Steerpike

Steerpike

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 Renew party fails to build bridges in Newport, Wales

In these divided times the politics of centrist parties is all about building connections and crossing divides, so what better flyer design for a by-election in Newport, Wales than a local bridge? Unfortunately for the anti-Brexit Renew party, the bridge they chose for their election flyer was the Claiborne Pell Bridge in Newport… Rhode Island,

Boris Johnson’s fox-hunting enthusiast donor

With Theresa May’s premiership on the ropes, there’s an expectation of a Tory leadership contest later this year. It follows that Conservative heavyweights are currently working their hardest to lay the groundwork for a future campaign. In that vein, the latest register of interests shows that rivals Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Amber Rudd and Michael

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Watch: fireworks in the Chamber between Bercow and Leadsom

Oh dear, it seems as if the pressure placed on John Bercow after he blocked a third meaningful vote on May’s Brexit deal, may have gotten to the Speaker’s head as of late. In the Chamber today, Bercow appeared visibly angry when he apparently spied an MP behaving in a partisan way, and launched into

Angela Merkel left baffled by parliamentary procedure 

It’s not just the government who have been caught by surprise at Bercow’s vote announcement yesterday, it raised eyebrows in Germany too. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted this morning ‘I must confess I was not familiar with the rules of order of the British parliament from the 17th century’. Of course, Mr S, a

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Jeremy Corbyn reveals all at the British Kebab Awards

As Westminster descended into chaos last night, with the Speaker’s announcement that he would block Theresa May’s meaningful vote, and with only eleven days until Brexit, where else would politicos be except the British Kebab Awards – which celebrate all that is good about the humble kebab shop. There was a serious moment at the

Watch: John Bercow lays into Andrea Leadsom

Today, the Speaker John Bercow dealt a harsh blow to the government’s Brexit strategy after announcing that he would block a third vote on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, unless it changed in a substantial way. Not content though with just one attack on the government, the Speaker also found time to launch a dig at

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Watch: Fiona Onasanya pleads her innocence

Where is Fiona Onasanya, and will she fight to remain as an MP? This has been the question on everyone’s lips ever since the courts rejected the former Labour MP’s appeal against conviction for perverting the course of justice. Onasanya has been spotted in the voting lobbies since the decision — possibly becoming the first ever

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Is Theresa May being removed?

Only last night, it was reported that Tory rebels – including a former cabinet minister – were refusing to back May’s Brexit deal unless she promised to resign.  Well it seems like they may have moved up their schedule. This morning, a removal van was spotted parked at the back of 10 Downing Street: Mr S

Watch: Donald Trump shoots down Leo Varadkar’s trade deal pitch

Leo Varadkar is meeting Donald Trump today but the Irish Taoiseach’s bid to drum up a trade deal between the EU and the United States has just backfired spectacularly. In their televised chat in the Oval Office, Varadkar told Trump: ‘I look forward to talking to you…about trade, and how much I would like to see a

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Scott Mann’s Ministry of Good Ideas

The Conservative MP, Scott Mann, was widely mocked this morning, after he suggested that Britain’s knife-crime epidemic could be solved by putting a GPS tracker inside every single knife in the UK: Every knife sold in the UK should have a gps tracker fitted in the handle. It’s time we had a national database like

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Watch: Chris Grayling joins the Cabinet rebels

After abstaining on a vote against no deal yesterday evening, the three Cabinet ministers who defied the whip: Amber Rudd,  Greg Clark and David Gauke seemed to be enjoying their newfound notoriety, as they walked to an impromptu Cabinet meeting this afternoon in Number 10. The trio rocked up to the meeting as a bunch in a

Mark Francois: I was in the army, I wasn’t trained to lose

Following the government’s defeat on a motion ruling out no deal, Brexiteer MPs in the Tory party will be asking themselves one key question this evening: if Brexit might not happen at all, should I support May’s deal? The issue already appears to have split some of the Brexiteers in parliament, with MPs such as

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Watch: Steve Baker’s catastrophic Brexit interview

Tonight MPs will have their say on whether Britain should leave the EU without a deal. The views of Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker on the subject are unlikely to come as much of a surprise. Baker thinks that taking no deal ‘off the table’ would be a ‘really catastrophic negotiating error’. But Mr S. couldn’t help

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Philip Hammond loses the crowd

Anyone who’s ever sat through a statement given by Philip Hammond, knows that he’s not quite what you’d call a gifted orator. With his cringeworthy gags, stilted delivery and all the charisma of Milne’s Eeyore, the Chancellor’s budget announcements tend to resemble bad eulogies rather than the unveiling of exciting new policies. But even he might

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Chief Whip Julian Smith’s small win

At the end of last year, Mr Steerpike was somewhat sceptical that it was a good idea to invite an ITV film crew into the whips’ office, as Theresa May headed for a defeat of historic proportions on the first vote on her Brexit deal. When Chief Whip Julian Smith failed to convince the backbencher Philip

The New York Times on the parlour game played by Brits

While the New York Times has a reputation for being the paper of record in the US, the newspaper has a less than stellar record when it comes to its reporting on Brexit and British daily life. In August last year, the paper suggested that until a few years ago Brits were living on a

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Boris Johnson: Why I won’t vote for Theresa May’s Brexit deal

Boris Johnson says he will still vote against Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Here is his verdict on the PM’s revised Withdrawal Agreement: I sincerely hoped that the Government would be able to make the wholly modest changes that this House urged them to make. And that there would be no risk that this country would find

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Corbyn backs no-deal Brexit

When it comes to Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn is still keeping his options open. But the same can’t be said of his brother. Piers Corbyn has taken a breather from tweeting about climate change to throw his weight behind a no-deal Brexit. The Labour leader’s older sibling wrote: ‘The threat of CrashOut catastrophe is nonsense’. ‘Nodeal

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Geoffrey Cox clashes with Channel 4’s Jon Snow

It’s here. It’s Brexit day, again. And Channel 4’s Jon Snow and Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney-General, have come to blows on Twitter. Snow tweeted the latest from his ‘lawyer contact’ this morning on what Cox’s verdict is on the Prime Minister’s verdict. It’s safe to say Cox was not impressed: Well, at least that’s cleared that