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
Last night Derek Hatton claimed that he has successfully rejoined the Labour Party 29 years after they expelled him. Hatton — who joined Labour with the Trotskyist group Militant — boasted about his membership on Newsnight while defending Jeremy Corbyn. ‘In my pocket I’ve got a Labour Party card,’ he said, after tweeting a picture of his card earlier
This morning Jeremy Corbyn told Radio 4’s Women’s Hour that a thread on Mumsnet in which he was described by one user as being ‘attractive in a world weary old sea dog sort of way’ was ‘the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever heard’. So it must have been with some trepidation that Corbyn agreed to take part
Things could start to get very strange indeed if Jeremy Corbyn is successful in his bid to be the next Labour leader. Corbyn’s old chum George Galloway has today voiced his hopes that he will be able to ‘work closely’ with Corbyn in his bid to be the Mayor of London: I'm running for Mayor of
Although Nick Clegg is under increasing pressure in some quarters to write a tell-all book about his time in coalition, the closest he has got to this so far is by signing up to an agency that has advertised his services for up to $55,000 per speech. Happily, Clegg’s former speechwriter comes at no such
As Jeremy Corbyn edges closer to victory in the Labour leadership race, his critics grow more vocal with both Tony Blair and John McTernan attempting to thwart his campaign this week. However, for all the naysayers, Corbyn is at least managing to slowly amass a celebrity fan club. After Steerpike reported that the Silk actress
After much speculation, the Financial Times has today been purchased by Nikkei, the Japanese media group, for £844 million. Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei is buying Financial Times from U.K. publishing group Pearson for $1.29 billion http://t.co/x26Px8sXfW — MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) July 23, 2015 This comes after the paper’s owner Pearson confirmed it was on sale this morning. However,
Last week the SNP MP Mhairi Black gave her maiden speech to Parliament. The young politician inspired the nation with her story of a man in her constituency who came to her crying after a trip to the job centre went wrong: ‘I said to him “how did you get on?” And without saying a word he burst into
As staff at the BBC face cuts and budget tightening following the Government’s plans to reform the Corporation, their director-general Tony Hall has offered his own defence of the licence fee. Writing the diary in this week’s Spectator, he mentions that Tracey Ullman was recently transformed into Dame Judi Dench as ‘M’ in the James Bond films.
After weeks of speculation over who will be the BBC’s next political editor, a senior BBC employee today announced on Twitter that Laura Kuenssberg is to be Nick Robinson’s successor. However, just moments later the tweet was hastily deleted. Happily, the Mail’s John Stevens managed to screen grab it before it disappeared: The tweet that mysteriously vanished pic.twitter.com/FJnyHRq9uI
Last night Tony Blair’s former adviser John McTernan said MPs who offered their nominations to Jeremy Corbyn to ‘broaden the debate’ in the Labour leadership race were ‘morons’ after a poll predicted Corbyn will win. While the bulk of the MPs who helped Corbyn get onto the ballot have remained quiet since his comments, Margaret Beckett
Although the majority of the MPs who helped to get Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper have remained mysteriously silent since a poll predicted that he is on course to be the next Labour leader, Corbyn can at least count on support from one well-known name The Silk actress Maxine Peake has voiced her support for Corbyn.
Tim Farron has come under fire this week over concerns that he is prejudiced against gay rights as a result of his evangelical Christian beliefs. His opponents have suggested that he cannot lead a liberal party if he thinks that being gay is a sin. However, those hoping that the new Lib Dem leader will tone
Jeremy Corbyn just can’t help making friends wherever he goes. He previously described Hamas operatives as ‘friends’ and now he has found time out of his Labour leadership campaign to meet up with his old ‘comrade’ Gerry Adams in Portcullis House. The Sinn Féin president has tweeted a picture of their meet up, which Martin McGuinness
Last week David Miliband flew all the way from America to Britain to celebrate his birthday. However, the former New Labour sweetheart made sure not to invite his brother Ed Miliband to the celebrations that just happened to be being held close to where his sibling resided. With the party over and his brotherly snub widely noted
Bill Turnbull has achieved online fame after he mispronounced a word on the BBC Breakfast sofa earlier today. During the programme, the presenter mistook the word ‘client’ for the word ‘c–t’ when reading aloud a message from a viewer:
With rumours flying around the Commons that if elected, Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn would appoint a Shadow Peace Secretary in the place of a Shadow Defence Secretary, Mr S is also looking forward to hearing Corbyn’s plans to reform judicial punishment. However, Mr S is happy to place a bet on his approach not being
Last year John Bercow proudly boasted during an interview with Roger Federer on Radio 4 that he had watched 65 of the tennis ace’s matches that year. An impressive feat perhaps, but also one that led taxpayers to ask how exactly the Speaker had found time to watch 65 Federer matches alongside his work duties. Michael Fabricant
Despite frequent claims from both sides of the political spectrum that Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn is ‘unelectable’, he has so far managed to win the endorsement of Unite as well as the highest number of nominations from constituency Labour parties. Could he now be on his way to an endorsement from the Guardian? Steerpike only asks after the
Nick Robinson recently revealed Jeremy Vine’s off-air reaction to the exit poll on election night. ‘So Scotland will go independent and the BBC will be shut down,’ the Radio 2 presenter quipped on hearing the poll predict a Tory majority. While Vine’s predictions are yet to come good in full, he did correctly foresee that the Tories
When George Osborne stepped in for David Cameron at PMQs, it was seen as the Chancellor’s chance to show that he had what it takes to be Prime Minister. With that bit of housekeeping done, the Chancellor seemed to let his ambition to move into Number 10 go to his head last night. Osborne broke with tradition by