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
It’s a tribute to the geniuses within Downing Street that they’ve managed to take a three-month-old story about a four-year-old incident and make it one of the most-discussed issues in British politics. The story is, of course, a report by the Times that Boris Johnson tried to appoint his then-lover Carrie Symonds as his chief-of-staff
Whether it’s crumbling rooftiles, weekly fire alarms being activated or bacteria in the water supplies, the creaking Palace of Westminster is all too often a perfect state-of-the-nation parable. Everyone agrees that the place needs fixing: the question is, should MPs move out to allow restoration projects to happen unencumbered? It’s currently costing an extra £2
The cost-of-living crisis might be gripping the country but there was no sign of that at the Tories’ summer party last night. Held in the sumptuous setting of Kensington’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the party put aside its various troubles for one night at least – not least claims about a potential conflict of interest for
It seems that Scotland isn’t the only thing failed by the SNP. Britain’s greatest grievance-merchants are (rightly) being hauled over the coals today for their treatment of Patrick Grady’s male victim, after Ian Blackford told a room of MPs last Tuesday that the disgraced sex pest had their ‘absolute full support.’ One of those who
Will the last BBC presenter to leave please turn out the lights? Lewis Goodall of Newsnight is the latest star to leave W1A, joining the Beeb tribute act over at Global Radio, owners of LBC. In recent months, other stars to have made such a journey include Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, Andrew Marr, Eddie Mair
It’s another good day not to be in Downing Street. Spinners there will be bracing themselves for questions today about the curious case of a story about Carrie Johnson which featured in Saturday’s edition of the Times. The report – by veteran scoop-getter Simon Walters – claimed that Boris Johnson tried to make his then-mistress
It’s not been Ian Blackford’s best weekend. On Friday night, the Daily Mail exposed a secret recording in which the Westminster leader directed his MPs to back a sex pest in their party. Blackford told SNP members on Tuesday night to give Patrick Grady their ‘absolute full support’ after the latter was found by an
To Doncaster, home of the horses and the Northern Research Group conference. But there was only one race on the lips of attendees at the Doncaster track today: the leadership race. To the disappointment of the assembled Tory MPs, Boris Johnson pulled out of a scheduled afternoon appearance to visit Kyiv. He was meant to
Boris Johnson has never been one of nature’s diplomats. Unconventional, irreverent, Brexit-backing and norm-defying, the blonde bombshell’s two-year tenure at the Foreign Office is now remembered as one of the less happy periods of his political life. Still, even cynical veterans of the ambassadorial circuit were left unimpressed with the Prime Minister’s performance at the
For the past two years Sir Keir Starmer has done his damnedest to distance Labour from the Jeremy Corbyn years. He’s stripped his predecessor of the whip, purged his party of many of his supporters and shifted Labour policy across a swathe of issues. Starmer even mocked Boris Johnson at the despatch box this week
The explosion in new TV channels hasn’t been good news for all broadcasters but it’s certainly benefited one group of people: media-loving MPs. The register of MPs’ interests has today been published and the contrast in hourly pay between different right honourable members makes for fascinating reading. David Lammy, for instance, has made more than
First it was drugs, then it was the press. Now Lindsay Hoyle and the grandees on the House of Commons Commission have turned their guns on the demon drink in a bid to restore parliament’s reputation. They are seeking to end the age-old tradition of ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ in the Palace of Westminster, whereby staff enjoy
More than three months on, the ramifications from Putin’s invasion are still being felt across the globe. Sanctions, protests, boycotts – couldn’t happen to a nicer despot. One minor consequence in England though has been the demise of Coventry council’s twin city relationship with Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad. The Labour-run authority temporarily cut ties with
Oh dear. It seems that starting an unprovoked war is not the best way to inspire foreign investment in your country. For 25 years, the Kremlin has touted the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) as Russia’s equivalent of the World Economic Forum, using the summit to try to attract the forces of capital. But
Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello, what’s goin’ on ‘ere, then? Boris Johnson might have shrugged off partygate but Sir Keir Starmer is not so lucky. The investigation by Durham police into whether the Labour leader and his deputy broke lockdown restrictions in April 2021 is still ongoing, with no end date yet announced. Sir Keir has pledged to quit if
There’s a spectre haunting Westminster: the spectre of Steve Bray. Steerpike envies those readers unfamiliar with the loud-mouthed protester, who has spent much of the past four years making life miserable for those who work in the House of Commons. Bray, known to many as ‘Stop Brexit’ man, spends a lot of his time disrupting
It’s a stressful time in government. Inflation, strikes, Northern Ireland – it’s all a bit 1970s, but without the decent tunes. Central to Boris Johnson’s hopes of re-election is the levelling-up agenda: a task entrusted to the ever-effective Michael Gove, the Tory equivalent to Pulp Fiction’s Winston Wolf. Managing all of Gove’s responsibilities – which
The economy is tanking, the public services are in peril. So what do you do if you’re Nicola Sturgeon? Promise another independence referendum! That’s right, the queen of the nats is out on tour again, dusting off all the great classics to keep her fanatical fan base happy. The First Minister will today publish the
Like many Londoners, Mr S was baffled to see our beloved mayor cavorting around America last month. As crime in the capital continued to soar, Sadiq Khan found time for a four-day jaunt across the States, in which time London suffered a murder and an eight-man mass brawl at Selfridges. The highlight of Khan’s trip
Visitors to Westminster this morning might have experienced a meteorological disturbance shortly after 10 a.m as SW1 types took a sharp intake of breath. For Carole Cadwalladr, the ever-online Observer journalist has today won her libel case against brash Brexit-backer Arron Banks, the founder of Leave.EU. Banks tried to sue Cadwalladr for defamation over two instances