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’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
Trump and Boris; Boris and Trump – the two men have a lot more in common than funny hair, an appetite for women, and a magical ability to offend left-liberal sensibilities. But the hot question in Westminster at the moment is whether these two big beasts will meet when the American President visits London next
Will anything end Nigel Farage’s winning streak? The Brexiteer famously walked into a Ladbrokes in June 2016 and placed a £1,000 bet on Leave winning the EU referendum campaign – a decision that pocketed him a tidy £2,500 sum. In April, ahead of the European parliament elections, the Brexit party leader decided to chance his
As Tory leadership contender Rory Stewart roamed the districts of outer London yesterday, talking to unsuspecting members of the public about his bid to be Prime Minister, it’s probably fair to say that he had a number of unusual conversations along the way. But it seems that the oddest encounter he had wasn’t with an
With twelve candidates so far declared for the Tory leadership contest, more MPs are expected to announce in the coming days. Those rumoured to be planning on throwing their hat into the ring include Mark Harper, Steve Baker and 1922 chairman Graham Brady. On Friday, Brady recused himself from a Conservative Party statement on the
Alastair Campbell has been something of a Labour party fixture for the last twenty years – but not any longer. Blair’s former spin doctor has just been given the boot from the party for revealing that he voted Lib Dem at the European elections. Campbell said he was ‘sad’ and ‘disappointed’ to get an email
Rory Stewart is emerging as something of a dark horse in the Tory leadership contest. But while the international development secretary is an impressive candidate he is not immune to making a mishap. Richard Madeley reminded him this morning of a particular low point for Stewart: his made-up ‘fact’ about Brexit –that 80 per cent
There’s a lot of soul-searching in the Labour party after Sunday’s abysmal results in the European elections. On Monday, Corbynista commentator Paul Mason was one of the first out of the blocks, with a lengthy autopsy of Labour’s electoral failure. He placed the blame squarely on Corbyn’s Brexit-leaning advisors, and urged those responsible to be
Is Jesse Norman standing for the Tory leadership? The Conservative MP has just taken to Twitter to provide an answer. But unfortunately 33 tweets later we are no closer to finding out. Norman wrote: ‘In recent days I’ve been asked a lot if I would stand for Leader of the Conservative Party. It’s already a
The Brexit Party has convincingly won the European elections, picking up nearly a third of the vote. But it seems that their success still isn’t enough for some. One Lib Dem MEP – Barbara Gibson – dismissed Nigel Farage’s outfit, saying it is ‘not a real party’. Gibson, who was elected in the East of
Enoch Powell famously said that all political careers end in failure. But for Ann Widdecombe, it seemed that her career had ended with Strictly Come Dancing when she entered the show back in 2010, after retiring from politics at the general election. Yet last night, Widdecombe once again returned to the frontline of politics after
Tonight was a vital night for the fledgling Remain party Change UK. After the resurgence of the Lib Dems in the local elections, Chuka Umunna and Heidi Allen’s party had to fight to justify its existence, and prove that it wasn’t simply another party which was splitting the Remain vote. Alas, it appears that that
The results have begun to trickle in from the European elections tonight, and already it looks like Labour are being hammered from both sides, as they lose Leave voters to the Brexit Party and Remain voters to the Lib Dems and Greens. And with only one region announced, it already appears that the cracks are