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
Cressida Dick may be gone but will her replacement be even worse? The under-fire Metropolitan police commissioner quit the job on Thursday after five years in the role, meaning that three of the last four Met bosses have now been forced out in disgrace. Dick’s departure has prompted an immediate search for her successor. Unfortunately, one
As yesterday’s attack showed, there’s no love lost between Boris Johnson and John Major. Mr S has previously chronicled the many times Major has criticised his successor, with whom he so publicly disagreed over Brexit. The enmity between the two men stretches back to the early 1990s when Johnson was the Telegraph’s main man in Brussels
John Bercow may be gone but his legacy still lives on. The former Speaker of the House of Commons quit the role back in November 2019 but new costs from his tenure at the helm are still being uncovered more than two years on. Steerpike has done some digging and it seems the scandal-hit Speaker
Oh dear. Guto Harri’s first week as Boris Johnson’s new press chief hasn’t got off to a great start. First, he took a pop on Twitter at Dominic Cummings. Then he gave an interview in which he offered faint praise to his boss – declaring him not to be a ‘complete clown’. Next he rocked up Downing
What a U-turn. Despite insisting this morning that she had ‘no intention’ of quitting as Metropolitan Police chief, Cressida Dick has this evening been forced out of her role running Britain’s biggest force. Sadiq Khan was the decisive factor which prompted this change in Dick’s fortunes after the London mayor said he no longer had confidence in
It’s a difficult time for libraries. Budget cutbacks, online competitors and rival forms of media all point to a grim future for bibliophiles. Still, at least one trend is creating new jobs: the ever-increasing demand for PC-approved books means woke curators are very much in vogue. And now it seems that even the crown jewel
Since being elected in 2019, a number of the ‘Red Wall’ Tory MPs have displayed something of an enthusiastic approach to social media activity. Lee Anderson generated headlines with his Facebook posts on England footballers ‘taking the knee’ at last year’s Euros while Dehenna Davison has caused a stir with her TikTok videos. But few
Liz Truss is out on Russia, meeting the Kremlin’s finest in between various photoshoots. But while the Foreign Secretary might enjoy cosplaying as Mrs T in her finest furs, her appearance this afternoon with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was more Theresa May than Iron Lady. In an awkward encounter Lavrov told a joint press conference that UK diplomats came ‘unprepared’
Those heading up Scotland’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic have had some well-documented trouble separating their fandom for Nicola Sturgeon from their public health role. Professor Devi Sridhar, a member of the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Advisory Group, has made so many appearances in Steerpike she merits her own byline. Sridhar has previously gushed that: I
If Prince Harry really does want to stamp out ‘disinformation’ he ought to have a look at what’s going up in Scotland. Two of the SNP’s leading lights have claimed in recent weeks that Scottish pensions would be guaranteed in a post-Scexit nation, despite both the UK government and independent pension experts pointing out the opposite.
With case rates falling and Omicron (hopefully) in decline, it’s a good time to remember some of the more hysterical predictions about the last Covid variant. For the South African doctor who discovered the Omicron strain has today given an interview to German newspaper Welt in which she reveals she was ‘pressured’ into describing the variant as more
Is Boris Johnson’s claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile ‘false’? The BBC certainly thinks so. During the Radio 6 bulletins last night, a BBC newsreader stated: The Commons Speaker has rebuked Boris Johnson over his false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile after the Labour leader was targetted by
Parliament’s work and pensions committee isn’t normally where the fireworks fly, but all that changed this morning. Labour backbencher Neil ‘Carling’ Coyle tried to take a pop at Thérèse Coffey, the closest thing 2022 has to a modern Barbara Castle. After Coyle became frustrated with the answers he was getting from the karaoke-loving Cabinet minister, he
Priti Patel likes to talk a good game on foreign crooks. In numerous tweets and briefings, she’s railed against those who ‘poison our communities, ruin lives and cash in on vulnerable people,’ as part of the Witham MP’s war on crime. But when it comes to deporting those convicted of crimes, it seems that the Home Secretary’s record doesn’t
Sajid Javid is having a bit of a tough time at the moment. Under pressure from Labour’s new golden boy Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary was forced to admit to MPs today that the NHS waiting list in England, which already stands at a record six million, will keep on growing for another two years.
It’s by-election day in Parliament. No, not another chance for voters to give Boris Johnson a bloody nose over ‘partygate’; but rather the opportunity for one of Britain’s blue-blooded families to take their place in the Upper House. For this contest is fought in the Lords, not the Commons, with votes limited to Tory peers
Clashes between special advisers and civil servants have become a fixture of the Whitehall landscape in recent years. Who can forget the Cabinet Office tweeter who fired off the ‘arrogant and offensive’ message in the middle of Barnard Castle-gate? But now it seems the Sir Humphreys of SW1 are content to leave direct confrontation aside
Whether it’s online, print, radio or broadcast, it seems we can’t get enough of politics these days. And not content with traditional forms of media, an ever-expanding number of MPs are branching out into podcasts to share their thoughts with the wider world. Around half-a-dozen have launched their own shows in recent months, following in
An uneventful Monday was enlivened this evening by some rather unappealing scenes outside parliament. Walking back from a Ministry of Defence briefing, Sir Keir Starmer was surrounded by a group of foul-mouthed anti-lockdown protesters who yelled he was a ‘traitor,’ forcing the Labour leader to leave with a police escort. Starmer had to be bundled
Oh dear. It seems that the most illiberal party in Great Britain is at it again. In the nationwide haste to condemn the comedian Jimmy Carr for his remarks about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in his Netflix special, an elected councillor from (who else?) the SNP has called for prosecutions. Not just for Carr