Get a free copy of Douglas Murray’s new book

when you subscribe to The Spectator for just $15 for 12 weeks. No commitment – cancel any time.
SUBSCRIBE
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

Matt Hancock’s Sky News dig

Two regular faces have been rather absent from Sky News of late: morning anchor Kay Burley and political editor Beth Rigby. The pair were taken off air – Burley for six months and Rigby for three – after they were accused of breaching social distancing rules at Burley’s birthday bash.  So, Mr S was intrigued by

Watch: Boris tries to mute Angela Merkel

Boris Johnson today hosted a virtual meeting of the G7, with representatives dialling in from around the world to discuss the equitable distribution of vaccine doses. But while the group may claim to represent almost half of the world’s GDP, it’s clear the heads of state are still struggling with Zoom as much as everyone

Watch: Boris Johnson’s OJ Simpson gag

Boris Johnson was in Wales today visiting a mass vaccination centre – as part of the government’s victory lap after meeting its target of giving 15 million people their first vaccine dose by mid-February. The occasion was perhaps the perfect opportunity to highlight the good work the government has done on vaccines in recent months. The Prime

Lansman plots his Cornish comeback

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Five years ago, Tony Benn’s former bag carrier was staging the most extraordinary Labour coup, ushering in the disastrous Bennite restoration that was Jeremy Corbyn’s rule.  Then he went on to found Momentum — Labour’s party within a party, the vanguard of the proletariat that would keep Labour’s wayward liberal

Steerpike

Hancock’s vaccine passport confusion

Will they, won’t they? Only yesterday the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was saying vaccine passports were ‘under consideration’ — going directly against what Nadim Zahawi said just days before when he ruled out vaccine passports as discriminatory and un-British.  Raab was clear that the UK was looking at both domestic and foreign passports: that as well

Nicola Sturgeon’s impossible achievement

Earlier this week, the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon boasted that 99.9 per cent of older people in care homes had been vaccinated. An impressive figure, one that she deserves to boast about — providing, of course, she acknowledges the successful vaccine drive has been thanks to the whole United Kingdom.  Now though it seems

Greek PM’s lockdown larks

To break your own lockdown rules once could be seen as a mistake, to do it twice might suggest a hint of arrogance. Although who could blame Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis when faced slap-up Mediterranean lunch on an Aegean island? Well, it seems quite a few Greeks can and do.  The centre-right politician was also snapped in December, stood

Macron eyes up a new career

How is France dealing with its latest Covid wave? Not particularly well, if you listen to the director of epidemiological research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Earlier this week Arnaud Fontanet, who sits on the French version of Sage, said that Macron’s approach risks repeating the ‘tragedy of the English’ as the Kent variant spreads across the

Steerpike

Dilyn’s taxpayer-funded photoshoot

Oh dear. Since Dilyn the dog entered 10 Downing Street in 2019, the rescue puppy has fallen victim to a number of brutal briefings. First, it was reported that he was rather unpopular in the building on account of his noisy antics — a claim furiously denied by Boris Johnson’s fiance Carrie Symonds. Then after the Vote Leave faction departed

Steerpike

Watch: EU’s jab at Britain’s vaccine arms-race

The EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has been in the firing line in recent weeks, over the EU’s failure to procure enough vaccine doses. The Commission’s haphazard programme has left officials scrambling for excuses to explain why the bloc has come up short, with various EU leaders hitting out at AstraZeneca, Britain’s one-dose

Steerpike

Burnham makes life difficult for Starmer

Oh dear. Sir Keir Starmer has had a difficult few days as Labour leader, coming under criticism both from the Westminster commentariat and his own party over his performance. Critics say Starmer is too timid and is failing to make his mark. So, what better time for a former leadership hopeful to once again raise

Von der Leyen gets that sinking feeling

HMS Britain seems to be a nippier beast after her Brexit refit. That is, at least, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.  Earlier today the embattled Eurocrat admitted that when it comes to Covid vaccine procurement, the European bloc is a ‘tanker’ by comparison to the UK’s ‘speedboat’. When asked about her ability

Watch: parish council meeting descends into chaos

Why are academic disputes so vicious? Because the stakes are so small – or so the saying goes. The same could probably be said of parish council meetings. Though they make up a small and vital part of our democratic life, these local bodies also have a rather unfortunate habit of being dominated by petty

Steerpike

Johnny Mercer takes another swipe at Rishi

Oh dear. Rishi Sunak is the subject of criticism from lockdown supporters everywhere this morning over a Telegraph front page detailing the Chancellor’s apparent concerns that scientists are moving the goal posts on when lockdown ought to end. Treasury sources are keen to play down the report – but the aspect that has Mr S’s

Boris and Keir’s Commons argy bargy

At PMQs today, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed over the latter’s support in the past for the European Medicines Agency – which as Mr S pointed out, appeared to involve Keir Starmer potentially misleading the House of Commons. It now sounds though like the pair’s argument continued outside the Chamber. The Sun reports that

Steerpike

Keir Starmer’s misleading European Medicines Agency remarks

Oh dear. Sir Keir Starmer was in a particularly prickly mood this afternoon, as he faced Boris Johnson at PMQs, and the pair clashed over border closures. But the Labour leader appeared most riled when the Prime Minister pointed out that Starmer had fought for Britain to stay in the European Medicines Agency – a move

Philip Hammond’s Brexit muddle

You won’t be surprised to learn that Philip Hammond was no big fan of Brexit. But Mr S was still somewhat taken aback by just how little the former chancellor made of Theresa May’s ‘Brexit means Brexit’ strategy: ‘My assessment of Theresa May’s Prime Ministership, in terms of Brexit, is that she dug a 20-foot-deep hole