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
It was all guns blazing from Kemi Badenoch today. The Tory leader has clashed before with the Guardian – most notably during last year’s contest when she lambasted the paper’s claims of ‘bullying and traumatising behaviour’ when serving in government. And the wokest outlet in all the West was firmly in her sights today when
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will this afternoon announce big reforms to the UK’s asylum policy – including fast-tracking illegal migrant deportations, changes to human rights law and plans to stop granting visas from certain African countries if their governments don’t co-operate on immigration. While Mahmoud’s tough talk will go down well with voters concerned about
Another day, another bad poll for Labour. YouGov research has revealed that a whopping 75 per cent of Scots disapprove of the UK government, with just half of those who backed Labour in 2024 saying they would consider voting for the reds again. But this doesn’t necessarily spell good news for the nationalists: while 37
To Bangladesh, where the country’s ousted former prime minister – and aunt of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq – has been found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. A special tribunal judged Sheikh Hasina responsible for ordering a violent crackdown on student-led protests in 2023 – during which up to 1,400 people died,
It has been another bad week for the government. Growth down to 0.1 per cent, a briefing war engulfing No. 10 and now the Budget plans in crisis too. So amid all the various dramas, one story has gone somewhat under the radar. Nine four-star generals signed an open letter to the Times – timed
‘Ohhhhh Jeremy Corbyn!’ Where would Mr S be without him eh? The grift that keeps on giving has been in full flow this month, with the organisers of ‘Your Party’ determined to get their operation up and running prove. At a meeting last week, poor old Jezza’s wife had to step in and wrestle the
Well that was jolly fun. Kemi Badenoch gave Keir Starmer an almighty pasting at PMQs, predictably lacerating him over the anonymous briefings about Wes Streeting. But – in fairness to Labour’s forces of darkness – the Health Secretary has not exactly been shy about his future intentions. As he told the Guardian in June 2023,
It is a funny old time for the Tories right now. The government has rather sportingly decided to commit seppuku a fortnight before the Budget. So how are they to get any headlines? Mr S has done some digging and it turns out that the brains of Matthew Parker Street have been hard at work
Pity the Liberal Democrats. You win 72 seats at an election – and all anyone wants to talk about is Nigel Farage. You then schedule a big morning pre-Budget press conference – and the government decides to tear itself apart. Like most of HM Lobby, Steerpike was unable to make it to this morning’s event
It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet. Just sixteen months after their landslide triumph, the Labour party is now in full-on meltdown. The decision by Downing Street sources last night to launch a pre-emptive missile at Wes Streeting appears to have backfired spectacularly, as the popular Health Secretary handled today’s morning media round with aplomb. Gee,
So. Farewell then Tim Davie. The BBC Director General undertook the first leg of his long goodbye tour today, speaking to some of his 23,000 staff in true Corporation style: on a call with the Director of Internal Communications. Talk about the personal touch. Over 35-minutes, Davie answered questions from the Corporation’s (many) hacks about
Timing is not always the Bank of England’s strong suit. Britain’s central bank has increasingly faced accusations of being found wanting in recent years. Under Governor Andrew Bailey, the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has managed to infuriate the crypto bros, failed to spot the Liability-Driven Investments crisis and consistently botched inflation calls too. Both
There are just two weeks to go until Rachel Reeves’ second Budget. Twelve months after telling the CBI that she was ‘not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes’, she is now planning to do, er, exactly that. All sorts of various measures are being tipped and touted in the newspapers. But the most
There are just sixteen days to go until the Budget – and the pitch is being well and truly rolled. Having conducted her ‘I can’t talk about that’ press conference last week, the Chancellor has now done an interview with 5Live to drop a few more hints about the truly Awful Statement she is planning
You know you’re not a proper political party, until you’ve had the obligatory youth wing scandal. Pubescent politicos have long been a feature of Westminster life. In the Starmer army they have NOLS – National Labour Students, where generations of power-crazed identikit drones have been churned out, each bearing the same dead eyes and rictus
Oh dear. It seems that the BBC is once again setting the news agenda – via tales of its own incompetence. The Corporation has spent days battling accusations that it aired a doctored clip of a speech by President Trump in a Panorama documentary back in January 2021. The White House Press Secretary has called
Happy Remembrance Sunday one and all. With the Green party soaring in the polls, who better to have on the weekly TV circuit than Zack Polanski? Sporting both white and red poppies – work that one out – the onetime hypnotherapist was grilled by Sky’s Trevor Phillips on the party’s plans for defence. Predictably, Polanski
The battle on the right is well underway, with competition between Reform and the Tories for attention, ideas and personnel. One front where the Conservatives have had more success to date is on donations, with Kemi Badenoch’s party comfortably outstripping Nigel Farage’s forces in the first quarter of this year. But with Reform topping the
After a decent conference speech, there was some hope among the Tories that Kemi Badenoch had finally turned the corner. Her PMQs performances are much more assured and there have been some notable Labour scalps secured by the party’s fabled ‘dark arts’ team. But this improvement appears not to have been recognised by the electorate,
They say that pride comes before a fall – and so it proved today at PMQs. In the wake of the Epping sex offender debacle, James Cartlidge, the Shadow Defence Secretary, opted to lead on the accidental release of prisoners. After forcing David Lammy at the beginning of the session to apologise (again) to the
