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
Following yesterday’s news that health secretary Sajid Javid had tested positive for Covid, it seemed only a matter of time before other cabinet ministers were similarly forced to self-isolate. Javid had a ‘lengthy’ meeting with Boris Johnson on Friday afternoon, just hours before his symptoms developed. So, surely the Prime Minister will be expected to
As the government prepares to lift nearly all legal Covid restrictions on Monday, ministers are at pains to emphasise that the pandemic is not over. A helpful reminder can be found in the news that Sajid Javid has today tested positive. In a video posted on Twitter, the Health Secretary — who is double jabbed
There are just six days left before the Commons rises for recess but there’s still time for one last election. The 1922 Committee, that bastion of Tory backbenchers, is currently holding elections to fill two vacant slots on its executive, with the results announced on Tuesday. Ministers, whips and paid vice chairmen of the party do
Andy Burnham is very much the flavour of the month in Labour circles at present. Having left Westminster in 2016 when it became clear he wasn’t going to become leader any time soon, he has undergone something of a renaissance as mayor of Manchester. In this capacity he gets to govern an overwhelmingly left-leaning city
Oh dear. Having squeaked home in the Batley by-election and with the summer recess less than a week away, Sir Keir Starmer probably thought he had made his way over the finish line of the parliamentary calendar. Unfortunately his party’s youth wing have been able to get one last embarrassment in before MPs pack up
Late on Sunday night, less than an hour after England lost on penalties to Italy in the European championship final, a mural of the United striker Marcus Rashford was defaced in his hometown of Withington in south Manchester. Shortly afterwards the defaced part of the mural was hidden by black bin-liners and an online campaign
Cressida Dick has tonight resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Last July, Steerpike looked at her greatest hits… This week it emerged that Cressida Dick wants to continue running the Metropolitan Police, in spite of a string of recent scandals. Dick, who became the Met’s first female commissioner in 2017 will see her contract expire
Tomorrow will mark three weeks since the Matt Hancock scandal broke. The man himself has been keeping a very low public profile since his resignation as Health Secretary on 26 June but already there is talk about an improbable return to government. Boris Johnson’s letter accepting Hancock’s resignation ended by claiming ‘your contribution to public service is
Today’s Daily Mail boldly trumpets the ‘war on obese Britain,’ splashing on the latest recommendations from food tsar Henry Dimbleby. The Leon co-founder last year released the first major review of England’s entire food system in 75 years with the second part of the report now released one year on. The Mail estimates his proposals
Next Monday is ‘freedom day’ when all social distancing restrictions are removed. Clubs will reopen, pubs will be packed, sports crowds will resume and the bells of liberty will ring out across the nation. Well, that’s the theory at least. The reality is, as Sajid Javid told the Commons on Monday, that all these venues
Could Angela Rayner be Labour’s first female leader? Her friends and allies seem to think so, judging by the level of briefing that has occurred in recent months. Beginning in the aftermath of the Hartlepool contest in May, the mischief-making culminated eight weeks later in the Times headline the day after the Batley and Spen
The last few years have been tough for Jeremy Corbyn. One minute you’re being heralded by the trustafarians of Glastonbury; the next you’re leading Labour to its worst result since 1935. Rejected by the electorate, suspended by his party, the world’s unluckiest anti-racist has found himself embroiled in a series of minor self-inflicted scandals, whether that be speaking next
What are the three words likely to turn any SNP press officer’s blood cold? James Dornan MSP. The gaffe-prone Glaswegian has found himself in more scandals than the Salmond Inquiry in recent months, culminating in last week’s social media rant at Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg after the latter tweeted his support of the Borders Bill. Dornan told
Since his Grenfell gaffe in the last election, Jacob Rees-Mogg has kept a much lower media profile, to the consternation of sketch writers across the nation. The Leader of the House now mostly saves his quips, riffes and various bon mots for his appearances at the dispatch box, announcing the government timetable or rapping New
It’s groundhog day in the House of Commons today. Another Health Secretary, another Covid announcement and now another scheduled vote on the government’s decision to abandon the Tory commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on international aid. The Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg told MPs this afternoon that there will
Regular readers of Steerpike may recall last month the 150 Oxford academics who made headlines by boycotting Oriel College and refusing to teach its students in protest at the decision to keep up a statue of Cecil Rhodes. At the time Mr S published a full register of the names of academics backing the stunt, with top of the list being
We don’t hear much from Diane Abbott these days. Since leaving the front bench in April 2020, the former shadow home secretary has largely dedicated herself to writing her forthcoming memoirs: ‘A Woman Like Me’ due in all good book stores next summer. But this weekend the Mojito swilling backbencher returned to the fray with
In a heartfelt letter addressed to Gareth Southgate, HM the Queen has sent her ‘good wishes’ to the team and praised ‘the spirit, commitment and pride’ shown by England during the Euro 2020 championship. The Queen began her letter by recalling her presentation of the World Cup to Bobby Moore 55 years ago, after Geoff Hurst
Fractious times over at Guardian towers. The long-running battle between Kath Viner, the paper’s editor, and Anette Thomas, the media group’s chief executive, concluded last month after the latter resigned over conflicting views about the Graun’s future. It’s not just the boardroom where such clashes are being played out. Mr S hears word that the
Peterborough has become something of a political lodestar for Keir Starmer’s Labour. The Cambridgeshire city hosted the launch of the party’s ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ campaign last July and provided one of the few bright spots on local election night this year, helping to elect the area’s first Labour combined authority mayor in Nik Johnson. The Economist