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
It was announced yesterday that South Yorkshire would be the latest area to move into Tier 3 of the coronavirus restrictions, after Sheffield City mayor Dan Jarvis concluded negotiations with ministers. It appears though that not everyone in the region was thrilled at the news. BBC Yorkshire spoke to one woman in Barnsley who launched
Angela Rayner was accused of some extraordinary behaviour in the Commons just now. The Labour deputy, unhappy with something Conservative MP Chris Clarkson said, allegedly decided to shout the word ‘scum’ across the chamber floor. Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing appeared none too impressed… Rayner quickly shot back, denying that she used the phrase.
Corbynite ultra Diane Abbott has given an interview to Newsnight in which she denounces Labour leader Keir Starmer in her own particular, Abbott-esque way. Starmer’s problem? Ambition. Oh, and also being named ‘Keir’ by his mother. In reality, this is just a return to form for Diane. Her political career has been defined by the struggle against
It can be a hard task adjusting to life on the backbenches after leaving front-line politics. One minute you’re running the country, the next you’re being batted away by busy ministers. Former Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to learn that lesson this afternoon in the Commons, when submitting a question on Brexit to Michael Gove.
The Covid second wave is hitting Europe, so the European parliament has decided not to up sticks from Brussels and decamp to Strasbourg next week. Instead the parliament’s president David Sassoli has announced that the meeting will be a virtual one. He said: ‘The situation in France and Belgium is very serious and travelling is not advised.’
The Metropolitan police has just released a statement announcing that the force is halting its investigation into MP Margaret Ferrier for breaching Covid legislation. The shamed former SNP politician travelled between London and Glasgow after receiving a positive test result for Covid-19. In the statement, the police said: on detailed examination of [the Health Protection Regulations 2020], and following
It perhaps isn’t much of a surprise that Laurence Fox and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown failed to see eye-to-eye in a discussion on white privilege. But Mr S was still somewhat taken aback by the pair’s discussion on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 talk show this morning. Alibhai-Brown started the discussion by telling Fox: ‘You should actually ask other people
Nicola Sturgeon’s problems are mounting rapidly. The first minister is embroiled in a row over when she knew about the allegations of sexual misconduct against her predecessor Alex Salmond. Sturgeon is also under pressure over her government’s handling of the pandemic, as cases continue to mount. And disgraced SNP MP Margaret Ferrier – who boarded a train
The Labour MP for Chesterfield caused a rush of sniggers in the Commons this afternoon when he told colleagues that: People don’t generally go to the pub in order to meet their own wife, they will go to the pub to meet with other people… Little wonder fellow MPs started laughing given Toby Perkins’s own love life…
During his regular LBC phone-in, Keir Starmer was asked by one listener for his thoughts on the latest free speech saga. According to reports in the Telegraph, the Brexit activist Darren Grimes has been called in for questioning by the Met police over comments David Starkey made on his podcast. Starmer responded with characteristic indecision when asked whether Starkey’s
Matt Hancock broke his own 10 p.m curfew to continue drinking at a parliamentary bar, according to reports in the Mail on Sunday. A senior Tory MP told the paper that the Health Secretary continued to nurse a large glass of white wine until at least 10.25 p.m. during a late night tipple that saw Hancock mock the government’s
Rishi Sunak received a fair amount of flak this week, after ITV reported that he’d told struggling musicians to retrain and find other jobs. The Chancellor appeared to actually be speaking more generally to the broadcaster about job losses when he said that ‘I can’t pretend that everyone can do exactly the same job that
Boris Johnson had a strong message today during his Tory conference speech, for those who believe he lost his mojo after contracting Covid and being hospitalised. The Prime Minister described claims he has lost his lustre as ‘nonsense’, ‘self-evident drivel’, and even ‘seditious propaganda’ from the kind of people who wanted to stop Brexit being
It’s hard to overstate the recklessness of the SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, who last week admitted travelling down to London, after having developed Covid symptoms. Not only did the MP fail to stay at home to prevent potentially spending the disease, she also decided to speak in Parliament, and then decided to travel back to Scotland
Oh dear. It’s fair to say Matt Hancock isn’t exactly flavour of the month in Westminster. There are plenty of MPs on both sides of the House who blame the Health Secretary for tough restrictions and failures on testing. Matters have only been made worse with the revelation that 16,000 cases of coronavirus went unreported as
You do have to wonder what liberal America must think of Britain. We are, according to its paper of record, swamp-dwelling, boiled mutton munching, insular little Englanders. Indeed, the New York Times’s latest profile of Covid Britain only serves to compound this mythical vision of a floundering, backwards country. The report in question presents a country unable to conform
‘I don’t want a Home Secretary who can’t pronounce a G at the end of a word,’ said Alastair Campbell earlier this month after listening to Priti Patel. Today it was the Home Secretary’s turn to hit back at Tony Blair’s former spin doctor. In her speech at Tory conference, Patel had a message for
Things have gone from bad to pretty much as grim as things can get for an MP — isolating back in Scotland, Margaret Ferrier has been told to resign from parliament by her (now former) party leader Nicola Sturgeon. The interjection comes following a torrid night for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP. Yesterday evening she
The SNP’s Margaret Ferrier has released a statement admitted that she travelled down to London after suffering from Covid symptoms. She then returned to Scotland by train after receiving a positive test result… The MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West apologised for failing to follow the guidance, set down by her own party leader in Scotland
In what is already a classic of a peculiarly modern genre (remember ‘female leaders dealt with Covid’ better, anyone?), online comedienne Sarah Cooper has blasted the two players in the presidential debate. The savagery of Tuesday night’s showdown was not the culmination of a bitter struggle for America’s increasingly fractious soul. No, the problem is (you guessed