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. Labour have had a pretty good run of late, castigating the Tory government at every turn. But given the chance to set out her alternative vision on Sky News this morning, Labour chair Anneliese Dodds could only squirm when pressed as to how her party would be handling the strikes. Under repeated questioning
Trains, hospitals and schools – there are few aspects of British life left untouched by the winter of discontent. And now Steerpike hears rumblings of industrial discontent at the heart of British democracy itself: in the Houses of Parliament itself. Long-suffering staffers have had to endure months of vermin-infested kitchens, crumbling masonry and asbestos aplenty.
Jacinda Ardern’s political philosophy is simple. When the New Zealand PM was asked to explain the qualities that led to her success, she said she valued: ‘Kindness, and not being afraid to be kind, or to focus on, or be really driven by empathy’. But does Ardern practise what she preaches? Not so if a
Britain’s railways have ground to a halt for a second day running – but this time it’s strike action, rather than snow, that is causing the chaos. Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), has been out on the airwaves again justifying why workers are right
Oh dear. It seems that Matt Hancock has been called out on his Covid record, again. In his newly-published ‘Pandemic Diaries,’ the former Health Secretary appears to pin the blame on the National Archives in Kew for the late publication of restrictions introducing the ‘rule of six’ on 13 September 2020. Hancock suggested that the
A right royal row blew up this year over which of the great and the good were eligible to attend the Accession Council to confirm Prince Charles as King. According to the Mail on Sunday, in April Richard Tilbrook – clerk to the body of the Monarch’s advisers – ‘sparked fury’ by revealing that only
Earlier this month, the Rother Valley Labour party made its pick for the next election, selecting Dominic Beck as its candidate for the Tory-held seat. Who he, you might ask? Well thanks to the work of GB News’ documentary-maker Charlie Peters, we now know. Beck is a local politician who has served on Rotherham Metropolitan
Christmas is just two weeks away, and with it comes an inauspicious anniversary. It will be three years since the Boxing Day massacre, when the kimono-wearing, baseball-bat wielding KC Jolyon Maugham brutally beat a fox to death, incurring much mockery and the opprobrium of the RSPCA for his boastful tweets about the slaying. Maugham –
To 2 Lord North Street, SW1, home of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Once it was the likes of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng that were feted here, but last night there was a new queen in town. Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House, swept in with all her magnificent curls, to be the
Is that it? For months now much ink has been spilled about the ‘explosive’ revelations promised in Harry and Meghan’s multi-million pound Netflix bonanza, a ‘tell all’ sensationalist documentary replete with truth bombs to tear the curtain back on the whole squalid royal cabal. And yet, having digested all three soporific hours of the first
Speaking at last year’s Tory conference, Liz Truss mocked those ‘portents of doom’, the ‘people who say that it is inevitable that because of Covid we are going to have a permanently bigger state.’ But despite the insistence of Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and others, all signs suggest that an enlarged Whitehall will in fact be
It is a dark day for comedy indeed. After a dozen years of trying (and failing) to become PM, Matt Hancock has today announced he is quitting parliament and will stand down at the next election, just 24 hours after launching his ‘pandemic diaries’. Only nine days ago, his spokesman was furiously insisting to reporters
Farewell and thanks for the mammaries, Michelle Mone. The lingerie tycoon has today announced that she will be seeking a leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect. It means she will not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings nor be able to claim any allowance. At 51, she
Quick, nurse, pass the sick bag! The wokest couple in all the West is at it again. Harry and Meghan have today released another trailer ahead of their Netflix series, before its release on Thursday. The streaming giant is keen to recuperate the many millions it spent on hiring the dilettante duo back in the
Poor Andy Burnham. This time last year the Mayor of Manchester was riding high in the Labour leadership stakes, having cruised to re-election with a whopping 67 per cent of the vote, as Sir Keir Starmer struggled to cut through in Westminster. Now the fortunes are reversed: Starmer is 20 points ahead in the polls,
Jeremy Corbyn has been an MP for 40 years, but Keir Starmer has confirmed Corbyn’s time in the Labour party has come to an end. Starmer was asked three times on the Today programme whether Corbyn – who was kicked out in 2020 over his response to the equalities watchdog’s report into antisemitism in the
Oh dear. It seems that the curse of Izzard has struck again. The stand-up comedian and staunch Labour member has something of an unenviable track record when it comes to personal endorsements, having backed the euro, Ken Livingstone in 2008, Gordon Brown in 2010, ‘Yes2AV’ in 2011, Ed Miliband and then Andy Burnham in 2015,
Life is good in the Labour party right now – which is perhaps why it’s no surprise that a few old faces could be making a comeback. In the late nineties and early noughties, a crop of talented young New Labour advisors were dubbed ‘the golden generation’. Much like their footballing equivalents in the England
Tory politicians are dropping like flies at the moment – with former cabinet minister Sajid Javid the latest in a growing line of MPs to announce that he won’t be standing for office at the next general election. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Tory ministers are currently looking for silver linings wherever they can
Who’d want to work in parliament eh? The roof is leaking and the toilets don’t work, the floor is damaged and the masonry is collapse. Now, Mr S brings news of yet more bad tidings afflicting the House of Commons. It seems the place is stuffed full of vermin – talk about a perfect state-of-the
