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
And so COP26 ended, not so much with a bang, but rather a whimper. Alok Sharma’s tears aside, there was a muted feel to the unveiling of Saturday’s Glasgow protocol, at which countries agreed merely to ‘phase down’ rather than ‘phase out’ coal. That sense of anticlimax was only enhanced by yet more strike action at
Well that’s the end of COP26. After a fortnight of selfies, speeches, pledges and promises, the eco-jamboree has tonight wrapped up, with Western nations expressing their ‘profound disappointment’ after China and India secured a last minute watering-down of the commitments on coal. British negotiators wanted a ‘phase out’ of unabated coal; instead the two Asian
Parliament is in the mire with sleaze aplenty. Whether it’s double jobs for six figures or foreign jaunts sparking domestics: MPs have been hitting the headlines this week for their various indiscretions, undeclared or otherwise. With politics in peril and cynicism all around, which champion of integrity can step forth to remind us of politicians at their
Like Rembrandt or Michelangelo, Mariah or Britney, Jolyon Maugham is a performance artist simply known by his first name. The journey of this Rumpole of remainers from obscurity to Twitter fame was slow but steady. He first hit the headlines during the Ed Miliband years when, as Labour’s non-dom adviser, he was revealed to have represented multiple so-called ‘celebrity tax dodge film
It’s been a tough eighteen months for staff in the Commons. Afflicted by Covid in the initial first wave, mothballed by restrictions and virtual proceedings, forced to dance to Mogg congas and mask up with face coverings, the Palace of Westminster has rarely felt like itself this past year-and-a-half. And now Mr S has found
If your poll rankings are tanking, your government is mired in sleaze and you can’t run a functioning health service, there’s only one thing for it: head to COP26 for a photoshoot. Leaders on both sides of the border have adopted this approach in recent days, with Boris Johnson heading to the eco-jamboree in a doomed
It seems that Labour MPs have difficulty handling their drink these days. Unlike the old school union bruisers who could happily sink half a dozen pints before speaking in the chamber, the current crop seem to be less adept at maintaining their composure after a Pinot or two. For last night – just as various
In his memoirs, Tony Blair did not have much good to say about his government’s seven-year long struggle to ban fox hunting. The former PM, writing in 2010, admitted he deliberately sabotaged the 2004 Hunting Act to ensure there were enough loopholes to allow hunting to continue. Confessing that he initially agreed to a ban without properly understanding
Wales doesn’t get much love from the national press these days. Among the three devolved assemblies, Cardiff Bay is very much the odd man out, not sharing the historic tensions of Stormont or the modern ones of Holyrood. The Labour government there has been in power since the Senedd’s creation; Plaid Cymru’s big push for
Prince Harry is a man of many talents. He’s an eco-obsessed ethical banker whose firm invests in the oil and gas industry. He’s an audiobook entrepreneur with a company that doesn’t produce any content. And he’s a privacy-obsessed recluse, except for when he’s making yet another public speech on his chosen issue of the day. But among his
Westminster is full of stories at present of politicians cashing in. But while much of the attention thus far has focused on the excesses of current MPs like Andrew Mitchell and Geoffrey Cox, will it soon be the turn of former MPs to be in the firing line? Already, questions have been asked as to whether Owen Paterson
Oh dear. It’s not been the best of weeks for Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. First, there was the debacle over the Standards Commissioner all of last week. Then Hoyle’s plans to review existing standards procedures leaked on Sunday – something no doubt of deep embarrassment to the Speaker, in light of his constant criticisms of ministers
International espionage: what a glamorous life it all must seem. You join the service, hoping to match wits with Her Majesty’s foes, full of dreams of Bond-like action sequences and Le Carré-esque intrigue. And instead you end up having to write to Labour MPs, begging them to stop sending you so many irrelevant letters for their own political
‘Après moi, le déluge.’ Owen Paterson may be gone but Boris Johnson is still feeling his presence. This afternoon the Commons gathered for an emergency debate on the debacle of last week, with opposition MPs queuing up to (metaphorically) give the Prime Minister a damn good kicking. Within five minutes the first ‘tinpot dictator’ taunt
Labour has been raising much hue and cry over the Owen Paterson debacle. The party’s MPs have lined up to attack the Tories for taking second jobs, with some pointing to the last Labour manifesto, which declared that ‘we will stop MPs from taking second paid jobs, with limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing.’
Is it political to support Black Lives Matter? Not according to No. 10’s most senior security adviser. Stephen Lovegrove (he/him) was until March this year the top civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, before being promoted to national security adviser in Downing Street. During an MoD staff call in June last year, Lovegrove stated supporting BLM
Case rates are falling, booster rates are sky-rocketing and Westminster is consumed by the Owen Paterson affair: what more signs are needed that normal life is resuming? And more proof, if needed, was provided by this week’s release of the updated Members’ Register of Interest, in which under-fire MPs revealed that jet-setting junkets have now resumed.
Shock! Horror! Sir John Major has attacked Boris Johnson! In a breathlessly reported appearance on the Today programme, the former Tory PM lambasted his successor for his ‘shameful’ handling of the Owen Paterson row, denouncing Johnson’s behaviour as ‘politically corrupt’ and ‘damaging at home and to our reputation overseas.’ Pretty strong stuff. Or it would be,
Following the killing of Sir David Amess, there has been much discussion in recent weeks about the safety of elected representatives. But while the public conversation has largely focused on radicalised loners, constituency surgeries and online abuse, Steerpike fears that the commentariat have overlooked the dangers still posed by hostile nation states to parliamentarians here in Westminster –
It’s not been a great week for MPs covering themselves in glory. But amid all the malarkey over Owen Paterson and Claudia Webbe, one of their colleagues was embarrassing themselves in a more traditional way: the car-crash television interview. Step forward, Zarah Sultana, whose antics on Wednesday’s Politics Live went somewhat under the radar in light