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

Will Louise Haigh receive a golden goodbye?

Well, well, well. Before Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot got into government, Starmer’s army was quite happy to commit to to suspending – and, in some cases, revoking altogether – severance pay over ministerial code breaches. But it appears Sir Keir’s crowd is a little less enthusiastic about the prospect now it threatens to affect

Joe Biden pardons his son Hunter

There are less than 50 days until Donald Trump takes back the White House – so the Democrats are now doing some last-minute future-proofing. In a bombshell announcement overnight, President Biden revealed he has signed a pardon to a victim of a ‘miscarriage of justice’ whose case has been ‘infected’ by ‘raw politics.’ Who is

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The National’s latest journalistic triumph

Oh dear. It seems that Scotland’s self-identifying ‘newspaper’ is at it again. On Saturday, the great and the good of Edinburgh gathered to say farewell to Alex Salmond at St Giles’ Cathedral. Among those who assembled at the memorial service was First Minister John Swinney who – unlike his predecessors Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf

New MPs were more likely to back assisted dying

Does wisdom come with age? MPs have just voted by a margin of 55 to back a bill to legalise assisted suicide. In what was the first Commons vote on assisted death for a decade, MPs voted 330 to 275 in favour of the bill.  The new intake of parliamentarians – those first elected in

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Tories take poll lead over Starmer’s Labour

Kemi Badenoch’s Tories have overtaken Labour for the first time in three years on The Spectator Data Hub’s poll tracker. This morning’s update gives the Conservatives a one-point lead over Keir Starmer’s Labour after a steady upward trend since July’s election. Steerpike wonders how much is down to Rishi Sunak’s surprisingly successful stint as leader

Flashback: Rachel Reeves’ battle for winter fuel allowance

It’s fuel poverty awareness day today. So what better time to reflect on Labour decision to pull payments for pensioners, just weeks after taking office? Ahead of the release of pension credit statistics tomorrow, Mr S has been doing some digging into the Chancellor’s past. And it seems that ‘Rachel Thieves’ – as her critics

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Watch: Labour MP calls for blasphemy law

Oh dear. Tahir Ali is at it again. It was only ten months ago that he had to apologise after claiming at PMQs that Rishi Sunak had ‘the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands’. But the controversies of the past don’t seem to have blunted the Honourable Member for Birmingham Hall Green

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Watch: Kamala’s bizarre farewell message

Farewell, Kamala Harris. It’s been a brutal fortnight for the outgoing Vice President. Following her devastating loss on 5 November, the failed nominee has been subjected to days of vicious briefing and revelations about her dreadful campaign. Whether it was spending millions on celebrity endorsements or getting rejected by the ‘Hot Ones’ podcast, the Democrat

Spectator investigation: the constituencies calling for an election

Since Steerpike first reported on the petition for another general election, another two million signatures have been added. (Not that Mr S is taking the credit.) While the petition is most popular in Tory and Reform-held seats – especially in Essex, where almost one in ten of the electorate have signed in some constituencies –

Swing seats back another election

For more than a decade, viral petitions demanding an immediate election were the preserve of Remainiacs and much of the Twitter left. So with Labour now in government, it is to no surprise then that it is now much of the right which is demanding another vote. A parliamentary petition to ‘call a general election’

Starmer’s local media round: the lowlights

It’s been another bad week for the government, with rows over farmers, ships and businesses too. So what better time for Keir Starmer to manfully undertake his media duties, sitting out this morning for a grilling with local BBC news stations? This annual ordeal can prove somewhat merciless – as Liz Truss famously found to

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Republicans rage against state of UK free speech

‘Two countries separated by a common language’ is how transatlantic relations are often defined. But these days it really does seem like some in Washington are struggling to understand what is going on this side of the pond. Mr S has previously noted how British-based networks like the Center for Countering Digital Hate have enraged

Police drop probe into Allison Pearson

At last, an outbreak of common sense from Essex Police. After a mounting backlash – with Boris Johnson, Elon Musk and Nigel Farage expressing their dismay – the boys in blue have decided to drop their investigation into Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson. The Crown Prosecution Service advised that no charges should be brought against Pearson

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Starmer’s spinner squirms on Netanyahu arrest

It’s a day ending in ‘y’ – so it’s more bad news for the government. This afternoon the men and women of HM Loyal Press Gallery trooped over to No. 10 for their lobby briefing with Starmer’s superannuated spinners. Unfortunately, it seems, no-one in the ever-expanding comms team had actually worked out a line on

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Watch: Six of the best Prezza moments

RIP John Prescott. The Labour heavyweight kept much of Fleet Street in business throughout the noughties, indulging in various antics that inspired endless tabloid headlines. ‘Two Jags’, ‘two jabs’, ‘two shags’ and even ‘two lavs’ were some of the nicknames bestowed upon him – with the latter being a reference to the multiple toilet seats

Jon Sopel’s Twitter U-turn

Dear oh dear. The left-wing Twitter scourge hasn’t gone quite as well as users may have hoped. Following Donald Trump’s victory at the start of the month and the resultant appointment of Twitter CEO Elon Musk as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, a number of ‘right on’ tweeters decided to jump ship to

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Why is the BBC staying silent on Reeves’s CV claims?

Rachel Reeves remains in the spotlight after weeks of scrutiny over her rather curious CV claims. Mr S documented the full timeline of events on Tuesday and it is really quite something – with the Chancellor’s former role at Halifax Bank of Scotland first coming under scrutiny before attention was drawn to previous assertions she’d

Watch: Clarkson blasts BBC in farmers’ protest interview

Thousands of farmers descended on Westminster this morning to protest the Labour government’s new inheritance tax plans. As protesters brandished placards and called for the Chancellor to row back on her proposals, some rather famous faces were seen in the crowds – with former Top Gear presenter and now Clarkson’s Farm host Jeremy Clarkson amongst

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Watch: Mandelson urges PM to end ‘feud’ with Musk

Well, well, well. Picking a fight with Elon Musk is hardly the wisest decision Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot have made so far, especially given the new job the Twitter CEO has been awarded by Donald Trump. With Musk set to become co-leader of the president-elect’s Department of Government Efficiency, the UK Prime Minister might

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Full timeline: Rachel Reeves’s CV claims

Dear oh dear. Rachel Reeves has ended up in something of a pickle over her employment history, with the Chancellor under fire over whether she has been straight with the public about her economist background. Certainly after that Budget, Mr S is hardly surprised eyebrows are being raised… Pressure has been piling on Reeves for