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
Charles Moore recently wrote in his Spectator Notes that a candidate’s looks matter in leadership elections. While discussing the Labour leadership hopefuls, he noted that Liz Kendall ‘looks like a nice person, but not in a distinctive way’ whereas there is ‘something quite appealing’ about Yvette Cooper’s ‘slightly French crop and black and white dresses, especially when
In a world in which wholesome recipes by the likes of Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith are being spurned in favour of lean alternatives from green goddesses who advocate ‘clean eating’, Mr S would have hoped to be able to rely on the no-nonsense Mary Berry to talk some sense at this testing time. Alas, it’s not to be. The BBC’s Great British
It’s all change at News UK today after it was confirmed that Rebekah Brooks will be making a triumphant return to the publishing group. Brooks — who stood down from the company over the phone hacking scandal — has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of News UK. Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, announced her appointment
After a number of pranksters attempted to infiltrate Labour’s voting system, the party had to take extreme steps in order to weed out these chancers. One joker who won’t be prevented from voting for Corbyn is Josie Long. The award-winning stand-up comedian joined the leadership hopeful last night at his Arts for Everyone event: Some of tonight's speakers @monstris @JeremyJHardy @JosieLong @jeremycorbyn
Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon’s biography of David Cameron has not even been released yet but already it has managed to send ripples through Westminster. Revelations in the Mail on Sunday’s excerpt of the tome included George Osborne’s fears that an EU referendum could obstruct his path to Number 10, as well as a text David Cameron sent
With Alex Salmond currently engaged in a war of words with Nick Robinson over the BBC’s ‘disgraceful’ coverage of the Scottish referendum, there is one former Beeb employee he can turn to in his time of need. Step forward Paul Mason. Mason — who worked as Newsnight‘s economics editor before defecting to Channel 4 —
The Great British Bake Off has been praised for getting the nation cooking. Now, it seems the fever has become political, as anti-austerity campaigners get baking ahead of this year’s party conference in Manchester. Activists have been tasked with baking their best anti-Tory cakes for a picnic due to be held as part of the action against
Oh dear. Although Lord Ashcroft said he would be pleasantly surprised if Anthony Seldon’s biography of David Cameron offered anything more than ‘a sanitised account’ of his time in Number 10, an excerpt in today’s Mail on Sunday should make interesting reading for Boris Johnson. In Cameron at 10, Seldon writes of tensions between the leadership hopeful and the Cameron
It’s fair to say that the appointment of Ed Miliband’s ex-campaign director Spencer Livermore to the House of Lords hasn’t gone down well in Labour circles. Harriet Harman was said to be in a battle to get a similar honour for her own press chief Ayesha Hazarika if Livermore got one, but her name was
It’s official, Jeremy Corbyn has made it. Following in the lines of all the greats, the left wing messiah has inspired such fan devotion that people are genuinely bidding on items just because he may have touched them. The item in question is a a coffee cup that his lips allegedly once met: The seller
The 2015 Dissolution Peerages have been announced today, following much rumour about who might receive one. While Mr S’s colleague Sebastian Payne has the full list over on Coffee House, it’s safe to say the appointments haven’t done much to improve public opinion of the honours system; former spads and out-of-work politicians make up a large chunk of the list. But
Given that the general election proved disastrous for the Liberal Democrats, it’s surprising how many party members seem keen to revisit the experience. With Vince Cable and Norman Baker both bringing out books just in time for this year’s Lib Dem conference, reports have surfaced claiming that Nick Clegg has finally agreed to write a book. Although this
Although Buzzfeed managed to successfully register a cat to vote in the Labour leadership election, the party remains insistent that they are successfully weeding out ‘supporters’ who are not genuine. However, in a sign that they may not have quite as good a grasp on these checks as claimed, it turns out that they are asking school
A time will come when the Guardian declares war on your favourite food. The lefty bible has so far deemed HP sauce to be the condiment of ‘the establishment’, tea drinkers to be on the same level as ‘colonialism and the class system’ and barbecues to be approaching racist. Now, the Sunday roast has had its
Despite becoming a Cybernat target during the Scottish referendum after she donated £1 million to the Better Together campaign, J.K. Rowling has not been deterred from putting Scottish Nationalists in their place. Such an opportunity arose today, after a Yes voter came up with a rather tenuous reason as to why they would continue the fight for Scottish independence: liberating Scotland from
Andy Burnham’s leadership bid hit a stumbling block this morning. Burnham — who bills himself as both the anti-Westminster candidate and the candidate who can unite the party in Westminster — made a slip when asked whether he agreed that it would be great for the party to have a female candidate. Speaking on Radio 5
With reports starting to claim that the next global financial crisis is on the horizon, one could be forgiven for thinking it’s all doom and gloom. So Steerpike was cheered to see that Labour’s former king of spin Damian McBride is on hand to put everyone’s minds at rest. McBride says that he has been preparing for the day
Louise Mensch has once again become the subject of much ridicule online over something she has tweeted. The incident occurred last night after the former Tory MP claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters — who have recently been accused of being anti-semitic — were insulting Corbyn’s Labour leadership rival Liz Kendall. Mensch claimed that Twitter’s autocomplete function showed that the most common
Although Tatler received a boost to its readership following the BBC’s ‘Posh People: Inside Tatler’, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the magazine, for some ‘posh people’ the society bible has long been essential reading. One such man who fits this description is none other than the current Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thanks to Tatler‘s Bystander archive, Mr S
If you thought Corbynmania was limited to female obsession and male politicians growing their facial hair, it’s time to think again. It turns out that Jeremy Corbyn is also inspiring poets everywhere. Steerpike has been sent a copy of a new collection of poems edited by Russell Bennetts, which includes poems by 22 authors who have been