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
Will anyone ever text Matt Hancock again? It’s day five of the lockdown files today and it seems there’s still more revelations to come from the former health secretary’s WhatsApp messages, handed over to Isabel Oakeshott because he wanted a ghostwritten book to commemorate his triumph. Talk about the grift that keeps on giving… One
An awkward one for the strategists in Southwark and Westminster. Mr S has commissioned some polling and it’s official – the public, it seems, are having a tough time telling the Labour and Tory policies apart. Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have recently made major speeches, respectively setting out their ‘five pledges’ and ‘five
Day 5 of the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files and the most startling stories yet. Here’s what’s new: When the more contagious Alpha (then ‘Kent’) variant started spreading in December 2020, many were scared. Good, thought Hancock. The former health secretary told his adviser that ‘we [can] frighten the pants of [sic] everyone with the new strain’
Last night it seemed as if the Matt Hancock WhatsApp messages released by the Telegraph couldn’t get any worse, after the paper published texts showing Hancock’s realtime reaction to his rule-breaking affair being exposed. Yet somehow new depths have been plumbed in Hancock’s correspondence today. For the paper has published texts between Matt Hancock and
Day four of the lockdown files and it’s the juiciest so far. Here’s what the Telegraph released last night: 1. Matt Hancock thought kissing report wasn’t that bad While cursing ‘that f——g CCTV camera’, the indefatigable Hancock said ‘that [the Sun’s] write up is very gentle’, after the paper released pictures of him and Gina Coladangelo in a rule-breaking embrace.
Another day, another painful set of WhatsApp messages about Matt Hancock. Yet again the Daily Telegraph have released another batch of texts involving the former health secretary, this time about his burgeoning public profile in the wake of the pandemic. The paper reports that as Covid arrived on Britain’s shores, Hancock shared with his special
Some good news at last for Damian Green. Theresa May’s onetime deputy has had a difficult few weeks what with his unsuccessful selection bid in Ashfield followed by the news that his nemesis Sue Gray is off to run Keir Starmer’s office. But Mr S hears that Green last night had a bit of good
Ping! It’s day three of the ‘Lockdown Files’ and a whole new tranche of former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s WhastApp messages has just landed. Mr Steerpike has taken a look at what the Telegraph released last night: A worried Hancock told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case that the police needed to get a grip on mandating lockdown restrictions.
It’s not been a great day for the Civil Service. First it’s announced that Partygate prober Sue Gray has been offered the role of Chief of Staff for the Leader of the Opposition. And now the Telegraph has released WhatsApps that show Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, mocking those affected by the government’s lockdown policies.
Oh dear. It seems that life in the offices of the world’s wokest paper isn’t all its cracked up to be. For the Guardian’s sister paper – with which it shares an office – has been accused of ‘institutionalised transphobia’ by a disgruntled former writer. James Wong, the Observer’s garden columnist departed last week with
Well, there we are then. Less than 24 hours after reports emerged that Sue Gray could be Keir Starmer’s next chief of staff, the lady herself has confirmed the story by resigning from the civil service. The Partygate investigator will however have to wait at least three months before she can start working for Labour,
No wonder they didn’t want to let cameras in at last night’s hustings. Not a day goes by it seems without a leading SNP politician embarrassing themselves in one forum or another. Today’s hapless half-wit is MP John Nicolson, who has found himself accused of racism after tweeting a video shortly before appearing on the
After two years of planning, Tory MPs are finally having their long-awaited away day today. Rishi Sunak and the whizz kids at CCHQ have booked a fleet of buses to whisk the members of his parliamentary party away to Windsor for a 24-hour away day. They’ll be put up in the luxury hotel where Sunak
More revealing Matt Hancock messages dropped late last night as the Telegraph released another tranche of the former health secretary’s WhatsApps. Here are some of the stand-out lines on day two of the lockdown files: Matt Hancock said that then education secretary Gavin Williamson (who was ‘going absolutely gangbusters’ to keep schools open) was risking a ‘policy
Ding, ding, ding! It’s day two of the revelations from the Telegraph’s lockdown files and today’s chosen battlefield is the school playground. The paper splashes on claims that Matt Hancock as Health Secretary fought a ‘rearguard action’ to shut down the nation’s schools against the efforts of Sir Gavin Williamson, who held the Education brief
It’s not a great time to be a friend of Matt Hancock, knowing that any moment the Telegraph might splash the contents of your private WhatsApp conversations. Still, good old Jim Bethell – a veteran of the Ministry of Sound and the Department of Health – was wheeled out to defend him tonight. And in
Wanted: a chief of staff for Sir Keir. Steerpike was first to break the news last year that the Labour leader was on the hunt for a top civil servant to become his head honcho. And today Sky has a delicious report that suggests he has found his man – or woman in this case.
It’s not just the spectre of Brexit that is haunting Westminster. Overnight the Telegraph has released a smorgasbord of stories based on a cache of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApps during the Covid pandemic. Some 100,000 messages were handed to the newspaper by the co-author of his diaries Isabel Oakeshott. Below are some of the stand out
Is even the BBC starting to accept reality on questions of sex and gender? The Corporation has often been woker than woke, not least thanks to militant internal staff groups seemingly ready to persecute colleagues who don’t adhere to doctrine on trans matters. But the case of the Scottish double rapist Isla Bryson/Adam Graham has loosened
Those cunning geniuses at SNP HQ have done it again. Fed up with Forbes, Yousaf and Regan committing news at every turn, the spin doctors at Gordon Lamb House have come up with an ingenious plan to stop their candidates’ gaffes, attacks and infighting being reported. Their solution? Ban the journalists. Brilliant! This latest wheeze