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
Theresa May has managed to surprise absolutely no-one this afternoon with her spokesman’s confirmation that the Prime Minister has never smoked cannabis. Cue widespread jokes that May was too busy running through fields of wheat – the activity that May herself describes as the naughtiest thing she has ever done. Now not even May’s colleagues
A promising early start that got everybody’s hopes up before getting bogged down and allowing a mediocre opposition to equalise. To many Tory MPs watching the football last night, it was all too familiar. George Freeman took to Instagram to share his own sense of déjà vu: ‘It’s a shocker. Lacking coherence. Command of the
When the contestants of ITV2’s Love Island discussed Brexit earlier this month, it led to widespread ridicule after one reality star – by the name of Hayley – suggested that Brexit could mean the UK no longer had any trees. However, should you be in the market for a slightly more informed political discussion on
Oh dear. First Meghan Markle’s father declined an offer to walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding to Prince Harry. Now, Thomas Markle has performed a royal faux pas and given an interview to the UK press on his son-in-law’s political leanings. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, Markle is asked by
When Sir Christopher Chope stopped to a bill to ban upskirting on Friday, he was denounced in the most vicious terms, as Steerpike revealed, by his fellow Tories. They were appalled by the optics of a 71-year-old Tory who rejected the bill without saying why. Sir Christopher has now come out swinging, saying how appalled
The day has finally come – it’s Labour Live. The inaugural JezFest – first imagined as a follow-up to Jeremy Corbyn’s Glastonbury appearance – has been beset by difficulties from slow ticket sales to failure to secure headline acts. Happily, thanks to some last minute giveaways, transport by Unite and price reduction, there are more
Of the many public figures still struggling to come to terms with the EU referendum result, AC Grayling is one of the most vocal. The philosopher has been at pains to say what a mistake, he thinks, leaving the EU is. So, Mr S was curious to note his appearance on This Week. In conversation
Theresa May ends the week with a damaging rebellion – just not the one she expected. Sir Chritsopher Chope has set the cat among the pigeons after he shouted ‘object!’ to a private members’ bill – brought to the House of Commons by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse – to make ‘upskirting‘ a sexual offence. Given
We’ve all been there. You’re at a work event, you don’t really know anyone so soon you end up talking to the strange fellow in the corner. At least that’s what happened to John Mann a few years back when he attended a conference and ended up having a chinwag with a North Korean dictator. Speaking
Jeremy Corbyn was given a taste of a Brexit rebellion last night when 90 of his MPs declined his suggestion of abstaining on the single market amendment and rebelled. Perhaps the most interesting aspect, however, was not who backed the amendment but the 15 Labour MPs who rebelled to vote against it. One such MP
Jeremy Corbyn has promised to deliver ’21st century socialism’ to the UK if elected. Only Mr S isn’t so sure all Corbynistas are on the same page as to what this will mean in practice. With the ill-fated LabourLive festival just four days away, the blame game has already begun on who is at fault
When Kezia Dugdale stepped down as the leader of Scottish Labour, there were rumours that she was planning to defect to the SNP. Despite Dugdale’s denial, odds were as short as 5/1 on Dugdale – whose partner is an SNP MSP – joining the Scottish Nationalists before the next Holyrood election in 2021. So, after today’s
Although the Serjeant-at-Arms Kamal El-Hajji has dismissed bullying allegations against John Bercow as a ‘witch hunt’, the Speaker’s problems are not going away anytime soon. Claire Perry, the climate change minister, has today accused Bercow of ‘sexist and demeaning’ behaviour – accusing him of having a ‘women problem’. This video shows the incident Perry is referring to.
What is it about Brexit campaigners and select committees? First Vote Leave’s Dom Cummings declined an invitation to appear before Damian Collins’ select committee (leading MPs to back a motion demanding he does so by 20 June). Now Arron Banks – of Leave.EU – has cut his time before the committee short. Banks appeared before
What a difference eight months makes. Back in October, Grant Shapps launched a failed coup against Theresa May after a disastrous Tory conference which saw the Prime Minister cough her way through what was supposed to be a set piece speech. Since then, we’ve had Cabinet feuding, backbench rebellions and a lack of leadership from an
Oh dear. It seems that not everyone has taken Theresa May’s appeal for party unity to heart. Although Amber Rudd and Iain Duncan Smith penned a Sunday Telegraph article calling for Tories to come together this week for the EU Withdrawal Bill votes, not everyone appears convinced. Over the weekend, former Remain rebel Antoinette Sandbach
Happily for Theresa May, the main news from the G7 conference wasn’t that President Trump failed to mention her in his G7 ‘friends’ list. Instead, the fireworks arrived after the president left and he struck out alone. Some choice comments from Justin Trudeau on trade saw Trump see red and pull out of a previously agreed
Theresa May’s cabinet is divided and her MPs increasingly worried over the government’s Brexit plans – or lack thereof. Yet despite all this, the latest Times/YouGov poll puts the Tories seven points ahead of Labour. With many in Westminster left scratching their head over the apparent disconnect, could a clue be found in ITV2’s Love
Labour’s flip-flopping on Brexit means that many Leave supporters simply don’t trust the party. So Mr S wonders whether it was really such a wise idea for Shami Chakrabarti to heckle a voter on Question Time last night: Audience member: We’re the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We voted to leave so let’s
While David Davis has hogged the headlines recently, Boris Johnson has been slowly losing his cool over Brexit and lost it, just a little bit, when addressing Tory activists at the Conservative Way Forward on Wednesday. It was a candid speech but, with recording devices built into every smartphone, it was hardly surprising that it
