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
A very undiplomatic row has broken out at the Foreign Office over the use of Chevening. The 115-room grace-and-favour residence has traditionally been used as the Foreign Secretary’s country house but last week’s reshuffle has caused a major headache for No. 10 after Dominic Raab was replaced by Liz Truss. Raab, who was demoted from the
Labour conference begins this Saturday and already expectations are running high. Ahead of his first in-person appearance as leader, Keir Starmer has dropped the season’s hottest release – an 11,500 word personal essay on his vision for Britain. There’s talk of rule changes, factional disputes and all kinds of rows over obscure procedure on the conference floor
‘The House of Lords’ remarked Clement Attlee is ‘like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days.’ But there’s more vim and vigour in the current vintage and now peers are fizzing with righteous anger. The source of the outrage? Recent efforts by certain staff in the Palace to usurp what many feel are
Over the summer Britain has been facing something of an employment crisis. Shops, bars and restaurants have all had a tough time recruiting workers, forcing bosses to up their salary offers. And it appears no man in Parliament knows that better than the Member for Delyn, Rob Roberts. For those not aware, Roberts’ main claim to fame since
Listening to Boris Johnson delivering his pearls of climate wisdom to the United Nations this week, Steerpike could not help but wonder from where the Prime Minister draws his eco-inspiration. Luckily a resurfaced clip this week serves as a useful reminder of the top scientific advisors the Tory leader once relied on: none other than
For a movement dedicated to dramatically reducing the world’s CO2 emissions, Britain’s eco-warriors certainly produce a lot of hot air. That at least appeared to be the case when Liam Norton of Insulate Britain appeared on Good Morning Britain today. Norton was on the show to explain why his fellow activists were currently blockading the
You can take the boy out of journalism but you can’t the journalism out of the boy. That’s the rule Prime Minister Boris Johnson proved yet again last night in his Oval Office press event with President Joe Biden. Steerpike understands that the White House was not expecting the two leaders to field inquiries from
On Saturday it was the seventh anniversary of the Scottish vote on independence – how time flies. That contest saw a decisive ten point majority against separation; not that you’d know it from the way Nicola Sturgeon conducts her affairs. The SNP First Minister succeeded Alex Salmond in the post just weeks after the plebiscite
The last few months have been a period of change for SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford. The waistcoat-wearing MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber placed one of his two Skye homes on sales for £400,000 and quit his £39,000-a-year directorship of Golden Charter – the investment firm which gets its money from pre-paid funeral plans. The company caused Blackford a
It’s been a tough pandemic for all of us here in Britain. Lockdowns, supply shortages, over-zealous policemen and Matt Hancock’s gurning face – there’s been a shortage of joy these past 18 months. But now Mr S is delighted to discover there is light at the end of the tunnel: a forthcoming book bonanza by
Ping! No, not the latest sound of the dreaded test and trace app. An email has arrived in Steerpike’s inbox, subject line: ‘HANVEY CALLS FOR “UNITED FRONT” TO DEFEAT DRACONIAN POWERS.’ It is of course the latest dispatch from Scotland’s little-loved sixth party, Alba, Holyrood’s home for the dispossessed and the never-possessed. Intrigued, Mr S
Justin Trudeau’s snap election has just gone from bad to worse. The incumbent Canadian Prime Minister decided last month to call a snap election to improve his parliamentary standing. It was a contest no-one wanted (or expected) and the move seems to have backfired spectacularly. Hectored by anti-vaxxers, lambasted for his Covid record and lampooned as ‘UnCanadian’ for
It is four days since the US, UK and Australia announced their historic security pact in the Asia-Pacific but there are few signs of anger abating from the usual suspects. The deal will let Australia build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using technology provided by America. Cyber ability and undersea technologies will also be shared in the pact,
The Tory party has had a difficult relationship with China in recent years. David Cameron and George Osborne’s ‘Golden era’ of Sino-UK diplomacy foundered on the rock of Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang while Boris Johnson’s backbenchers have consistently urged a tougher line on tech companies like Huawei. The G7 summit in June illustrated the
Fear has been the watchword of Westminster this week, as nervy ministers check to see whether they have survived the cull. Their civil servants meanwhile have had no such troubles, able to wait in their Whitehall offices to comfort, console or congratulate their political masters and listen to yet more interminable farewell speeches from those unceremoniously
Politics is all about priorities and the new Cabinet has certainly shown that. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is hunting among hacks for a new media special adviser, keen to conscript a lieutenant to fight the Tory culture wars. Liz Truss and Dominic Raab are divided over who gets to use the Foreign Office home Chevening –
There were many fine speeches made in last month’s emergency debate on Afghanistan. Peers and MPs queued up to deliver their musings on the Taliban takeover, in spite of twenty years of blood and treasure. From rising stars to extinct volcanos, backwoodsmen to bootlickers, the tributes poured fourth with liberal mentions aplenty of Vietnam and betrayal.
It’s not been a great week for Humza Yousaf. The under-fire SNP health secretary has been a fixture of newspaper headlines this week over ambulance waiting times after telling long-suffering Scots to ‘think twice’ about ordering one amid pressure on the country’s health service. Humiliatingly, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has today been forced to call in
It’s been quite the few months for Michael Gove. The Tory party’s answer to Angela Rayner yesterday bagged himself another new title: Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government with added cross-government responsibility for levelling up and retaining ministerial responsibility for the Union and elections. This comes after a summer where he announced his forthcoming divorce with
After six hours of speculation, most in SW1 seem ready to re-shuffle off their mortal coil. As the hacks and hangers-on picks over who’s up and who’s down, attention has focused on the newly-appointed Culture Secretary. Former nurse and part-time novelist Nadine Dorries succeeds Oliver Dowden in the post, having served two years in the health
