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
Since leaving the EU on 31 December, Britain seems to have somehow avoided the apocalyptic scenarios outlined by those most opposed to Brexit last year. There have been, so far, no long queues of lorries at Dover; the lights have stayed on; and the nation’s supermarket shelves have remained full of food. It appears that
It shouldn’t have been a difficult task to hold the government to account today on schools and lockdown, as the Prime Minister currently weighs up shuttering the school gates till Covid cases decline. Labour leader Keir Starmer though seems to have managed to develop an even more confused policy today. This morning, Labour suggested that
Oh dear. It’s not been a good weekend on vaccine news for the New York Times or the Labour party. The one time paper of record ran a misleading report claiming the UK planned to give Britons a dangerous cocktail of Covid vaccines. Despite that claim being debunked, it wasn’t enough to stop a Labour MP from sharing
The New York Times really does have it in for poor old Britain, doesn’t it? Not content with portraying Brits as boiled mutton eating swamp dwellers, America’s self-styled paper of record is now suggesting we’re being pumped full of a dangerous cocktail of Covid vaccines. ‘Britain Opts for Mix-and-Match Vaccinations, Confounding Experts’ screams the headline. The reality? A
As Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal sails through the Commons, the hope among Labour MPs is that this will mark an end to Brexit dominating UK politics. In 2021, Sir Keir Starmer has signalled that he wants to move beyond the issue as he begins to put the flesh on the bones of his leadership. The Labour leader
During the debate over Boris Johnson’s Brexit agreement in the House of Commons today, Theresa May chastised the Labour leader over his criticism of both her deal and the current deal. Appearing to be the only MP in the chamber wearing a mask while waiting to speak, the former Prime Minister heard Starmer wish for a better Brexit
When a Tory MP recently suggested on the party’s WhatsApp group that MPs ought to be one of the priority groups to receive the vaccine early on, they were met with derision from their colleagues – with several suggesting it would be a bad look. However, that message does not appear to hold much sway with Labour.
Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal continues to cause a stir ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary vote. Nowhere is this more true than with the Conservative party’s most famous Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg who faces a somewhat unexpected quandary when it comes to deciding which lobby to walk through. Mr Rees Mogg said in March 2019 that he
We’re closing 2020 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 5: Steerpike’s questions from April for Neil Ferguson. It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in
Boris Johnson will be hoping for at the very least a brief break after securing a Brexit deal on Christmas eve. So, how will the Prime Minister choose to unwind? Perhaps a clue can be found in a photo recently uploaded to Flickr by 10 Downing Street official photographer Andrew Parsons. There has been much amusement online over
Oh dear. Nicola Sturgeon has been forced to apologise after photos appeared of her in the Sun breaching Covid rules. The SNP leader had been attending a funeral when she got chatting to three seated women drinking in the public part of the venue. Scottish Covid regulations state that those not drinking in a public venue should
It seems like a lifetime ago when the Imperial College academic Neil Ferguson was caught breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover. Since then, a whole series of mad, bad and downright nonsense regulations have come and gone. At the time though, the breach was taken very seriously by both the government and Ferguson
When schools returned in September, the sudden spike in demand for Covid-19 tests caught the test and trace programme out. Dido Harding, head of NHS test and trace, told MPs back then that demand was ‘significantly outstripping the capacity we have’. It was a predictable situation – but has the government learned its lesson? Sadly, it appears not. With
The Elysée palace has just confirmed that French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for Covid-19, after developing symptoms this week. In a statement, the palace said the President had been tested ‘as soon as the first symptoms appeared’ and will now be self-isolating for the next seven days. It’s not yet clear how badly
SNP tempers were running high this afternoon, as the Commons debated amendments to the Internal Market Bill, which deals with the UK’s goods and services after Brexit. The Scottish nationalists have described the Bill as a ‘full-frontal assault on devolution’ because it hands some EU powers back to London. That might explain the poor behaviour
Today, Whitehall departments published their gender pay gaps, as part of a government commitment to ‘transparency’ and its drive to encourage equal pay among the sexes. The gender pay gap scheme is run by the Government Equalities Office, a branch of the Civil Service which sits inside the Cabinet Office, and which is responsible for
The government has gotten itself in a right muddle in recent weeks about its plans for ‘immunity passports’ for those who have received a vaccine – with ministers seemingly unable to agree whether passports will allow vaccinated members of the public to be free from restrictions. On Monday, for instance, Mr S noted that minister
After Kay Burley was caught breaching social distancing rules at her 60th birthday party, she and her colleagues in attendance – political editor Beth Rigby, correspondent Inzamam Rashid and presenter Sam Washington – have been the subject of a disciplinary inquiry. The results of which are now in. Burley has been suspended and is off air
Oh dear. It looks like things are not exactly going well for the Sky News presenters who attended Kay Burley’s sixtieth birthday bash and were caught breaking the coronavirus restrictions. As Mr Steerpike reported yesterday, in total four Sky employees have been taken off air after attending the do, and Burley is not expected to
Avid PMQs watchers will have spotted an odd occurrence in the Commons just now. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle chastised the Labour MP Chris Bryant, shooing him away and admonishing him for his ‘disgraceful behaviour’. But what was the set-to all about? Apparently, Hoyle’s former opponent in the election for the speakership last year had been standing in
