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
Hypocrisy is in the air this morning! As the tariff war between China and the US rages on, Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to avoid taking retaliatory action over Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs – and instead negotiate a transatlantic trade deal with his American counterparts. But while Starmer’s army now insists coming to an
Elon Musk strikes again! The tech billionaire and co-leader of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has lashed out for a second time at the President’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro as tensions over tariffs ramp up in the White House. Now Musk has blasted Navarro as ‘dumber than a sack of bricks’ and ‘truly
To the Commons, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer is speaking to the Liaison Committee before the House rises for Easter recess. The PM has spent much of this afternoon fending off questions on growth, healthcare and British industry – but it was on his government’s recently proposed welfare cuts that the Labour leader went on
The monarch of Montecito is, er, back in the UK. Prince Harry has returned to Britain for a two-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in a last-ditch attempt to win automatic state-funded security for his family whenever they return to Britain. He may have stepped down as a working prince five years ago,
Just as the House of Commons is about to rise for Easter recess, Her Majesty’s Official Opposition has been hit with some rather unfortunate news. As revealed by the Guardian, the Tories have lost one of their biggest donors – in a move that could, insiders believe, lead to the closure of the party’s headquarters
Stock markets around the world continue to plummet but Donald Trump has his mind on other matters: his tariff war with China. The American president has this afternoon hit back at Beijing’s announcement on Friday that it would impose retaliatory tariffs of 34 per cent on US goods following Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ levies last week.
Uh oh. There’s trouble in Trumpland. Leader of the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk has taken to his social media site today to post a video by Milton Friedman lauding the virtues of free markets and multi-stage supply chains – showing the US economist praising the ‘magic’ of the ‘essential’ free market and
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch are not known to be especially chummy at the best of times – and relations have worsened after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel over the weekend. Lammy was quick to accuse the Tory leader of ‘cheerleading another country for detaining and deporting
A former Labour minister was arrested on Friday on suspicion of rape and child sex offences. The Sun on Sunday tonight reports that Dan Norris, 65, MP for North East Somerset and Hanham, was arrested on Friday over claims of historic sexual offences against a girl and a rape allegation from the 2020s. Avon and Somerset Police confirmed he had
The Scottish Liberal Democrats aren’t best known for their ability to grab headlines – but today the spotlight is on them. At the group’s spring conference in Inverness, leader Alex Cole-Hamilton this afternoon unveiled the latest addition to the party: the ex-Tory MSP who dramatically quit the Conservatives on Thursday after blasting their ‘Trump-esque’ style.
There’s a new man about Whitehall. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed Oli de Botton – ex-adviser to David Miliband and the husband of former No. 10 communications chief Amber de Botton – as his Expert Adviser on Education and Skills. The role of the new skills guru will be to advise ministers on the
If you thought progressive politics couldn’t get any worse, think again. It transpires that the Labour-led Westminster city council is advising its staff to undergo, er, ‘privilege’ testing and inclusive recruitment training in a bid to hire more people from non-white ‘global majority’ backgrounds. Time well spent… The rather baffling virtual privilege test helps council
The economy may not be expanding, but Labour is determined Britain’s airports will. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has today approved proposals to expand Luton Airport – with plans for a new terminal given a green light. So keen is the Labour minister to push the project, Alexander has overruled the Planning Inspectorate’s advice that she
To the monarch of Montecito, who is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons. It turns out the Charity Commission is probing ‘concerns raised’ at Prince Harry’s African charity, Sentebale – as a battle over bullying rages in the boardroom. Oh dear… The royal renegade’s organisation has come under fire over its governance,
All is not well in the Scottish Tory party. Onetime leadership hopeful Jamie Greene MSP has dramatically quit the party today, announcing his exit in a scathing letter to current leader Russell Findlay. Raging that the group has become ‘Trump-esque in both style and substance’, Greene fumed that the Scottish Conservatives were at risk of
It’s all kicking off in Bristol. On Friday, Reform UK announced that the multimillionaire Arron Banks was going to be their candidate for the mayoralty of the West of England. But the self-proclaimed ‘bad boy of Brexit’ faces opposition from overzealous apparatchiks on Bristol City Council. Officials from the Green-run authority have told Banks that
Patrick Harvie has today announced – and not a moment too soon – that he will step down as co-leader of the Scottish Greens this summer. It will end his tenure as Holyrood’s longest-serving party chief after he clung onto the top job for almost 17 years. To mark the occasion, Mr S has compiled
Does Prime Minister Keir Starmer understand the difference between fact and fiction? Mr S isn’t so sure – after the Labour leader referred to the new Netflix series Adolescence as a documentary for the, er, second time. Either Sir Keir is ignorant about what exactly the show is – which, given he has referred to
Support for Labour has dipped to a new low in more bad news for the reds. Data released today reveals that support for Sir Keir Starmer’s party has dropped to the lowest level yet in a More in Common survey, with Westminster voting intention for Starmer’s army at just 21 per cent – leaving the
How do you achieve anything in British politics? It’s simple: turn your cause into a TV drama. First, it was ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Now, it is Netflix and Adolescence. The release of the crime drama mini-series has sparked a veritable hue-and-cry about the urgent ‘crisis’ facing young British males. Keir Starmer
