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
Boris Johnson has never been a conventional politician. Whether it was spearheading Vote Leave or leveraging Have I Got News For You, he’s always shown a willingness to embrace an unorthodox approach to public life – as evidenced, perhaps, by his colourful personal affairs. In office he’s enraged the Sir Humphreys of Whitehall by bulldozing
Throughout the past three years, both Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have never been shy about taking a swing at Boris Johnson. Whether it be pandemic restrictions or Brexit negotiations, the SNP and Labour first ministers are among the first to stick the boot into their London counterpart in their haste to distance themselves from
For years the Biff, Chip and Kipper books have been a staple of the primary school child’s literary diet – with sprogs across the country following the magical adventures of the three siblings and their friends. But perhaps no longer. The mop-topped trio has come under fire this week after the children were accused of
It’s just one week to go until the local elections and up in Scotland, the SNP have sportingly decided to dedicate a day to highlighting the kind of successful administration which voters can expect if their party candidates are voted into office. For no less than three separate incidents happened in the last 24 hours
Emerging blearily from his hangover this morning, Steerpike was greeted with the dulcet tones of a Cabinet minister, gravely intoning on Times Radio about the perils of Westminster drinking. Recent revelations about MPs’ behaviour, they suggested, raise more fundamental questions about the culture at the very heart of our democracy and the temptations available to our honourable
It’s groundhog day in Westminster as sexual ethics becomes the topic of conversation once again. There have been a flurry of stories in recent weeks about the behaviour of honourable members in parliament, none of which have particularly edifying. First there were the revelations about the disgraced ex-MP Charlie Elphicke and the subsequent suspension of his (still-serving)
Russia’s intelligence operation has let Vlad down once again. Moscow’s top spooks and apparatchiks used to be feared and admired in equal measure: dark arts, double agents, defections and disinformation – it all sounded terribly impressive. Yet that daunting reputation is just one of the many Russian casualties which perished in Putin’s Ukraine expedition. Repeated intelligence failings
Emmanuel Macron vowed to unite France following his decisive election triumph over Marine Le Pen – but it seems not all voters are willing to embrace their re-elected president. On a walkabout in Cergy on the outskirts of Paris, Macron was pelted by a bunch of cherry tomatoes. Luckily for Macron, the vegetables didn’t reach their target:
The finest QCs in all of Twitterdom have made much out of the Johnson government, firing off law suits at the drop of the hat. But while token victories at London’s High Court are trumpeted as earth-shattering defeats for the wicked Tories, the shenanigans of Nicola Sturgeon’s government in Scotland get far less publicity in the
After cross-party condemnation and a Commons summons by Lindsay Hoyle, it was only natural that the Mail would hit back over its Angela Rayner story. The Daily Mail has today ridden to the rescue of its sister newspaper the Mail on Sunday, aiming a double-barrelled blast at both the Speaker and Labour’s deputy leader. In a
Once we had Dimbleby and Day: now it’s Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan. The two TV pundits have been trading insults this month ahead of last night’s launch of TalkTV, with both now seen as the figureheads of their two respective network channels. There’s Farage, the self-styled saviour of GB News, which launched in June, and Morgan, the well-remunerated
‘Jaw jaw’ remarked Churchill ‘is always better than war war.’ And some of London’s finest jaws were being put to good use last night as the cream of the capital’s consular circuit mingled, chatted and wolfed down canapés at the Diplomat magazine awards. From Namibia to Nicaragua they came, packed into Mayfair’s glitzy Biltmore hotel in Grosvenor Square, ambassadors
Rayner-gate rumbles on into day three, with no sign yet that the press have bored of talking about themselves. The Deputy Labour leader was accused by an anonymous Tory MP in the Mail on Sunday of ‘flashing’ the Prime Minister at PMQs, prompting wall-to-wall criticism across every media outlet. Radio 4 led its 6 o’clock news programme with Speaker
China is back on the agenda in Westminster. Whether it’s Boris’s trip to India or a Beijing-based take-over of Newport Wafer Fab, it’s hard to escape the flutter of the five-starred red flag. And there’s few signs of that abating any time soon, with leading US Senator Marco Rubio launching an attack this month on
Westminster has been ablaze with indignation. What’s the cause this time – another Downing Street lockdown party? No, on this occasion it’s an article in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday about Angela Rayner. The Deputy Labour leader was accused by an anonymous Tory MP of ‘flashing’ the Prime Minister at PMQs, in the manner of Sharon Stone
It’s not just The Smiths who warned of panic on the streets of London. The capital’s crime rate isn’t doing terribly well these days with five stabbings, a shooting and an acid attack all in the past week. Indeed, 2021 was a record year for teenage homicides in the great metropolis. Even former boxing champion Amir Khan
The government seems keen to conduct something of a war on Whitehall. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minster for government efficiency, has even taken to leaving calling cards in empty offices in order to encourage civil servants to return to their workplaces. But hybrid working isn’t the only problem facing the civil service: a more costly issue,
Online offence is back in the news after a man received a suspended sentence of 10 weeks for sending a ‘grossly offensive’ viral video of a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire. It’s an issue that the Tory party have mixed views on: many of its MPs claim to stand for free speech but
The Express – home of the Crusader, William Hickey and Ann Widdecombe’s columns. Lord Beaverbrook’s baby has enjoyed its ups and downs over the decades but has its fans in Westminster, with Tory backbenchers organising a special virtual ‘Blue Collar Conservatives’ together back in 2020. And while the daily newspaper has undergone something of a rebrand in recent years, under its
Dogs bark, cows moo and the SNP duck their failings. It seems as though every day brings fresh revelations about Nicola Sturgeon’s regime in Scotland as more and more questions are asked about her party’s record in office. The only novelty is the sheer range of scandals which can outrage, shock and rile: last week it was