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
Northcliffe House was host to a Fleet Street reunion last night, for the launch of Mail executive Robin Esser’s memoir ‘Crusaders in Chains’. After sixty years a newspaper man, Esser’s tome takes us from the glory days to the ‘chilling’ Leveson Inquiry. With inky old-timers Les Hinton, Dame Ann Leslie, Richard Kay and Eve Pollard
With the Queen’s birthday honours fast approaching, future awardees can take inspiration from Joan Collins on the suitable number of events required to celebrate one’s damehood. Writing in this week’s issue of The Spectator, Collins reveals that she attended not one but seven events in total. However, things got off to a questionable start when her husband Percy
As the Liberal Democrats fight for survival in the general election, word reaches Mr S that things in the yellow camp may be even more dire than first thought. Mr S received this Lib Dem leaflet from one of his sources, the small print of which seems totally incomprehensible. Surely things can’t be so bad that the
It’s St George’s Day so to celebrate Ukip held a press conference where they gifted red and white jester hats adorned with St George’s flags to journalists. Talk soon turned to the real crux of the matter: as a foreigner of alleged Turkish descent, would Ukip have allowed St George entry into the country? Patrick
Given that David Cameron posed for a selfie alongside Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, Mr S was surprised to hear that the PM has now tired of the trend. Speaking to Mr S’s colleagues James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson in an interview in this week’s issue of The Spectator, Cameron says that the selfie lacks longevity, claiming ‘the selfie will
It’s St George’s Day today, and presumably Labour’s Emily Thornberry is out looking for ‘amazing’ houses draped in English flags. To help her out (in a way), her Lib Dem rival in Islington Terry Stacy has decided to put this about as his election address: Mr Steerpike is very keen for any other election candidates
Nigel Farage has fought off accusations that he’s an invisible candidate in South Thanet, claiming to have held more public meetings than all of the other candidates put together. But are Ukip getting ahead of themselves in the ultra-tight race on the Kent coast? Mr S hears that invitations are already circulating for an election
Ed Miliband might not like to talk about an SNP-Labour coalition but the SNP aren’t so shy. In fact, they seem to be revelling in the Tory message of ‘Vote Labour, get the SNP’. Alex Salmond, the former leader of the SNP, has been filmed saying that he is going to be ‘writing the Labour
This afternoon something rare will happen in this election campaign. David Cameron will campaign in London. While bus-ing and jetting all around the four countries that make up the United Kingdom, the capital has all but been forgotten by the Prime Minister during the short campaign. Like so many aspects of this general election campaign, Wednesday’s event
You have to hand it to the Liberal Democrats: they know how to put out a press release. Following accusations in the Guardian that Grant Shapps or someone ‘under his clear direction’ has been editing Wikipedia pages of his rivals, the Lib Dems have put out a press release dripping in sarcasm from Paddy Ashdown:
Tonight Russell Brand took part in a live Q&A to celebrate the launch of his new documentary The Emperor’s New Clothes. The film looks into the effects of capitalism and it has been widely noted that its release is timed conveniently close to the election. During the Q&A Brand was surprised and initially very pleased to find
Nigel Farage may see himself as the quintessential British politician, but is he modelling himself on a national comedy treasure? Mr S’s colleague Sebastian Payne noted that in Lord Ashcroft’s latest focus groups, voters reckoned that the Ukip leader ‘would only watch British comedies’ in his spare time, such as Only Fools And Horses. One
Last week the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors warned that uncertainty over the mansion tax has caused property prices to rise as fewer homes are put on the market until the election outcome is known. Still, it’s not all bad news for estate agents. In a brazen ‘Good Luck in the Election’ email sent to all parliamentary
Given that Samantha Cameron and her sister Emily Sheffield have both forged successful careers of their own in varying fields, sibling rivalry is unlikely to have ever been an issue for the pair. This could explain why Samantha’s sister has taken offence over the manner in which Ed Miliband became leader of the Labour party. After the
Last month over 100 British business leaders signed a letter backing the Conservatives’ economic policies. The letter, which was published in the Daily Telegraph, was seen as damaging to Labour as it claimed that the Tories’ business plan was working and any change in that plan could put the UK’s economic recovery at risk. Miliband can
After Mr S’s colleague Camilla Swift wrote of the Twitterstorm that engulfed David Cameron after Andrew Marr claimed on air that the PM had declared foxhunting to be his favourite sport, the presenter has now come clean about the interview. Marr has admitted to The Spectator on Twitter that he was wrong to claim that Cameron told Countryside Alliance magazine
Twitter is abuzz today following the election site May 2015‘s claim that Ed Miliband will most likely win the election. The article in question argues that it would be very difficult – and surprising – for Cameron to win a majority or gather enough seats to form a coalition. The site, which describes itself as ‘an unaligned election site‘
Earlier this year Mr S revealed that Russell Brand had made an unwelcome visit to the home of Lord Rothermere, the proprietor of the Daily Mail newspaper group, as part of filming for his new documentary The Emperor’s New Clothes. Now new footage has been made public ahead of the film’s release. In the clip he is shown
Over the weekend, Mr S brought you the unlikely tale of the Labour leader becoming a pin-up for a brood of hens on a night out in Chester. Sadly his status as a ladies man has taken a bit of a blow this morning, with one hen telling LBC: ‘Bless him he looked terrified, absolutely terrified.
You have to hand it to Justine Thornton. After her interview, where she alerted the world to Red Ed’s status as a bit of a boulevardier having secretly dated the host of a dinner party she attended, the Daily Mail warmed to the theme. It ran a front cover picturing his conquests: Alice Miles, Stephanie
