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

Watch: BBC’s cringe New Year monologue

Some accuse Britain of being a mawkishly sentimental nation. So what better rejoinder could be offered to that than the BBC’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display, when an army of drones spelled out the letters ‘NHS’ in the sky. As Big Ben struck midnight yesterday, actor Giles Terera recited a poem more twee than a tea commercial, eulogising the country’s

Gongs galore: the New Year’s Honours List

It’s that time of year again. As sure as ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and Sadiq’s fireworks farce, poring over the names of the newly-published Honours List is a time-honoured custom on New Year’s Day. Mr S got his embargoed copy and is delighted to regale his readers with news of the big-hitters collecting gongs in 2022. Tennis

Steerpike

The Steerpike Awards of 2021

Well 2021 is at an end and what a hell of a year it’s been. There were laughs, tears, shock, disgust and despair – and that was just the reaction to footage of Matt Hancock’s video nasty. The past twelve months have seen various ups and downs in Britain and abroad, ranging from the highlights of the vaccine

Revealed: Huawei’s Oxbridge millions

British universities have received twice as much funding from Huawei as previous estimates suggest, according to new figures obtained by The Spectator. Freedom of Information requests sent by Steerpike show that a further £28.7 million has been received from the Chinese tech giant by nine leading UK universities, on top of the sums identified in a landmark report by

David Cameron winds his office up

In 2021 we bid many things farewell: Philip Green’s retail empire, England’s Euro chances and Donald Trump’s presidency. And now, joining them on the ash heap of history, appears to be David Cameron’s short-lived career as a lobbyist, after months of damning revelations about his multi-million pound efforts for Greensill Capital. After the conclusion of the Brexit wars,

Steerpike

Labour MP demands ‘free movement for all’

New year, old Labour. As 2021 draws to a close and Keir Starmer’s managers seek to establish Labour as A Very Serious Party again, it’s good to be reminded of some of the talent found on his backbenches. The Corbyn era may be over but Jezza’s children remain, still sitting in the Commons, the legacy of a

Steerpike

David Lammy’s Labour lament

Foreign affairs is a difficult brief, demanding tact, sober judgement and discretion of the highest order. So who best to embody all these qualities than Labour’s recently promoted man of the hour, David Lammy? The Shadow Foreign Secretary made his first diplomatic foray this week while appearing at this year’s Limmud festival, a Jewish event where he attempted

The ten most-read Steerpikes of 2021

Farewell then 2021 – what a year it’s been. Twelve months of Covid craziness brought with it ample opportunities to lampoon the great and the not-so-good in British public life, from narcissistic royals to inept Europhiles.  Below is a round-up of Steerpike’s most read articles from 2021, covering some of the year’s biggest moments such

Steerpike

Five howlers from Jenny Harries

It’s just two days to go until the New Year’s Honours List is announced and already speculation is rife as to who the lucky names will be. Tennis teen Emma Raducanu is set to become the youngest MBE recipient ever while outgoing 007 Daniel Craig should get a gong for his many years of fictitious sacrifice on Her

Steerpike

Labour in limbo over Covid curbs

Wes Streeting has enjoyed something of a dream start since his promotion to shadow health secretary a month ago. Confident at the despatch box and assured on a media round, his performance in the ‘Plan B’ debate had centrist dads of a certain vintage humming ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ once more. But while Labour’s poll lead

Diane Abbott’s Zero Covid crusade

With Christmas over, the turkey consumed and Maughamtide been and gone, the eyes of an anxious nation have turned once more to No.10. Boris Johnson deferred the re-introduction of restrictions last week but met with Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance today to discuss the latest Covid data. Fortunately, current indications are that no such measures

Steerpike

Lebedev’s Lords’ launch

Evgeny Lebedev is a man of many talents. Since taking up the reins as Evening Standard proprietor in 2009, he’s turned his hand to everything from newspapers and restaurants to philanthropy and property. Theatre buff, elephant lover, a man who collects famous friends like his Francis Bacon paintings: is there anything this Russian renaissance man can’t

Tim Farron’s Christmas roast

Christmas is a time for tradition and nowhere embraces it quite like Westminster. If you work in a building that looks like Hogwarts, it’s no surprise that MPs and ministers are keen to celebrate the festive customs, be that spending quality time with your (ever-growing) family like Boris or hanging out the £8 Big Ben decorations on

Steerpike

Braverman’s brush with the law

Ah student politics: is there anything quite like it? The strange creatures it attracts, the passions it unleashes, the adolescent ambition and the glorious pettiness of it all; so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. Such an ignoble tradition has spawned many of our lords and masters – Boris Johnson was an unabashed Union hack

Liverpool’s painting purge

Merseyside – the home of Roger McGough, Willy Russell and the Beatles. But it seems that despite the area’s reputation as a hotbed of the arts, not all Liverpool’s institutions of higher learning are too keen on resisting the tide of iconoclasm sweeping through Britain’s universities.  For in the aftermath of the protests which followed George Floyd’s

Corbyn chief’s Caribbean dispatch

During their four years running the Labour party, most of the protagonists in the Corbyn project became well-known faces to the British public. There was the hapless Richard Burgon and the sinister John McDonnell; the flailing Diane Abbott and the unctuous Barry Gardiner. Even backroom boys like the gum-chewing spin doctor Seumas Milne briefly became minor celebrities,

Steerpike

The BBC’s mysterious missing Xinjiang evidence

Parliament has packed up for the holidays, with MPs and peers spending their final days in SW1 desperately dodging the omnipresent Omicron variant. But Mr S was intrigued to see an interesting intervention in the Lords on the day that recess was declared. Crossbench peer Baroness Finlay popped up to grill Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad about

Steerpike

Did Sturgeon’s publicity trip break NHS rules?

Nicola Sturgeon is continuing her crusade against the Scottish press. Just yesterday, Mr S was pointing out the First Minister’s habit of criticising journalists who question her Covid policies, only for her government to then abruptly U-turn a few days later.  Shortly after the article was published, Sturgeon took to Twitter to boast about her latest ‘media-free volunteering session’

Mail exodus to The Times continues

The shenanigans at Northcliffe House have given Mr S much to write about in recent months. Whether it’s Geordie Greig’s sudden fall from grace, Ted Verity’s promotion or Lord Rothermere’s designs on DMGT, it appears that the Daily Mail creates as much drama as it reports. Unfortunately it seems that the shock return of Paul Dacre last

Steerpike

Sturgeon’s sneers at the Scottish press

Nationalism, grievance politics and a refusal to accept results which don’t go your way are not the only things Nicola Sturgeon has in common with Donald Trump. For Scotland’s First Minister has launched something of a war on the press in recent weeks, repeatedly rubbishing reporters and outlets which dare to question her handling of Covid.  Unfortunately