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
Rory Stewart has not exactly had the most orthodox of campaign strategies to become the next leader of the Conservative party. The dark horse of the leadership race has built up a cult following by heading out across the country, recording hand-held campaign videos and having conversations with various members of the public. And he
Twitter was awash this morning with pictures of Tory leadership contender Rory Stewart, bending to stroke Larry the Downing Street cat as he made his way into Number 10. However, Mr S couldn’t help but notice that Larry gave Stewart something of a cold shoulder, casually strolling away without a backward glance. Perhaps the sensible
Jean-Claude Juncker’s term as European Commission president may be coming to an end, but it’s clear that the EU leader won’t be hiding his strong opinions about Brexit and the UK negotiating process anytime soon. At a Politico event held this afternoon, Juncker ruled that he would not renegotiate any part of the Withdrawal Agreement
No political rivalry in recent years has been as fierce as the one between Andrea Leadsom and the Speaker of the House, John Bercow. As leader of the Commons, Leadsom spent a huge amount of time in the Chamber speaking on the government’s behalf, and frequently clashed with the pugnacious Bercow over parliamentary procedure and
ITV breakfast presenter Lorraine Kelly has such a reputation for being friendly and warm on screen, that the TV host managed to win an entire tax case based on the fact that she doesn’t play herself, but a ‘chatty’ version of ‘Lorraine’ in front of the cameras. So plenty of eyebrows were raised this week
The Tory leadership race is turning nasty. And not for the first time, it’s Michael Gove who is taking a pop at Boris Johnson. After a disastrous weekend for Gove that was overshadowed by revelations of drug-taking, Gove has just attempted to start afresh at his campaign launch. Gove also used his speech to take
Today is a big day for the Tory leadership candidates, as the nominations for the race close, and several of the contenders officially launch their pitch to be the next Prime Minister. But if Tory leadership contender Matt Hancock was hoping to use the day to boost his profile and win over his fellow MPs,
The Tory leadership race is on and while it can be hard to keep track of the growing number of candidates entering the race, it is even trickier to stay on top of the lurid confessions of wrongdoing made by those who want to be PM. To help out, here is Mr S’s full and
The Tory leadership race has taken on a new turn this weekend with the Daily Mail splashing on Michael Gove’s cocaine confession. The Environment Secretary tells the paper that he took the ‘drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago’. At the time, Gove was working as a journalist. Of the
Peterborough’s new Labour MP has only just been elected but already she is finding herself embroiled in controversy. Lisa Forbes was taken to task in the early hours of this morning over a revelation that she once liked a Facebook post saying that Theresa May had a ‘Zionist Slave Master’s agenda’. Here is what she
It’s fair to say that recent campaigns and elections haven’t been kind to Ukip. First, the party fell apart and crumbled following the EU referendum campaign, and now it’s suffering the indignity of seeing Nigel Farage’s newly formed Brexit party surge in the polls, while its own organisation is taken over by YouTube stars. But
Camaraderie seems to be in short supply in Peterborough this week, ahead of the by-election tomorrow. In the centre of the city, a Brexit party activist cheerfully tells Mr S that he has barely seen the other parties knocking on doors and handing out flyers around the city. But he did run into the Labour
It’s hard to think of a more relaxing place to sit than Cathedral Square in the centre of Peterborough on a sunny day. Yet beneath the calm exterior, a fierce battle is taking place here between the political parties hoping to win tomorrow’s by-election, to see who will replace the disgraced former Labour MP Fiona
If it wasn’t already, Change UK is now surely on its last legs. Six of the party’s MPs – including leader Heidi Allen – have quit. But those left behind still remain defiant. In a Sky News interview, Mike Gapes – who defected from Labour earlier this year – said the party was alive and
Over the weekend, Donald Trump endorsed Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign. Boris ‘would do a very good job’, Trump said. At today’s press conference, Jeremy Hunt was also backed by Trump. But one person who didn’t quite make it was Michael Gove. When asked about the Tory leadership contest, Trump had this to say: ‘So I
Jeremy Corbyn has made much of snubbing Donald Trump by refusing to attend a state dinner in his honour, but was it really Trump who got the cold shoulder? At a press conference this afternoon, Trump has just claimed that Corbyn wanted to meet Trump, but that it was he who turned down the Labour
Manners maketh man. If you are going to be a prince, moreover, politesse really should be paramount. Monarchy is, if nothing else, all about ancient codes of conduct: honour, chivalry, formality, and bloody well smiling at people you don’t necessarily like. That seems a bit much for Prince Harry, who, if reports and photos are
Sam Gyimah, the former Minister for Universities who quit in protest at Theresa May’s deal, has become the thirteenth Conservative leadership candidate, announcing his decision live on air on Sky today. When asked by Niall Paterson if he would like to be the next Conservative leader, Gyimah replied “Well, yes. I will be joining the
The message from the EU is clear: there will be no improvement to the deal rejected by Parliament. And if talks fail? Donald Trump today makes an offer: that the United States, the UK’s No 1 customer, is standing by with its own free trade deal. It needn’t take even a year, he says, as
This week, Julia Hartley-Brewer joined the list of right-of-centre commentators to have found themselves ‘no-platformed‘ after a Twitterstorm. The Talk Radio host had been invited to join a Question Time-style panel discussion for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) on the ‘hot healthcare topics of the day’ – they said she was there as
