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
In for a Penny, in for a pound(ing). Poor old Penny Mordaunt has endured a torrid few days in the leadership race. Since becoming the bookies’ favourite on Wednesday, the Portsmouth MP has faced a barrage of criticism from rival ministers about her record in government and views on past issues. Much of this has
Fights! Drama! Blue-on-blue attacks and not-so-subtle jibes! Last night’s Conservative leadership debate had it all. But perhaps it was the sheer level of exposure on Channel 4 and ITV which has convinced two of the Tory candidates not to repeat the experience. For this morning, both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have pulled out of
The bookies’ favourite to win the Tory leadership race, Penny Mordaunt, has had a difficult few days. She’s facing questions not just about her views on trans rights, but about how honest she is about them. Suella Braverman has come pretty close to saying that, like Boris Johnson, Mordaunt has a habit of rewriting history
It’s been a mixed performance thus far for the ‘Liz for leader’ brigade. A flawless campaign launch, strong cabinet support and enthusiastic media backing have all been positives but the failure to lock up the votes of the Tory right have left the Foreign Secretary in a less confident situation than she might otherwise have
As the reputation of Westminster sinks ever lower and our elected masters seem able to do even less, candidates for political office seek outside areas by which they can bolster their credentials. Once it might have been the Church: now it’s often business. But one evergreen way of commanding instant respect in Tory circles is
Angela Rayner caused a bit of a stir a few weeks ago when she rocked up at the Glyndebourne opera festival. The stiletto-sporting socialist made much capital out of her trip after Dominic Raab mocked her for picking a Mozart opera over the RMT picket line, enabling her to pose as a victim of Tory
As the Tory leadership race unfolds, there’s plenty of votes up for grabs. Both Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch are competing for the Tory right but there’s one group of voters which neither seems especially interested in. LGBT+ Conservatives, one of the biggest groupings within the Tory party, sent out a survey to each candidate
Having urged her supporters to back Liz Truss yesterday, Suella Braverman has now been forced to, er, do the same again today. Team Truss are doing their damnedest to try to lock up the right-wing vote by sending out leading figures like Lord Frost and Simon Clarke to urge rival candidates to stand aside. Unfortunately
Oh dear. It seems bumbling ‘Uncle Joe’ has done it again. Fresh from his Holocaust gaffe, President Biden has now decided to offend not one, but two allies, when he gave his thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict. On a visit to a hospital in East Jerusalem today, President Biden made remarks that were picked up
And then there were five. Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat – one of these names will become Britain’s next prime minister. Ahead of tonight’s Channel 4 debate there’s much excited chatter about who will survive the final rounds of MPs’ voting and be presented to the final two. With more
Few MPs have had such an inglorious and brief career as Imran Ahmad Khan. Elected in December 2019, he was charged in June 2021 with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. After having the whip duly removed by the Tories, he was subsequently tried and found guilty in April 2022, for which he was
Nicola Sturgeon has never been all that bothered about the remit of her devolved government and the parameters of its responsibilities. So exactly no one was surprised when she popped up this morning with another speech on independence. It comes as part of her ramp-up to a referendum which she insists she will hold next
Of all those revelling in Boris Johnson’s downfall last week, few probably enjoyed it more than Theresa May. It would only be natural for the former Tory PM to enjoy a little schadenfreude from Johnson’s defenestration, given how his resignation and subsequent maneuverings played their role in destabilising her premiership. Outwardly, of course, May has
In an excoriating interview on TalkTV just now, Lord Frost has said he has ‘grave reservations’ about Penny Mordaunt becoming the prime minister. The former Brexit negotiator, who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet last year, told Julia Hartley-Brewer ‘To be honest, I’m quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy
Has the US president been possessed by an alt right troll? Nope, it’s just Joe being Joe. No sooner had Joe Biden landed in Israel this afternoon than he managed to commit a gaffe so heinous that it’s hard to see how his hosts will forgive him. After stepping off Air Force One, Biden said it
Prime Minister’s Questions got off to a rowdy start today – which was perhaps not surprising considering that it was the first since Boris Johnson’s resignation last week. But while Boris might have been expecting trouble from the Labour benches, it was parliament’s Scottish MPs who ended up causing trouble. As the Prime Minister began
The Westminster rumour mill is in overdrive about Michael Gove’s intentions in the leadership contest. Fresh from bringing down Boris, the Brutus of the backbenches has surprised some by opting to back Kemi Badenoch in the race to find Johnson’s successor. His endorsement of Badenoch impressed some colleagues but many right wing Tories have convinced
Britain isn’t America. But that doesn’t stop us letting out a collective groan when we see the same loopy opinions wheeled out in complex and nuanced debates. Yesterday, the author of Critical Race Theory: A Primer, Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges, appeared at a Senate hearing about the overturning of Roe v Wade. She gave a masterclass
It seems that George Freeman has got his summer flip-flops in early. The (recently departed) science and innovation minister hasn’t had a great few weeks in the Commons recently. First, there was last month’s leadership vote in Boris Johnson in which Freeman initially refused to say which way he had voted. This was then followed
War and famine in Ukraine and inflation and rising bills at home. These are tough times in Britain and abroad: the winning candidate for the Tory leadership will have to be able to really deal with the big issues. But, er, not every MP in the running is keen to focus on such themes. Kemi