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
Who was the least popular man in Oxford this morning? Environment Secretary Steve Reed was certainly up there. The Labour man travelled through to the City of Dreaming Spires today to deliver a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, with the Environment Secretary keen to discuss matters like how farmers can ‘diversify’ their incomes and
Elon Musk has kept the British media busy in recent days, after persistently posting criticism of UK politicians over the grooming gangs scandal – and even calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be incarcerated. But actions have consequences and the billionaire businessman may soon be about to see what happens when he’s deemed to
A number of new Whitehall appointments have been made since the election, but there have been a couple of returning figures too. Sir Oliver Robbins is from the latter camp, with Theresa May’s former Brexit negotiator set to make a political return after accepting a top civil service job at the Foreign Office. He just
What goes around, comes around. In producing their latest attack ad, it seems Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative crowd has taken inspiration from their very own political opponents. Back in 2023, Sir Keir Starmer’s lefty lot conjured up a campaign poster in the run-up to that year’s local elections which showed then-Tory PM Rishi Sunak grinning cheerfully
It’s the big question all Westminster is asking right now. Who has got a golden ticket to Donald Trump’s inauguration? The quadrennial bash is happening in just twelve days’ time, with the great and the good all fighting to get a seat. Nigel Farage will be there, keen to show he’s still besties with ’47’
There’s no rest for the wicked. Twitter chief Elon Musk has barely come up for air over the last week with his continued attacks on the Labour Prime Minister over Britain’s grooming gang scandal. As calls for a national inquiry intensify, the tech billionaire has taken to his social media site yet again to take
It’s been an eventful week for UK-US relations. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has spent much of it berating the Labour government over Britain’s grooming gang scandal, calling first for Home Office minister Jess Phillips to take the place of far-right activist Tommy Robinson in prison before going on to say that Prime Minister Keir Starmer
All is not well in the Royal Society of Literature. It now transpires that the bosses of the prestigious 200-year-old organisation have resigned after a rather tumultuous year – and ahead of an AGM that could have seen a vote of confidence called by outraged former chairs, presidents and directors. The reason for the widespread
It’s all change at Meta HQ. As Mr S reported last week, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg – who has served as one of Mark Zuckerberg’s senior execs at the company since 2018 – is now on his way out. Taking, ironically, to rival platform Twitter, Clegg wrote that it was now ‘the right
The focus on Britain’s grooming gang scandal is very much here to stay. Calls for the government to hold a national inquiry into the matter are intensifying and the Labour government is coming under increasing pressure from opposition politicians in the wake of Elon Musk’s rather heated social media posts on the issue. Victims Minister
It’s not been a great start to the year for Sir Keir Starmer’s army. As if poor poll ratings and sporadic online attacks by Elon Musk weren’t causing enough problems, now the Labour party has landed itself in more trouble. The UK Labour party’s TikTok account was found to have released a rather bizarre video
Dear oh dear. There’s more bad news for the Labour lot as new polling by More in Common for LBC has revealed that a quarter of those who backed Sir Keir Starmer’s party in last year’s election now regret their decision. After the events of the last six months – from freebie fiascos to cronyism
After Elon Musk continued to lambast the Labour lot over the weekend, Sir Keir Starmer this morning used a press conference to hit out at the tech billionaire and defend his Home Office minister Jess Phillips – who the Twitter CEO said ‘deserves to be in prison’. The PM fumed today that ‘Jess Phillips has
Back to the curious case of Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate who also works as the government’s City minister. Sir Keir Starmer revealed this morning that the Labour minister – who has also been tasked with the job of tackling financial crime and corruption – has now referred herself to the
To Scotland, where outrage is spreading after news that a former sex pest politician has landed a top charity job. It transpires that disgraced ex-SNP MP Patrick Grady has been appointed to a senior role at a Scottish government-funded charity – while his victim claims Grady’s actions ‘ended’ his career. Good heavens… Mr S would
Elon Musk has had a busy weekend, blasting the UK government over Britain’s grooming gang scandal and even turning on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in the last 24 hours. It may be a new week, but Musk’s focus remains very much on the British Isles, with the US tech billionaire this morning taking yet
Well, that didn’t last long. Just 19 days after Nigel Farage and Elon Musk were snapped beaming together at Mar-a-Lago, the bromance is already over. Sad! It seems that the Tesla billionaire didn’t take too kindly to Farage’s (mild) rebuke of his call to release Tommy Robinson from prison. Just hours after Farage praised Musk
Oh dear. Is there trouble in paradise? For a few weeks now, Nigel Farage has been basking in a transatlantic glow thanks to the support of his buddies Stateside. The Reform party leader’s meeting with Elon Musk last month led to concern in both Labour and the Conservative party that the world’s richest man will
Parliament returns on Monday – and not a moment too soon. For one of the barmy Starmer army has found themselves splashed all over the newspapers this weekend, with the Tories now scenting blood. The Financial Times reports that City Minister Tulip Siddiq was given a two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross, free of charge in
The advent of the new year brings with it a fresh sting: the introduction of 20 per cent VAT on private school fees. Labour repeatedly argued that the move is necessary to improve standards in the state sector. But this week the Telegraph revealed that the Treasury has made no plans to ringfence the funds
