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
All is not well in the Labour party at present. If Sir Keir Starmer didn’t have enough on his plate, what with concerns about cronyism and the ongoing freebie scandal, one of his own backbenchers seems rather publicly out to get him too. Diane Abbott has been particularly active on social media lately, using her
Another day, another drama. Now it transpires that a Labour MP took a million-pound loan from Lord Alli – to buy a flat for her sister. Mitcham and Morden’s MP Siobhain McDonagh was helped in her bid to buy accommodation for her terminally ill sibling and formerly Labour’s first female general secretary, Baroness McDonagh, by
The general election may have been and gone but north of the border another fight is shaping up. The SNP has lost both members and support in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, the police probe into party finances and the party’s inability to find a new indyref strategy. Meanwhile, Scottish Labour under Anas Sarwar
Keir Starmer’s first Labour conference as Prime Minister has ended in humiliation after delegates backed a motion condemning cuts to winter fuel payments. The Prime Minister has faced a backlash over his plan to scrap universal payments to help elderly people with their fuel bills. Starmer’s changes mean that only those who get pension credit
Labour’s freebie fiasco isn’t going away. Sir Keir Starmer has prompted more headlines by suggesting he took thousands of pounds of donations from millionaire donor Lord Alli because of, um, his son. Excuses, excuses… The Prime Minister was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the ongoing frockgate scandal when he claimed that he
The ravens really are leaving the tower. In recent months, Reform has been turbo-charging its professionalisation drive, working to set up branches across the country as part of their efforts to elect enough MPs to form the next government. There’s been a big back office clear-out and tonight it sounds like there has been another
It’s day three of Labour conference, and Sir Keir’s has just delivered his much anticipated keynote speech. The Prime Minister lauded his party’s general election success, warned delegates of more ‘unpopular’ decisions to come and insisted that ‘taking back control is a Labour argument’. The Labour leader received multiple standing ovations and even elicited a
Oops. After his first Labour conference as Prime Minister was overshadowed by power struggles in No. 10 and the growing scandal over wardrobe-gate, Keir Starmer was hoping to send a message of confidence and competence with his conference speech today. Unfortunately, the PM appeared to make an excruciating verbal slip when discussing the war in
Ahead of the Prime Minister’s address a number of Cabinet ministers are savouring the last full day of their party conference. Pat McFadden – Labour’s campaign co-ordinator and now the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – was in conversation with the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar this morning, enthusiastically recounting election night, lamenting the loss of
Back in September last year, Labour leader Keir Starmer unveiled his party’s flagship education policy: a drive for oracy, or public speaking, to be at the centre of the national curriculum. As Starmer said at the time, his government would put confident speaking ‘at the heart of’ teaching in schools, with these skills potentially making
To the Labour party conference, where Starmer’s army is celebrating its first meet as a part of government in over 14 years. Labour frontbenchers are desperate to distract from their current woes — a freebie fiasco and leak inquiry over bad briefings, to name a few — and this morning it was Yvette Cooper’s turn
To Liverpool, where all the wit and wisdom of Sir Keir’s Labour party is gathered. Starmer’s army has come to the city armed with bright ideas and insightful opinions — and no one more so than Bell Ribeiro-Addy. The Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill has been thinking long and hard about the woes
When the Tories were in power, one of the harshest critics of the government’s Rwanda scheme to deport asylum seekers were the Refugee Council, who branded the plan, among other things, as ‘absurd and inhumane’ and ‘slam[ming] our door in the face of refugees in search of safety.’ Mr S was therefore curious to know
Back to Labour’s freebie row, which has spilled over into conference week. Sir Keir Starmer’s top team is desperate to get on top of the scandal, yet every time they try, they somehow manage to make things worse. Take Labour’s winter fuel payment-cutting Rachel Reeves, for example, who spoke to ITV News today about the
After the general election this year, Nigel Farage argued that he was now the leader of the opposition, after his Reform party took more than six million votes, and came second in swathes of seats across the north of England. The Conservatives furiously disagree with him of course, especially given the Tory party’s higher vote
It’s day two of Labour conference and Sir Keir Starmer’s freebie fiasco still hasn’t gone away. Over a week since it transpired that clothing donations to Lady Starmer hadn’t initially been declared properly, revelations that the Prime Minister has received over £107,000 in donations since 2019 have caused outrage among the party’s voter base –
It’s Rachel Reeves’ big day at conference today. After 80 days of doom and gloom, the Starmer army have concluded that this might not be doing wonders for business confidence and party morale. So the Chancellor is seeking to strike a more optimistic note in her address to activists, declaring that her budget will have
To Liverpool, where Sir Keir Starmer is enjoying his first Labour conference in government, against the backdrop of rather stormy weather and an even worse week of press. On Sunday night, the Prime Minister attended the Scottish Labour reception to welcome new MPs north of the border and ramp up support for his Caledonian lot
Party conferences are never short of hyperbole. Whether it’s on the conference floor or the late night bar, impromptu speeches and after dinner speeches are often peppered with the kind of comments which come back to haunt a political party as their fortunes change for the worse. And while this year’s Labour jamboree is only
As well as being paid more than the Prime Minister, it seems Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff is getting more press attention these days too. It now transpires that Sue Gray will not be attending Labour’s conference this week, following bad briefings over her pay packet. Rather than attend the Liverpool love-in, Gray will