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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
It looks like the ructions over Labour’s Palestine position aren’t ending anytime soon. Since the horrifying Hamas massacre on October 7th last year, Labour leader Keir Starmer has refused to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, instead making the case for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ – which would involve Hamas handing over the remaining Israeli hostages
Last night The Spectator’s chairman, Andrew Neil, spoke for the first time about the sale of this magazine and the Telegraph newspaper to Redbird IMI, an entity run by the former head of CNN, Jeff Zucker, and backed financially by the United Arab Emirates. In November last year, the government issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice, halting the sale
No wonder so many SNP politicians deleted their WhatsApp messages: they really are rather damning. In today’s Covid hearings, former Nicola Sturgeon aide Liz Lloyd is being grilled by the bulldog-like Jamie Dawson KC. If the Dear Leader’s liberal cussing wasn’t bad enough, the Inquiry has now unearthed some startling admissions… Throughout the pandemic, the-then
