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
Oh dear. It seems that Nicola Sturgeon seems to have got her progressive causes in a muddle. The First Minister is having a tricky time trying to work out if she’s a feminist first or an LGBT ally in light of her government’s U-turn on trans prisoners. On Sunday, a ‘pause’ was placed on the
Ding, ding, ding! In the red corner, it’s the menacing goons of Moscow’s Red Square. And in the blue corner, it’s Boris Johnson, the garrulous, gung-ho, onetime Tory premier. Johnson has done an interview for a BBC documentary being released tonight, in which he reveals that Putin threatened to kill him over the UK’s support
Rishi Sunak intended the firing of Nadhim Zahawi to draw a line under the affair. Yet there are already questions being asked in Tory circles about whether the report rushed out this morning exaggerated the case against him. In his resignation letter, Mr S notices that Zahawi makes no confession of guilt. It suggests that Zahawi could
One man’s loss is another man’s gain and few know that maxim better than Conservative MPs. Members of the parliamentary party have already quietly begun discussing who will replace Nadhim Zahawi as their Tory chairman. And while no appointment is expected today, some names are already doing the rounds as to which MP is likely
So. Farewell then. Nadhim Zahawi. It’s been quite the six months for the onetime favourite to succeed Boris Johnson. He accepted the Chancellorship in July, before turning on Johnson 36 hours later. He crashed out of the leadership race to replace Johnson within days, before being demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster after
Another week and another Sunday Times story about Boris Johnson’s finances. The paper has got hold of a leaked Cabinet Office memo which it says shows that Johnson was told to stop asking Richard Sharp for ‘advice’ about his ‘personal financial matters’ days before the latter was announced as the next BBC chairman. The memo,
The Nadhim Zahawi saga shows no sign of concluding. Every time the story looks like burning out, a new disclosure gives it legs. Tonight, it’s the revelation by the Financial Times that a second senior Tory MP was being investigated by HMRC last summer around the same time as Zahawi. It’s a curious tale, based
Congratulations must go to Alan Cumming who has today worked out what the acronym ‘OBE’ stands for – a mere 14 years after receiving the award. It’s one thing to refuse an honour on the grounds of political developments (John Lennon), taste (Michael Winner) or historic objections (Benjamin Zephaniah). But it’s quite another to do
A big house, Californian sunshine, oodles of dosh and, of course, priceless privacy – life in Montecito must be pretty awesome for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But does one detect a tiny hint of trouble in paradise? For much of 2021 and 2022 it seems that one of the pair could not appear
You’d think after the last few years, viewers have had enough of politicians on their screens. But studio bosses clearly disagree, given the increasing number of MPs who are now hosting their own television shows. This morning TalkTV have announced that former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries will be joining the channel as a regular presenter,
A most undiplomatic row has engulfed one of Westminster’s most prestigious groups. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association boasts 180 branches around the world, with the late Queen Elizabeth among its former patrons, with former Cabinet minister Maria Miller now serving as its chair. But among those upcoming speakers due to address it in London include two
Rod Stewart has been a Conservative supporter for some time – but no longer. The ageing rocker, who congratulated Boris Johnson after his landslide election win in 2019, says it is time for the party to move over and give Labour a turn. ‘This is a bad time for us in Great Britain – change
Oh dear. It seems that the world’s wokest newspaper is in a bit of a mess of its own making. Stung by criticism of its historic slave trade links and support for the Confederacy in 2020, the Guardian resolved to create an editorial project on its past. This included an upcoming podcast about the connections
If Sadiq Khan has his way, drivers of old cars will soon be stumping up £12.50 every time they get behind the wheel in London. Much to the outrage of Londoners, the Labour mayor has grand plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone across the whole city in several months’ time. But for plumbers and window cleaners worried about how the daily
The Starmer army are doing all the Very Serious things necessary to convince the commentariat that they’re Ready For Office. Whether it’s fiscally credible policies, schmoozing at Davos or the reassuring sight of ‘boring, snoring’ Rachel Reeves, the party are straining every sinew to depict themselves as responsible realists. The left is on the run
Once, the Civil Service was viewed as the omniscient, omnipotent embodiment of the Establishment: a mandarin class par excellence. Sir Humphrey Appleby and his real-life equivalents could run rings round their ministers, rule their Whitehall dominions unencumbered and command fear and respect from their underlings. Those halcyon days now seem like a distant memory. In
Another day, another sleaze scandal threatening to engulf one of Westminster’s finest. Labour frontbencher Alex Davies-Jones is being investigated over allegations she breached lobbying rules and thus the MPs’ code of conduct too. New Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg, who has been in the job a mere matter of weeks, opened an investigation into the
All rise! Just over three years after quitting parliament, Jared O’Mara now finds himself in court rather than the Commons. The former Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam stands accused of making fake expense claims during his time in Westminster to fund a ‘significant cocaine habit’. On the first day of his trial at Leeds crown court,
It’s a new day and once again the news is dominated by Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs. Rishi Sunak has asked his independent ethics advisor (all politicians need outside advice when it comes to ethics, after all) to launch an investigation into Zahawi after the Tory chairman admitted making a ‘careless and not deliberate’ tax error.
As the Conservatives face another round of allegations of Tory sleaze, Labour is doing what it does best: having an internal row about trans rights. After Labour MP Rosie Duffield found herself heckled by her own side for speaking out on her concerns over the SNP”s Scottish gender recognition bill, she penned an article likening
