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
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Oh dear. Just when Sadiq Khan may have thought he could finally claim victory over the Ulez scheme he rammed through in London last year, his pet project appears to have landed him in hot water yet again. The London Mayor has been scolded by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after Transport for London (TfL),
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Jacob Rees–Mogg’s speech at the Popular Conservatism launch went down well with the assembled crowd in Westminster, but the Tory MP was forced on to the defensive when he came off stage. Rees-Mogg was asked by News Agents journalist Lewis Goodall, formerly of the BBC, to defend his attack on ‘Davos Man’. ‘How much money
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Happy PopCon day! Liz Truss will this morning launch her ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement in Westminster. The 49-day premier will be speaking alongside the likes of fellow Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson – though, sadly, not Simon Clarke nor Ranil Jayawardena, both of whom dropped out after the former’s ill-fated call for Rishi Sunak
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Proper prime time viewing this afternoon with a PM on the ropes. TalkTV today broadcast Piers Morgan’s interview with Rishi Sunak, reprising the double act from when the pair last met in Downing Street 12 months ago. The embattled premier no doubt spoke for many when he met Morgan, greeting him with the words ‘Not
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Rishi Sunak has made ‘stopping the boats’ central to his premiership. So it is, er, sub-optimal then that word reaches Steerpike that the efforts of the Home Office are being hindered by a lack of top talent. The department might have grown in staff numbers by nearly a third since 2010 but Whitehall sources claim
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For Sir Ed Davey, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say. Three weeks ago, the embattled Lib Dem leader was asked to apologise for his role in the Post Office scandal but refused to do so ten times in an interview with ITV. Yet now, with his party plummeting in the polls, the
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When is a pledge not a pledge? When the Labour party are making it, it seems. The shadow cabinet is currently grappling with how best to explain their plans for a £28-billion Green New Deal, as set out by shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves in 2021. A fortnight ago, a party spokesman dismissed reports that the
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Even Nicola Sturgeon’s enemies agree that the former first minister is a formidable politician. But at the Covid Inquiry, Sturgeon appears to be struggling to keep it together. Asked whether she was the ‘right’ person to lead Scotland following her earlier criticism that Boris Johnson was not up to the job, Sturgeon broke down in
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It’s not been a great morning for Nicola Sturgeon at the Covid Inquiry. In August 2021, she promised bereaved families via Channel 4 News that she would disclose all her WhatsApps, even though by that stage she knew that her messages had been destroyed. Today she insisted that she thought ‘anything of any relevance or
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Will Labour stick to its pledge to spend £28 billion a year on a green industrial revolution if it wins the election? The party’s leader Keir Starmer appeared to row back on doing so last month by describing the green spending spree as an ‘ambition’. Now, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has further muddied the waters by saying the
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Another day, another Labour U-turn. This morning it’s the turn of Rachel Reeves, who has done another copy and paste job by following Jeremy Hunt’s lead on lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses – less than 100 days after her own Treasury team lambasted the move. The Shadow Chancellor told the BBC that she had
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Angela Rayner has had better starts to the week. The Labour deputy leader appeared on Good Morning Britain today, ostensibly to talk about her party’s plans for housing and town centres. But if the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne MP thought she would get a soft-soap interview, host Richard Madeley quickly proved her wrong. Following her heckling by
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All is not well in the DUP. The once-mighty masters of Northern Irish politics last night convened a top-secret executive meeting to discuss a return to power-sharing at Stormont. But the event was spectacularly upstaged by a succession of leaks to loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, who proceeded to live-tweet the meeting. Somewhat embarrassingly, these updates
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Politics can produce some fickle friends – and none, it seems, are more fickle than the Honourable Member for Tottenham. Watching last night’s debate on Gaza in parliament, Mr S was surprised to watch David Lammy’s reaction to the intervention of his onetime leader. After Jeremy Corbyn rose to his feet, the Shadow Foreign Secretary
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At £120,000 a year, George Freeman was in the top 3 per cent of earners as science minister – but he says that is why he stood down two months ago. His mortgage went up and his pay – £75,000 after the tax increases of his government – suddenly wasn’t enough. He had many reasons
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Things go from bad to worse for Laurence Fox. In October, he was sacked from his GB News gig; in December, the Reclaim leader shed his party’s sole MP. And today, the actor-turned-politician lost a High Court libel case with two people he called ‘paedophiles’ on social media. Former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag
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What is it with the Labour party and female leaders? Much has been written about the left-wing party’s failure to give a woman the top job, given the fact that Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss have all done so for the Tories. But now, a new theory has been advanced as to why
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Nadine Dorries has never been shy about publicising her disdain of Rishi Sunak. Whether it’s criticising his £3,500 Prada suit or accusing the former Chancellor of sabotage, the former I’m a Celebrity… star could never be accused of being a card-carrying Sunakite. But Mr S was nevertheless surprised to hear who she thinks ought to
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Oh dear. Every time Labour looks just about electable, up pops one of Keir Starmer’s MPs to help make that harder. Today it is the turn of Kate Osamor, one of the hard-of-thinking Corbynites who populate the opposition backbenches. She shot to fame back in 2018 when she threatened a Times reporter with a baseball
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It’s the race that has had all of Westminster gripped. No, not the Republican presidential primaries in New Hampshire; nor the mayoral contest between Susan Hall and Sadiq Khan. Instead, all eyes this week have been on Rochdale, where the local Labour Party today met to decide their candidate for the forthcoming by-election. The contest
