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
The great ministerial merry go round continues at pace. Liz Truss’s triumph in the leadership race has seen a number of ambitious MPs enter government for the first time; among them is Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His new frontbench role as security minister means he has to surrender his post
Tory wives: where would we be without them? Among the casualties of today’s reshuffle was Johnny Mercer, the veterans’ minister who duly published a farewell letter on Commons headed paper, defending his record in post. The former soldier wrote how ‘disappointed’ he was ‘to leave a role I established’ adding, acidly, that ‘any Prime Minister
Move over Liz Truss, the real leaders of our global future are in Manchester this week – not Westminster. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, having apparently got bored of their LA exile, appeared at the One Young World Summit to speak to the next generation of ambitious strivers. The event, described as ‘a chance
It’s Liz versus Liz today as the Queen prepares to kiss hands at Balmoral with Britain’s 56th Prime Minister. While attention will focus this morning on Boris Johnson’s imminent resignation statement, it will thereafter shift to his successor, as she becomes Her Majesty’s 15th First Minister of her 70 year-long reign. But Truss is slightly
Quick, nurse! Those boss-eyed Brit-bashers at the New York Times are at it again! The antics of America’s least reliable news source continue to amuse and irritate in equal measure, with the NYT concocting an image of Britain for its readers that seems strikingly at odds with reality. In the fevered imaginations of the average
The Westminster WhatsApps are ablaze this morning with the age old question: who is up and who is down? With Liz Truss’s coronation expected just before lunchtime, attention has turned to the identity of her new cabinet. The dynamics and timing of the contest have meant the last few weeks of this election has become
Well, that was…interesting. The BBC’s flagship political interview show, hosted first by Sir David Frost then by Andrew Marr, relaunched this morning under Laura Kuenssberg. On paper, she had it all sorted: she secured an interview with leadership frontrunner Liz Truss after she had pulled out of one with Nick Robinson just days before. It
Crime is on the rise in London but spare a thought for the real victim in all of this: Cressida Dick. The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner quit her post in February after a string of scandals on her watch. But an independent report has today claimed that she ‘felt intimidated’ into resigning after an ultimatum
There’s very much an end of days feel in SW1 right now. With parliament in recess and a Truss coronation imminent, many of Boris Johnson’s ancien régime are making the most of their final week in office, attending endless leaving drinks and working out which consultancy they want to jump to next. But in the watering
Whoever wins the Tory leadership on Monday will face a mountain of problems from day one. War, inflation, spiralling costs and a mutinous party: the in-tray will be veritably groaning. One issue that won’t perhaps be at the top of the list will be the future of the Prime Ministerial TikTok account: 10downingstreet. Officials have
Throughout the leadership contest, Liz Truss has been all too keen to paint herself as a Brexit queen, keen to slay the dragons of Brussels. Yet Mr S has been doing some digging into the Foreign Secretary’s past and it transpires she was rather more of a Europhile than previously revealed. Truss even headed up
The Tory leadership race is almost over and at last a new PM will be announced. Most expect that next Tuesday it will be Liz Truss, the Insta-loving, Beyonce-quoting, cheese-bashing Foreign Secretary, who will be stutting her way up Downing Street to the famous door of No. 10. Her first order of business – after
All political lives, famously, end in failure: but not so for Tristram Hunt, the former Labour education spokesman now recast as Director of the V&A. Back in 2017, Hunt managed to leverage his academic credentials to trade in life on the backbenches under Jeremy Corbyn to run one of the world’s largest art museums instead.
The winds of change are blowing through Paddington, with news reaching Steerpike of something of a bloodbath over at GB News. The self-proclaimed ‘People’s Channel’ is currently undergoing a shake-up in its personnel and programming, with staff being told today of changes to take effect from the beginning of next week. All individual shows between
Given the state of the country, you’d have thought MPs might have better things to do than abuse and belittle those running the parliamentary expenses scheme. But that’s exactly what some of our elected masters appear to have been doing in recent months, according to a Freedom of Information request sent by Mr S. Staff
It’s Tuesday. That means that once again, it’s time to listen to Meghan of Montecito talk about herself on her new podcast Archetypes. This week, to pad out the hour, Meghan brings in Mariah Carey to talk about the ‘complexities’ surrounding the word diva. Oh great, more words that Meghan doesn’t like! Steerpike was starting
When you’re preparing for power, there’s not a moment to spare. Fresh from knifing each other in the pages of the Mail on Sunday, team Truss have now turned their attention to government, insisting there’s no time to now do Nick Robinson’s long-awaited interview with the Foreign Secretary. And few know that better than Kwasi
‘I have a lot to say’ claims Meghan Markle ‘until I don’t.’ But there’s no sign of such silence happening anytime soon, given the Duchess of Sussex’s latest sally in the pages of an American magazine. Whatever happened to all that privacy, eh? In a 6,400 word cover piece for The Cut, the Duchess certainly
There was a lot more rubbish than usual at the Edinburgh festivals this August. With refuse workers out on strike, the debris piled high in the Scottish capital and other cities, much to the dismay of visiting tourists. But one attendee who remains clearly undaunted is Nicola ‘friend of the stars’ Sturgeon, who last night
With a week to go until a new prime minister enters 10 Downing Street, the frontrunner Liz Truss has been criticised so far for limiting her media appearances – instead focussing on meeting the membership and making plans for government. So her decision to belatedly agree to a BBC interview with Nick Robinson won her praise.
