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
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
Liam Fox is a qualified GP, albeit one who isn’t practising at the moment. So why is it that he — and no doubt thousands like him — are subjected to ‘diversity’ paperwork before he’s allowed to help with the Covid vaccine rollout? Fox asked the PM: ‘As a qualified, non-practising doctor, I volunteered. But
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