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
Well, well, well. The atmosphere is more than a little tense as Labour conference kicks off in Liverpool. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suffered not just from poor poll results – with a recent MRP suggesting his party could fall to less than 100 seats at the next general election – but
A glorious exchange on GB News this morning. Steve Reed, the new Housing Secretary, has been making a big song and dance this conference about his plans to ‘build baby build.’ Red caps bearing the slogan are being dispersed to delegates who are proudly displaying them around Liverpool. There is just one problem: the government
To Liverpool, where politicians and delegates are gathering for Labour’s annual party conference. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has just finished his speech on the main stage, where he lead out his vision for his party with just eight months to go until next year’s Holyrood elections. But it was a non-Labour politician that dominated
Oh dear. It seems that Keir Starmer’s great big conference reset is beginning well. A blizzard of new polls have been published – all of which make for devastating reading for our embattled PM. A major new Sunday Times MRP survey shows that Reform is on course to win 373 seats at the next election,
It would be putting it mildly to say Sir Keir Starmer’s digital ID card plans have gone down like a lead balloon. The Prime Minister’s proposals to make ID cards compulsory for every British adult have raised concerns about freedom, data security and effectiveness – as it isn’t clear the policy would actually work to
Just days before Labour politicians head to Liverpool for the party’s annual conference, a story about Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff has been dominating headlines. It emerged that the Labour Together founder’s lawyer advised Morgan McSweenet that he should mark £700,000 of undisclosed donations as an ‘admin error’, according to a leaked document from
To Woolwich Crown Court, where the case against Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been thrown out. The Irish rapper, who performs under the name Mo Chara, appeared on a single terror charge after being accused of pulling out a Hezbollah flag at a 2024 gig in Kentish Town’s O2 Forum. But the case
Dear oh dear. Labour conference is just days away but as the party prepares to come together it would appear its politicians are coming apart. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham gave a rather revealing interview this week in which he called for ‘wholesale change’ to prevent an ‘existential’ crisis, set out his own brand of
Reform continues to top the polls as Brits remain concerned about migration to the UK. At the start of the week, Nigel Farage held yet another London press conference in which he announced his plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain, make foreign nationals ineligible to claim benefits and introduce an English standards test –
New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is settling into the job: laying out her firm no-nonsense approach to migration and ruffling feathers just days into the job after she suggested that some people were abusing the justice system in order to avoid deportation from Britain. Now she has a new challenge on her hands: it transpires
Ding ding ding! US President Donald Trump hit out at London mayor Sadiq Khan at the UN general assembly yesterday and now the Labour man is hitting back. The mayor has accused Trump of showing he is ‘racist, sexist, misogynist and Islamophobic’ after the President claimed Khan was trying to put London under sharia law.
To Reform UK, which is continuing to lead Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party in the polls. Nigel Farage has led a successful summer campaign on crime rates, small boats and legal migration. But as conference season begins, the Reform leader has come under scrutiny for one of his more bizarre campaign messages – namely that
Well, well, well. The spotlight is back on Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – and not in a good way. It transpires that the Labour Together founder’s lawyer advised him that he should mark £700,000 of undisclosed donations as an ‘admin error’, according to a leaked document from 2021 published by the
Donald Trump’s trip to the UK has finished and it appears his love-in with London has ended too. In a speech at the UN headquarters in New York, the US President took a pop at London mayor Sadiq Khan – calling him a ‘terrible, terrible mayor’ – before claiming that the Labour politician wants to
After weeks of suspense, the big day has finally arrived. The Scottish government has arranged a meeting in Inverness with quango and industry bosses to discuss what is apparently one of the most pressing issues facing Scotland. Not the future of the oil and gas industry, not the failures in the country’s rural health service
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and former wife of Prince Andrew, has come under scrutiny this week after an email that saw her praising paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed. The Duchess’s spokesperson said that Ferguson had received a ‘chilling’ phone call from the criminal after she gave an interview in 2011 confessing to have
To the US, where President Donald Trump has suggested his administration has ‘found an answer to autism’. On Monday, Trump drew links between paracetamol and rising rates of autism across America. US health officials warned that acetaminophen (paracetamol) should be avoided in early pregnancy to avert the development of autism in later life, with Trump
Labour might have recognised Palestinian statehood and green-lighted a new Gatwick runway, but Nigel Farage has once again managed to steal the show. This morning the Reform UK leader held a London press conference in which he announced his plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain, make foreign nationals ineligible to claim benefits and introduce
Liberal Democrat party conference – four words which turn the blood of any lobby journalist cold. Yes, it is that time of year again: the annual five-day bonanza in which the perennial third party of British politics desperately tries to find some relevance. In his never-ending quest for headlines, Sir Ed Davey – the clown
The otherwise run-of-the-mill First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament came to a dramatic conclusion this afternoon. Before the Presiding Officer moved onto the next item of business, former Conservative leader Douglas Ross made a point of order alleging that he had been assaulted by an SNP government minister. Crikey! He told SNP First Minister John Swinney:
