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
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak tried to strike a conciliatory tone at his campaign launch this morning, in which he praised his former boss Boris Johnson as a ‘remarkable’ man with a ‘good heart’. It appears though that Sunak’s defenestration of the PM might be a sore point for his campaign. At the launch, Sunak was
It’s all getting a bit heated in the Tory leadership wars. Fresh from the sweltering heat of the Churchill War Rooms, Steve Baker has marched into the LBC studios with his blood clearly boiling. The ‘Brexit hardman’ went on Andrew Marr’s show tonight and launched a howitzer at fellow Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt. Baker, who is
Just because Boris Johnson has gone, don’t expect the legal fines for Tories to go away. Jamie Wallis, the Member of Parliament for Bridgend has been ordered to pay £2,500 and banned from driving for six months after he smashed into a lamp post in November, failed to report the collision and then left his
Is the leadership race turning toxic already? Three days in and Rishi Sunak has been the target of a vicious private memo while Nadhim Zahawi is fighting off questions about his tax arrangements. Now it seems that Penny Mordaunt is the latest candidate in the firing line; namely over her past support for trans rights.
The Telegraph has got hold of a zinger of a private memo currently doing the rounds on Tory MPs’ WhatsApp groups. The 421-word dossier, which sums up all of the ex-chancellor’s supposed errors during his two-year tenure, has been published by the paper’s associate editor Camilla Tominey. The document lays into Sunak, accusing the favourite to replace Boris Johnson
Penny Mordaunt has had a good start to the leadership race, storming into second place with 16 names, even though she is yet to declare. But is the Portsmouth MP worried about her past views coming back to haunt her? Mr S was surprised to see Mordaunt fire off a late-night ten-part Twitter thread shortly
Oh dear. It seems that Britain’s favourite kimono-wearing, fox-murdering, bat-wielding loudmouth lawyer has done it again. The Conservative party is shaping up for a leadership contest between the most diverse range of candidates ever, including five MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds (Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid). There are also
Boris’s decision to quit yesterday fired the starting gun on the greatest game of them all: the Tory leadership race. Suella Braverman was first out the blocks on Thursday night before, er, Johnson had even gone. But it’s the launch of the second official candidate, Tom Tugendhat, which has attracted more interest. In traditional Tory
The SNP likes to portray itself as the moral guardians of Scotland. But does such sanctimony extend to Westminster, where the Tories have just ousted a leader accused of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment. Amid the chaos in the Commons, Steerpike was intrigued by the silence earlier this week coming from the SNP press office.
It’s been a tumultuous day in Westminster. Boris Johnson has (finally) resigned as Prime Minister after losing more than 50 members of his own government. So what better way to mourn or celebrate the fall of the Tory premier than over a glass of Pol Roger in the garden of The Spectator’s offices in Westminster?
The ‘world king’ is dead so who will be the next to wear the crown? Already the jockeying has begun to replace Boris Johnson as the next Tory party leader, with MPs beginning to endorse each other. Coffee House will be keeping a list of those who have declared and who their backs are but
As the news rolled in that Michael Gove had been sacked by Boris Johnson, our own Douglas Murray was on Piers Morgan’s show on TalkTV alongside former spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Mr S thought that readers may well enjoy watching the subsequent clash between the pair over propriety in public life, which ended when Campbell stormed
It’s not been a good day for Boris Johnson. More than 50 Tory MPs have publicly called for him to go, he’s lost 30 members of his payroll vote and he got embarrassed by Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs in a performance which, shockingly, left the House demanding MORE of the staid Labour leader. This
Has Nadhim Zahawi turned on Boris Johnson, just 24 hours after he was promoted to Chancellor? That’s the question all of Westminster is asking tonight amid reports for lobby journalists that Johnson will shortly meet with a delegation of senior cabinet ministers. It’s said to involve the Chancellor and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, following a
Resignations! Accusations! Recriminations! It’s all kicking off in the Tory party at present. One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity – and no man knows that better than Nadhim Zahawi, the newly-appointed Chancellor now sporting the biggest grin in Westminster. Not all Conservative MPs though are happy at seeing their colleagues rise. News that Michelle Donelan
You know it’s bad when the Old Etonians are turning on you. After the Cabinet departures of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid and, er, whatever the hell Andrew Murrison was trying to do with his blurry letter of resignation, Bim Afolami has become the fourth Tory MP to quit the official payroll tonight. Afolami opted
Rishi Sunak has joined Sajid Javid in resigning from the cabinet in a major blow to Boris Johnson’s hopes of clinging on to power. The Chancellor said in his letter to the PM: ‘I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I
Boris Johnson has more lives than a cat but is the reign of the ‘world king’ finally coming to an end? Speak to Tories in Westminster and it’s difficult to find any who have a good word to say about the Prime Minister. The Cabinet is unhappy, the backbenches are uneasy. For three days straight,
So, what did the Prime Minister know about Chris Pincher’s behaviour and when did he know it? That’s the question the whole of Westminster is asking today after the intervention of Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office. Given Dominic Raab’s embarrassment this morning, it’s hardly surprising that special advisers are now briefing
Is that it? After two years of studiously ignoring the issue, Sir Keir Starmer finally delivered his big Brexit speech yesterday to, er, a somewhat underwhelmed audience. Facing accusations of being part of the Remainiac elite, Starmer’s team naturally decided the best course of action was to brief his speech to the Financial Times (backed