sunak. After a difficult start for his election campaign, the Prime Minister tried to steal a march on his Labour opponents by proposing the reintroduction of a form of national service. One person he would presumably now like to conscript is Lucy Allan, the longtime Telford trouble-maker. Having been elected in 2015, Allan announced last June that she intended to stand down as an MP. Unfortunately for Sunak she has decided to mark her leaving this week with a final two-fingered salute at the Tory leader. In a statement posted on Twitter/X today, she announced that she was supporting the local Reform candidate in her Shropshire seat and shared his campaign details online. 'I am supporting Alan Adams to be Telford’s next MP' she wrote.

Steerpike

CCHQ memo blasts ‘noncommittal’ Tory MPs

It's all a barrel of gaffes at CCHQ these days. The latest slip-up comes in the form of a leaked memo in which party staff criticised Conservative MPs for failing to 'get behind' the election campaign — accusing some of focusing too much on ministerial business, others of being more concerned with holiday plans and adding that a number of seats were rather low on funds. Oh dear... The controversial email in question delivered to Tory politicians was mistakenly sent with two attachments: one with a constituency breakdown with constructive comments, and another with rather frank remarks about what CCHQ staff thought of the Conservatives' campaign efforts.

Steerpike

SNP candidates struggle to Crowdfund campaign money

Uh oh. As election campaigns kick off, a number of nationalist politicians have had a rather rocky start. The SNP has already gone into election season on the back foot as polls consistently predict the party is likely to lose around half its Westminster MPs in the next election. To make matters worse the SNP is also having trouble attracting investment while the police probe into party finances hangs hangs over it. The latest accounts show the Nats saw an £800,000 financial loss as membership numbers fell and donations dried up. Now it transpires that Scottish National party candidates have had to resort to launching Crowdfund pages to try and pull together funds for their campaigns. But it turns out that begging voters for money isn't always a surefire way to garner support.

Steerpike

Labour refuse to say if Bercow’s ban is lifted

It is now 812 days since John Bercow membership of the Labour party was suspended on an 'administrative basis' pending an investigation into his bullying. Back in March 2022, the former Speaker was banned from ever holding a parliamentary pass after an independent panel upheld the findings of Kathryn Stone, who found him guilty on 21 counts of 35 complaints over five years. The panel's 89-page review of their probe revealed that Bercow threw phones at staff, displayed 'undermining behaviour', and 'lied extensively to try and avoid the damning reality of the truth'. Since then, there have been various reports that Labour's investigation remains ongoing, despite Stone's comprehensive findings.

Sunday

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James Cleverly: no one will go to jail over national service

Well, Rishi Sunak’s new flagship policy of reintroducing national service has certainly gone off with a bang this morning. The policy, announced last night, would see 18-year-olds given the option of applying for a military post, or spending one weekend every month for a year working for the fire services, police, the NHS, or local charities. According to the Conservative party the scheme will be mandatory.  What happens though if young people refuse to take part? It seemed initially at least the Tories were feeling bullish about cracking down on any absconding youths, with a leaked internal Q&A from the Conservatives suggesting that the party wasn’t ruling out arresting 18-year-olds dodging their civic duty.

Saturday

Steerpike

Is Michael Gove set to become the next Strictly star?

As the exodus of Conservative MPs continues, Mr S is rather curious about what alternative careers retiring Tories have in their sights. The number of Conservative politicians stepping down at the general election is 78 and counting — and on Friday night, a resignation announcement from a high-profile Tory veteran stunned the nation. Michael Gove, currently Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, announced just days after Sunak called the snap election that he would not be contesting his Surrey Heath seat, despite having a rather impressive majority of over 18,000. The Tory Trot wrote that: I know the toll office can take, as do those closest to me. No-one in politics is a conscript. We are volunteers who willingly choose our fate.

Friday

Steerpike

Reform branch urges its voters to turn out on a Saturday

Richard Tice was out yesterday at Reform's big election launch, proudly declaring that his party is ready for the upcoming election. 'We are going to win seats' he promised, as he revealed that Reform will be standing candidates in all 630 seats in England, Wales and Scotland. One of those areas is Gravesham in Kent, currently represented by Tory Adam Holloway. The local Reform branch is excitedly tweeting graphics about Tice's plans to 'freeze immigration, scrap Net Zero' and deliver 'high growth'. So it was so somewhat unfortunate then that in their haste to hail the forthcoming election they, er, get the date wrong. On their Twitter/X account, Reform Gravesham proudly announced that it was 'ready for the General Election on 6th July'.

