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
It’s been a tough year in the diary world. Covid has wrecked the usual party circuit of canapés and cocktails, with hard pressed hacks forced to pump their sources for a rapidly diminishing supply of gossip for the past 15 months. Now it appears that not even the legendary Sebastian Shakespeare is safe. Shakespeare, an Oxford
This week, the government yet again threw the country’s holiday plans into chaos, after it announced that Portugal would be moved to the ‘amber list’ on Tuesday, meaning those returning from the country will have to quarantine at home for ten days. Little did the government know though that the Portuguese travel chaos would affect
After last night’s insipid 1-0 win over Austria, England manager Gareth Southgate had plenty to say – and not just about the football itself. Responding to fans who booed when the Three Lions’ players ‘took the knee’ before the game, Southgate told journalists that ‘we have got a situation where some people seem to think it’s a
In 2019, the then-deputy prime minister of Ireland Simon Coveney spoke at the UN Human Rights Council, where he underlined Ireland’s commitment to defending human rights – which he said was strengthened by his country’s membership of the EU. As he told the summit, freedom and justice are: woven through our foreign policy, through our bilateral
It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so mind-numbingly tedious. The Bishop of St Davids, the Right Reverend Dr Joanna Penberthy, has discovered Twitter. And we’ve discovered just what goes on inside the mind of a mid-ranking Anglican bore. It is, apparently, a rather angry place — not the quiet reflective serenity one might expect
Keir Starmer’s appearance on Piers Morgan’s ‘Life Stories’ is a sign of desperation. The Labour leader knows he must do something about the dire situation his party is in, following the disastrous defeat at the Hartlepool by-election. One of the big criticisms levelled at Starmer is that he lacks charisma. His decision to agree to
After a month of Franco-British naval conflict, Brexit barbs and, most importantly, the release of Michael Barnier’s diaries, one might expect Boris Johnson’s stock in France to be low. For a certain kind of #FPBE bien-pensant, Johnson represents all that the continent should hate: British belligerence, slapdash scruff and Little Englander jingoism. Yet polling reveals that 51
The wedding of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds was a highly secretive affair. The couple tied the knot yesterday at Westminster cathedral, with key aides being kept out of the loop for fear of leaks. So Mr S was surprised to spot one high-profile Remainer pictured emerging from Downing Street in wedding attire last night,
After Dominic Cummings’s seven-hour evidence session slating Boris Johnson and his ministers, it’s been a difficult few days of press coverage for 10 Downing Street. There were even rumours last week that the Prime Minister could embark on a Cabinet reshuffle to change the news agenda. However, it seems that may not be necessary. Today
After Dominic Cummings’s explosive testimony on Wednesday, you might have thought special advisers in Downing Street would be spending the evening busily preparing their lines of rebuttal. Far from it. Mandarins, spads and operatives piled into the Downing Street garden for a belated farewell drinks for James Slack, the longtime No. 10 director of communications,
At long last the ministerial register of interests is here – a mere five months after it was due. The register was released today to accompany the findings of the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Christopher Geidt, into whether Boris Johnson’s No. 10 flat shenanigans broke the ministerial code (spoiler: he didn’t.) Mr S has spent the
It has been a ruff time in No. 10 for poor old Dilyn the dog. Adopted in September 2019, the Jack Russell-cross has been the subject of interminable briefing wars about his constant yapping, destructive tendencies and attempts to fornicate with his next door neighbour. But while not everyone in Downing Street is smitten with the
In one of the more surreal moments of Dominic Cummings’s testimony to MPs yesterday, the former No. 10 advisor suggested that Carrie Symonds and Dilyn the dog might be to blame for the UK’s sluggish coronavirus response. Cummings told MPs that on a key day in mid-March, as the government began to consider locking down,
This week’s Spectator cover article examines China’s role in the origins of the Covid virus. With many of the early decisions about the pandemic now being re-examined one year on, Mr S thought it best to ask what the British public made of this subject and the extent of Beijing’s culpability. A new poll by Redfield and Wilton — with
The BBC clearly enjoyed Dominic Cummings’s testimony yesterday, running his seven-hour appearance uninterrupted in full on its channels and writing multiple stories with headlines such as ‘The most explosive claims’ and ‘Claims cannot easily be dismissed’. Among the many targets who suffered Cummings’s wrath were members of the media who he declares were driven ‘mad’ after
After a mammoth seven hour session, Dominic Cummings’ appearance at the joint science and health committee meeting has finally ended. The former chief special adviser took aim at Cabinet ministers, Boris Johnson’s fiancée, senior Whitehall officials and Jeremy Corbyn in three different segments focusing on the national lockdowns and Britain’s test and trace system. Below are Mr
Dominic Cummings was invited to appear in front of MPs today to talk about the government’s coronavirus response in the early stages of the pandemic. A neutral observer might suggest though that the true purpose of Cummings’s visit was to demolish the health secretary Matt Hancock. Near the beginning of his evidence Cummings suggested that
D-Day is finally here. Like the rest of SW1, Mr S will be tuning into Dominic Cummings’s appearance at a Commons joint committee later today. Kick off is 9:30 a.m. with four hours of theatrics expected to focus on his criticisms of the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. The political editor of ITV Robert Peston
Amid rumours that parliamentary bosses are mulling the closure of MPs’ favourite bar, Mr S is pleased to report that some traditions remain intact. An advert appeared last week on the government contracts website for the ‘provision of frozen desserts and afternoon tea sweet selection.’ The body demanding this service? None other than the mother
It has been a tough few years for Emmanuel Macron. Elected on a tidal wave of optimism in 2017, the famously fickle French public has since soured towards the country’s youngest ever president. The ‘yellow vest’ movement, continued Islamist extremism and now the Covid pandemic have all damaged Macron’s approval ratings, which have hovered around the -20 mark