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
A third stint in self-isolation and some extra time alone doesn’t seem to have given Keir Starmer time to reflect on his opposition strategy. Last night Labour called on the government to prioritise the reopening of schools when the time comes to lift lockdown restrictions. Clearly a good idea — so good in fact that it’s
The Düsseldorf offices of German daily newspaper Handelsblatt will not be a happy place this morning. Last night, the respected financial paper published a 1,200 word piece claiming that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is only 8 per cent effective among the over-65s. The claim, based on anonymous sources within the German government, caused outrage. AstraZeneca responded quickly, saying the
It wasn’t long ago that the government was staging a boycott of Piers Morgan’s breakfast show. Now, Tory ministers are back on the show. But it’s safe to say there is still no love lost between those speaking on behalf of the government and Morgan. This morning, it was Therese Coffey’s turn to appear on Good
Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, opened a Pandora’s box yesterday in an interview with the Guardian, in which she praised the new US President Joe Biden for being a ‘woke guy’ and, according to the paper, appeared to suggest that those defending the Parliament square statue of Churchill were comparable to white supremacists marching
Scottish nationalists put a lot of stock in the mystical powers of independence, but this is a new one to Mr S: independence would apparently have improved Scotland’s response to Covid-19. At least according to Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University and member of the Scottish government’s Covid-19 advisory group. Interviewed
Oh dear. It wasn’t so long ago that Labour brains were suggesting to the Sunday Times they would get one over the government by sending a member of Keir Starmer’s frontbench team to the inauguration of Joe Biden. The idea was that shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy would attend after months of building relations – thereby shining a light
This weekend former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launched his ‘Project for Peace and Justice’. Ostensibly, the organisation has been set up to campaign for a ‘fairer society’ via worldwide progressive networks. It does sometimes seem though as if the group’s real purpose is to act as a branding exercise for Jeremy Corbyn himself, with the message ‘Founded
The government has finally attempted to crack down on the problem of people bringing Covid back into the UK, a mere 11 months after the pandemic began. The transport minister Grant Shapps has announced that from Monday, for the first time, travellers will be required to present a negative Covid test at the border, to
It’s now been over a year since the former Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, over the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and the ‘purge’ of 21 Tory MPs who voted against the government. After standing down in 2019, Rudd has since left frontline politics. Could the former frontbencher still
Oh dear. There are some things in life it’s probably best not to admit. Government minister Victoria Prentis found that out the hard way yesterday, when she confessed to a Lords select committee that she hadn’t bothered to read the era-defining Brexit deal which was agreed with the European Union in December. Among other things,
Alan Rusbridger’s book ‘News and how to use it’ is intended as a guide of ‘what to believe in a fake news world’. Which makes the former Guardian editor’s appearance on Russia Today (RT) somewhat curious. RT is the Kremlin’s state-controlled TV network. It has a history of downplaying stories that paint Russia in a
A feisty exchange took place at Prime Minister’s Questions today, on the subject of free school meals, after widely-shared images showed children being provided with substandard food packages. Keir Starmer went on the attack, and suggested that the meagre meals were in line with the government’s current guidance. But it was Boris Johnson who provoked
Who should get the vaccine first? Those most likely to die from Covid, you would have thought. Luckily the Corbynite twenty-something Zarah Sultana was on hand to question such ill thought out assumptions. During a science and technology select committee hearing earlier this morning, the Coventry South MP quizzed the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi over the government’s decision
When will the lockdown end? That’s a question of increasing concern to Tory MPs with Mark Harper of the Covid Recovery Group pushing for restrictions to be lifted from 8 March – three weeks after the deadline to vaccinate the most vulnerable. However, Mr S would caution against planning any socialising for that week. In this morning’s media
At tonight’s Covid press conference, the Home Secretary Priti Patel sought to defend the coronavirus restrictions against suggestions that the law was confusing and hard to follow. She said: ‘The rules are actually very simple and clear. We are meant to stay at home and only leave home for a very, very limited number of
It can be hard work adjusting to a new position. Just ask Alok Sharma, who was appointed as full-time President of the UN climate change conference, COP26, last week. Sharma had been running the conference alongside his role as Business Secretary of State, but it was felt that the climate shindig, which will be the
Exercise is a dangerous game these days. As two women recently discovered, drive five miles for a walk at a beauty spot complete with two cups of coffee and you can find yourself fined £200. Meanwhile, alarm inside government at the number of people out and about despite the ‘stay at home’ message has led to tighter
The professor of public health, Devi Sridhar, has had an interesting part to play in Scotland during the Covid pandemic. A champion of severe restrictions and a ‘zero-Covid strategy’, Sridhar sits on the Scottish government’s Covid-19 advisory group, where her role is to help Nicola Sturgeon stamp out the virus. At times though, it has
It certainly doesn’t seem like things are calming down in America anytime soon, after the recent mob takeover of Capitol Hill. At least Mr S got that sense when tuning in to Sky News today. On the show, Sky’s Adam Boulton was speaking from Washington to Erin Elmore, a former Trump campaign spokesperson, who was dialling
Oh dear. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has not exactly been at the top of his game in recent weeks. Across the country teachers, children and parents have been thrown into turmoil by the government’s haphazard education plans, which have seen schools open up for a single day, and national exams cancelled, despite the Education Secretary’s
