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
Cometh the hour, cometh the Humza. Once again the hapless health minister has struck again, this time on a visit to a group of Ukrainian women in Edinburgh. After a photo call, Yousaf turned to the group of women and asked loudly ‘Where are all the men?’ There was polite and awkward laughter before the
It’s Thursday so you know what that means: another chance to watch Penny Mordaunt demolishing the SNP from the despatch box. Today’s Business Questions to the Leader of the House saw Mordaunt face off across sometime soap star and full-time grievance-monger Deidre Brock. The Scottish nationalist gave a rather tedious speech lambasting Jeremy Hunt’s Budget,
Mick Lynch strikes again! The tough-talking general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) was out on the airwaves again this morning to defend yet another day of train strikes. True to form, Lynch couldn’t quite get through the broadcast round without getting into a spat with the journalist interviewing
It may seem like a bizarre question but it’s the one that is obsessing much of the left: is Rishi Sunak simply Enoch Powell in a better suit? Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, made the comparison in parliament last week when he asked the Prime Minister ‘from whom are his Government taking inspiration, Nigel
Labour has greeted the Budget with its now-familiar trick of accepting 90 per cent of its changes and then railing against one high-profile measure to attack those beastly Tories. This time, it’s Jeremy Hunt’s abolition of the £1.07 million lifetime tax allowance on pensions from April to prevent doctors going into early retirement. The party’s attack
It says a lot for the SNP’s commitment to transparency that even its leading lights don’t trust its electoral processes. Ash Regan and Kate Forbes have today written to the party’s chief executive Peter Murrell asking for information about the party’s membership and the leadership ballot. Regan, in a letter which was sent with the
Gary Lineker is back in his job as presenter of Match of the Day. He’s also back on Twitter commenting on the activities of Tory MPs. The BBC host has hit out at Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, who accused Lineker of being a member of the ‘Twitterati’. Gullis also said of Lineker: ‘Those are the
During Boris Johnson’s tenure, No 10. Downing Street seemed to anthropomorphise into being political actors itself. From partygate to wallpapergate, Britain’s most famous address frequently featured in the headlines amid a myriad of Brexit and Covid dramas. So perhaps it is no surprise then that Rishi Sunak has already begun putting his stamp on the
When Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister last October, Joe Biden phoned him to reaffirm the ‘special relationship’. But when the two leaders appeared at a press conference last night to launch the Aukus pact with Australia, Sunak probably wished Biden hadn’t been so chummy. Biden seems to have given the Red Wall, and Sunak’s political opponents, plenty to chew
How times change: seven months ago we were eagerly awaiting the Tiggerish Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal event, replete with much boosterish briefing about Truss’s tax-cutting zeal. Now we await to see what their respective successors will unveil in one of the least anticipated Budgets of modern times. ‘Under promise and over deliver’ is
‘Former Prime Ministers’ remarked William Gladstone ‘are like untethered rafts drifting around harbours – a menace to shipping.’ And as the good ship Sunak seeks to avoid the guns of Messers Johnson and Truss, at least the SS Theresa May is posing somewhat less risk to the government’s structural integrity. May has largely maintained a
Well, it was nice while it lasted. Following the farce of last night’s 14-minute episode of Match of the Day, BBC management have come out this morning waving the white flag to sue for peace with Gary Lineker. The ex-football star is going to return to the Beeb after after the corporation announced a review
The Oscars was always doomed to fail to live up to the drama of last year’s ceremony. In 2022, Will Smith stormed on to the stage to slap host Chris Rock after he took offence to the comic’s routine. But in Los Angeles last night, celebrities were on their best behaviour. Well, mostly. Step forward,
Day five and the Gary Lineker row shows no sign of abating any time soon. The BBC has gone into meltdown; the Prime Minister has been forced to distance himself. Lineker’s show Match of the Day was shortened to a mere 20 minutes without commentary, with his co-stars boycotting the programme in ‘solidarity.’ Faced with
Oh dear. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. After Gary Lineker was forced to ‘step back’ from presenting BBC’s Match of the Day over a tweet comparing the language used by the government with regards to its new Illegal Migration Bill to that ‘used by Germany in the 30s’, other presenters – from
Today was the penultimate party hustings of the SNP leadership contest, this time with Glasgow party members quizzing the leadership contenders. Did they want to know about what the next leader of the SNP thinks about the constitution perhaps, or the race to save Scotland’s NHS? Not quite. Instead, it appears what really matters to
It’s not a proper Tory bunfight until Nadine Dorries weighs in. The former Culture Secretary has never been shy to share her opinions and she has now weighed into the ongoing row about Gary Lineker and Match of the Day. ‘Lineker off air amid Twitter row’ roared the strap-line on Dorries’ flagship Friday show as
Oh dear. It seems that the BBC press office has had a nightmare 24 hours, with not one but three blunders in rapid succession involving three of their biggest stars – Fiona Bruce, David Attenborough and Gary Lineker. The Lineker row has been dominating the headlines but it’s not the only row consuming the Beeb.
Talk about an own goal. It seems that Gary Lineker’s increasingly aggressive anti-Tory tweets have got the multimillionaire into hot water with nervy BBC managers. Earlier this week, Lineker compared the language used by the government over its plan to tackle Channel crossings to ‘that used by Germany in the 30s’. Today it has been
Given the ongoing leadership race, it’s easy to forget that the current SNP government isn’t the only devolved administration which is seemingly hell-bent on embarrassing itself. Over at Cardiff Bay, Welsh Labour are still merrily fiddling while its public services burn – as two incidents within the space of 24 hours have neatly demonstrated. First,