Steerpike

JK Rowling takes aim at Starmer over Duffield snub

Oh dear. It's not yet 48 hours since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election and already tensions are running high. Now it transpires that Labour backbencher and vocal women's rights campaigner Rosie Duffield was not invited to her own party's election launch in Kent despite being an, er, Kent MP. Making a rather public show of party infighting is hardly a good start to election season... A rather unimpressed Duffield took to Twitter — after she found out about the launch event on the social media platform — to write: 'Well, day one has gone well then..! Strong women can't be broken that easily, lads. And I have an army of them behind me, in front of me, beside me and holding me up.

Steerpike

Watch: Sunak’s torturous Titanic exchange

It's day two of the election campaign and things aren't looking up for Rishi Sunak. After the downpour on the Wednesday and the Euros blunder on the Thursday, today the Prime Minister produced his third viral moment of the campaign on a visit to Belfast. As the latest polls revealed that his party is still 20 points behind Labour, Sunak and his team decided to tour a thriving Northern Irish business situated, somewhat unfortunately, in Titanic Quarter. With local hacks already annoyed by the ‘shambolic’ nature of the visit, it was left to James McCarthy of BelfastLive to ask Sunak the obvious question: Prime Minister, we are just yards away from where the Titanic was built and designed. Are you the captain of a sinking ship going into this election?

Steerpike

Watch: May swipes at Truss in her final speech as MP

So. Farewell then to the Covid parliament. It's been a remarkable five years in British politics, what with the pandemic, Brexit, the change of monarch and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But with the Commons due to dissolve next Thursday, one of the great features which Mr S will miss the most is the number of ex-Prime Ministers we had in this parliament. Liz Truss may be clinging on but Boris Johnson bowed out last summer and now Theresa May is quitting too. But not without one final blast at one of her short-lived successors... Speaking in the Commons for the final time today, the Maybot of Maidenhead provided a few glimpses into the soul behind her outward armour. Reflecting on how being an MP 'is the best job in the world', she remarked that it does have its 'frustrations...

Steerpike

Corbyn to stand as an independent MP

Amidst the election drama it would be easy to forget about one rather eccentric politician. Today Jeremy Corbyn has announced today that he will stand as an independent candidate for the seat of Islington North — after significant speculation about whether he would be welcomed back into the Labour fold. After holding the seat for 40 years, Corbyn says he will not defend views held by either the Tories or his former party Labour — including the two-child benefit cap and rent controls. Blocked from standing again for Labour, and suspended for remarks he made after the equalities watchdog report into antisemitism in the part, Jezza will be expelled for standing against the party at the election.

Thursday

Steerpike

Ex-SNP chief’s charge sheet submitted to Crown Office

It’s a day that ends in ‘y’, which means more chaos for the beleaguered SNP. Now it transpires that Scotland’s Crown Office has finally received Peter Murrell’s charge sheet – after he was charged with embezzlement from the SNP over a month ago. The husband of former SNP leader and first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon was taken into police custody for the second time on 18 April as part of the police probe into SNP finances. Shortly after the police force announced that it had charged the former SNP chief, it emerged that Murrell had also resigned his party membership.

Steerpike

Watch: Sunak’s Welsh football blunder

It’s the beginning of a general election campaign, which can only mean one thing: politicians pretending to care about football to connect with the punters.  Rishi Sunak kicked things off, with his first campaign stop at a brewery in Wales this afternoon – a brave choice of venue for a politician many voters think really couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery after his rain-soaked election announcement yesterday.  Keen to pal it up with the assembled Welsh brewers, and no doubt mindful that his election campaign was going to overlap with this year’s Euros, Sunak asked the group if they were looking forward to ‘all the football’.

Steerpike

SNP’s Matheson handed suspension and salary cut over iPad scandal

Uh oh. In non-election news north of the border, the Scottish government’s former health secretary Michael Matheson has been handed both a suspension and salary ban after his rather humiliating £11,000 iPad scandal was exposed. As Mr S has written previously, Matheson has been in the doghouse for months after it was revealed he lied about his roaming bill and tried to make the taxpayer cover his costs. And now, it seems, he is finally getting his comeuppance... Holyrood's standards committee has today called for Matheson to be suspended for 27 days and the cross-party group also wants to see the backbencher's salary withdrawn for 54 days — a fine that roughly equates to the size of the former minister's data roaming charges.

Steerpike

Simon Case’s worst moments at the Covid Inquiry

Amidst all the election drama and hurried campaign launches, it would be easy to forget the public inquiries taking place at present. But fear not, Mr S has gathered together the most notable parts of today's Covid Inquiry, where Cabinet Secretary Dr Simon Case is making a rather delayed appearance after he was unable to attend last year due to illness. Let's take a look at what he has said so far... Bad language Today's hearing had barely started before Case was forced to apologise for the use of some rather, um, robust language highlighted in message exchanges where he had insulted both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, amongst other senior government figures.