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
Oh dear. This year’s Labour conference was notable for the fact that the big dispute was not between the moderates and the Corbynistas but instead the trade unions and Momentum. With the majority of Labour moderates now resigned to defeat on the direction of the party, it’s fallen to the various Corbynista hard left factions
With Theresa May’s Brexit proposals looking increasingly difficult to get through Parliament, the so-called ‘People’s Vote’ campaign has stepped up its efforts to bring about a second referendum… sorry, ‘vote on the final deal’. The campaign group runs on the idea that the facts have changed so it’s only fair that there’s another vote. In
The government was thrust into chaos last night as the DUP teamed up with the European Research Group and threatened to vote down key legislation if the PM did not propose a satisfactory Brexit deal. The moves have made the Prime Minister’s tenure at the top look increasingly risky. Theresa May can therefore be thankful
Labour frontbenchers are no strangers to getting their numbers in a muddle, but Mr S. would still expect better from the shadow treasury minister. Anneliese Dodds has just popped up on Politics Live to talk about today’s GDP figures. But when she was asked how much Britain’s economy grew by in the last three months,
Oh dear. In a sure sign that tensions are flaring as the Brexit deal is finalised, Tory MP Ken Clarke has taken a leaf out of Ken Livingstone’s book when it comes to making Nazi comparisons. Speaking today at Prime Minister’s Questions, the ardent Remainer struck a hysteric note as he asked Theresa May how
Much outrage this afternoon over the Tories’ mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey. In a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies think tank in 2005 on his experiences as a youth worker in West London, Bailey wrote that ‘good looking’ girls in the area ‘tend to have been around’. Since those quotes were published by Buzzfeed,
David Davis has caused a stir this afternoon after he sent a letter to Tory MPs claiming the Conservatives ‘will lose the next election’ if Theresa May continues with Chequers. The former Brexit Secretary claims the consequences will be ‘dire’. Although Mr S suspects this is not what No 10 would have had in mind
When the DUP reached a confidence and supply agreement with Theresa May in 2017 – and managed to extract a £1b bung from the government – commentators noted that after years fighting their corner during the Troubles, the party had a formidable amount of experience when it came to negotiation. Now, as Arlene Foster goes
Just last week Donald Tusk took to social media to claim that the EU’s offer to the UK a ‘Canada+++’ deal was a mark of respect. Only the EU council leader failed to find space in his tweet to make clear that this offer only applied to Great Britain – not Northern Ireland. Now it’s
Is Jeremy Wright the new David Cameron? By that, Mr S does not mean to suggest that Wright is the man to go on to win a majority for the Tories at the next general election. Instead, Steerpike’s concern relates to football. During Cameron’s time in No 10, there was a running joke that despite
When it emerged over the summer that Jeremy Corbyn had attended a ceremony which commemorated the deaths of several terrorists linked to the 1972 Munich massacre, Labour were very annoyed at how newspapers covered the event. The media has seriously misrepresented what went on, they complained, while they dithered over whether Jeremy (pictured) had ever
Anyone lusting after a McChicken sandwich will be left disappointed today, as McDonald’s employees go on strike to protest against low pay. As they man the McBarricades, they will be heartened to see veteran filmmaker and Corbyn devotee Ken Loach’s film team, Sixteen Films, come out strongly in favour of the strike. They urged Loach’s
After a successful and well-received conference speech, you would think the Prime Minister would at least get a week or two to bask in her cabinet’s support. Alas, not so. Andrea Leadsom, the PM’s Leader of the Commons was on Peston last night, and had a damning lack of confidence in her boss. Asked by
Every family across the UK knows the familiar dread of hosting a party, attended by an infamous uncle who can always be relied on to say something outrageous and offend unfamiliar guests. When it comes to Theresa May’s cabinet, there could be a few contenders for the title of ‘embarrassing uncle,’ but this week, it
Choosing a warm-up act to introduce a big speech is a delicate balancing act. Pick someone too woeful and the crowd is deflated before you’ve even begun. But pick someone too impressive, and your own efforts begin to pale in comparison. Theresa May came perilously close to the latter this afternoon, when she asked her
In a successful conference speech, Theresa May finally laid out to members and the public the direction she wanted to take the country. But did she make the most difficult part of premiership, her Brexit plan, any clearer? Judging by how well her cabinet understands her Chequers strategy, Mr Steerpike doesn’t think so. After her
Theresa May has made quite an entrance ahead of her big speech at Tory party conference. The Prime Minister danced on to the stage to the tune of Dancing Queen: Mr S. wonders whether the PM will still be in the mood for dancing by the end of her speech…
Poor old Theresa May. The Prime Minister hasn’t even got on stage to deliver her speech at Tory party conference and already things are not going quite to plan. Tory MP James Duddridge has announced this morning that he thinks it is time for Theresa May to step down – and that Boris’s speech was
Boris Johnson’s speech attracted the largest crowd of any conference fringe event. But does Boris have the backing of party members? Mr Steerpike spoke to some activists to see what they made of the speech: Phoebe McCullough, 21, from Twickenham, a student at Sterling university, had this to say: John Bennet, 23, from Sterling, said
The Tory tradition of blue-on-blue attacks at the party’s conference continues. Today, it’s the turn of Anna Soubry to mock young Tory activists. When Telegraph journalist Christopher Hope said that the pictures of empty seats in the main conference hall didn’t tell the full story of what is happening in Birmingham and that many fringe