Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Full text: leaked Tory memo attacking Sunak

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

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Penny Mordaunt changes tack on trans rights

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

Jolyon makes a mess of it (again)

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

Has Jeremy Hunt been left in the lurch?

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

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Will Blackford and Sturgeon now resign too?

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.

Spectator summer party, in pictures

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?

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Runners and riders for next Tory leader

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

Watch: Douglas Murray clashes with Alastair Campbell

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

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Has Nadhim turned on Boris already?

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

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Tory Twitter gets personal

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

Watch: Tory vice chair resigns live on air

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

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Watch: Cabinet minister laughs at Boris’s excuse

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,

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Watch: Johnson’s awkward cabinet meeting

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

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Starmer’s Brexit bid fails (again)

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

Diane Abbott’s baseless Boris blunder

Boris Johnson seems to be in enough bother without his opponents making unsubstantiated claims against him. But that’s exactly what Diane Abbott, the sexagenarian Stoke Newington MP, did yesterday when she appeared on yesterday’s episode of Broadcasting House, the BBC news review show. Abbott – who was ostensibly there to discuss allegations surrounding Chris Pincher

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Pronoun badges backfire for embarrassed banks

Pride month means only one thing: the chance for corporations to embarrass themselves with the latest right-on social media stunt. This year it was the turn of Halifax, which took to Twitter last week to declare that ‘Pronouns matter’ alongside an image of its new-style staff name badge, featuring the words ‘she/her/hers’ underneath. Other banks

Guto puts his foot in it (again)

Oh dear. It seems that gabby Guto Harri has done it again. The revelations about Chris Pincher have put the No. 10 comms chief and his colleagues in No. 10 on the back foot –  not least because the Tamworth MP’s promotion to deputy chief whip in February came just days after Harri’s own appointment.

Ben Wallace’s weird war of words

Just what is up with Ben Wallace? The Defence Secretary is widely thought to have had a ‘good war’ in Ukraine, receiving much praise within parliament and outside it for the way he’s handled Britain’s response. Yet Mr S can’t help but wonder about some of the Lancashire MP’s recent rhetoric. Just this week he