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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

The best and worst of Cummings’s online Q&A

He was once best known for his expansive, rambling blog posts but now Dominic Cummings appears to have a new favourite form of medium. Boris Johnson’s former chief special adviser announced a fortnight ago he was joining paid-for newsletter site Substack, launching his first incendiary post last Wednesday by sharing screenshots in which his former

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Remainers declare war on Fox’s biscuits

Next Thursday is election day in the Batley and Spen by-election and with polls showing a six point Tory lead, it’s no surprise CCHQ has been stepping up its ground game there. Boris Johnson was deployed on Friday to visit the constituency, taking in Batley’s largest employer, Fox’s biscuit factory, the home of kids’ favourite party

Pope puts EU founder on the road to sainthood

To many in Brussels, the French statesman is already a saint. But now Pope Francis has decided to put Robert Schuman — the foundering father of the European Union — on the path to sainthood. A decree has been issued by the Vatican recognising his ‘heroic virtues’, the first step in the formal process of canonisation. Two miracles

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John Bercow joins Labour

John Bercow has once again broken with convention. The former House of Commons Speaker has defied three centuries of tradition by announcing a return to party politics post-speakership with an ‘extraordinary broadside‘ against Boris Johnson.  His reason for joining the Labour party – or making the move official, as Tory wags now quip – is primarily

Naz Shah’s new community cohesion effort

Oh dear. It was just two weeks ago that Labour’s Naz Shah found herself in trouble for attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Bradford at which a speaker made antisemitic remarks in Arabic. Now the shadow minister for community cohesion appears to be again tempting fate after a scheduled appearance next month at a charity dinner

Labour axes its communications head

The No. 10 media operation has become notorious for releasing announcements late on a Friday night when most hacks have already filed their stories.  Now it seems Labour is learning from the masters of the dark arts, having finally pulled off a successful media strategy – revealing the resignation of its most senior communications official

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Dominic Grieve’s Bucks blunder

Following this morning’s shock by-election result, gloom and despair are gripping much of the Conservative party in the South of England. But one ex-Tory Cabinet minister was in brighter spirits today, with former Attorney General Dominic Grieve popping up on BBC News to explain why his onetime colleague turned Brexit nemesis Boris Johnson is to blame

Lords skewer the Animal Sentience Bill

Last month’s Queen Speech was noteworthy for how little it contained, with the only rabbit out of the legislative hat being (appropriately enough) the Animal Sentience Bill.  But now the proposed legislation, which would give vertebrates a legal right to feel happiness and suffering, has started to attract serious scrutiny as it enters the committee stage of

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Scottish council bans the word ‘Tories’

Political rhetoric is fairly blunt in the west of Scotland but it seems one SNP councillor has gone too far. Tony Gurney, who represents the Nationalists on North Ayrshire Council, has been hauled over the coals for using a four-letter word: Tory. At last week’s council meeting, Tory — sorry, Conservative — councillor Todd Ferguson

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Watch: Charles Walker MP calls for elections to Sage

Few MPs in the House of Commons have been as eloquent on either side of the lockdown argument as Charles Walker. The MP for Broxbourne returned to the chamber yesterday afternoon to take aim at the scientists sitting on Sage — the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Walker — who has accused Boris Johnson of treating

The top four ‘Dom bombs’ from Cummings’s Substack

Just minutes before Prime Ministers’ Questions, Dominic Cummings did what he does best: fire off another salvo in one of his long-running feuds. The former chief special adviser took to Substack to hurl another 7,249 word grenade at his onetime Tory colleagues and while it’s the screenshots of Boris Johnson calling the testing situation ‘totally fucking

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Cummings: Boris said Hancock has been ‘hopeless’

Since his eight hour long testimony to a joint select committee last month Dominic Cummings has been unusually quiet. The Vote Leave maestro has declined interview requests after levelling a litany of accusations at Boris Johnson and his government, leaving Matt Hancock and others to defend their record in various studios and parliamentary appearances. Now though he has

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Supreme Court justice’s £104 bill for 1.4 mile taxi

Members of the Supreme Court have had something of a wary relationship with ministers in recent years. Since the landmark Gina Miller verdict in January 2017 and then the unanimous prorogation case in September 2019, there have been various Tory rumblings in Westminster about moves to abolish, reform or simply rename the highest court in the land. 

BBC Newsnight presenter chased by anti-lockdown mob

It appears there was a nasty atmosphere down on Whitehall yesterday, where an anti-lockdown demonstration took place. Footage has emerged today of the BBC Newsnight presenter Nick Watt being pursued by an unpleasant mob at the event, with a group screaming at the journalist and calling him a ‘traitor’. Eventually, Watt was forced to run

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Greenslade pours oil on Troubles waters

After resigning as a visiting professor at City University in March after admitting to supporting IRA terrorists in the 1970s, Roy Greenslade has now popped up again in the institute’s student magazine XCITY. In an interview with budding hacks, published this month, the former Guardian media commentator claims that ‘given that it was more than 20 years since the

Watch: Hoyle accuses government of misleading the House

The Speaker was not holding back this afternoon when asked by Sir Edward Leigh about Boris Johnson’s 6 p.m. Covid press conference. Lindsay Hoyle laid into the government from the Speaker’s chair, accusing ministers of disrespecting parliament for failing to inform the House first of all changes to Covid restrictions. Indeed he even claimed that

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Lord Sumption reclaims his liberty

Lord Sumption was one of the starring guests on last night’s launch of GB News. The former judge, who stepped down from the Supreme Court in 2018, has enjoyed a varied career as one of Britain’s best paid barristers, a medieval historian and even as Keith Joseph’s onetime adviser but has emerged in recent months as

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One in seven Labour MPs in potential ‘hire and fire’ schemes

It’s private members’ bill week in Parliament, with lucky backbenchers who won a place in the ballot presenting their proposed laws to the Commons on Wednesday. Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who spent 24 hours in the party’s leadership race last year, is up and planning a bill to outlaw ‘fire and rehire’ tactics used by some employers to drive down pay

Watch: Andrew Neil’s opening GB News manifesto

At long last GB News is here. After months of speculation and excitement, the first national TV channel to launch in 21 years finally launched at 8 p.m. on Sunday night with chairman Andrew Neil appropriately being the first to speak on air.  He subsequently introduced various GB News stars ranging from archaeologist Neil Oliver