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
Taking a break from preparing for tonight’s debate, Ed Miliband has been out about in Hornsey, north London. Trying to look normal by visiting Riley’s Cafe (with an entourage and security detail, just like all normal people), it looked like the Labour leader had dropped the first big election clanger of the campaign. Channel 4’s
Tristram Hunt encountered every politician’s nightmare on the campaign trail this morning. When visiting a primary school in Derbyshire, the shadow education secretary asked a schoolchild how they would vote in the general election. The answer was probably not one he was expecting: Tristram Hunt: Do you know who you’d vote for? Schoolchild: Ehhh, Ukip Hunt: You’d vote
This morning Sir David Nicholson criticised Ed Miliband for failing to commit an extra £8 billion a year towards the NHS. The former head of the NHS said that Labour needed to follow the example of the Tories and Lib Dems by signing up to the pledge. Now, Frank Field, the Labour MP, has come out in response.
In this week’s issue, Julie Burchill explains why she is not dieting. Ever. As Kingsley Amis said, no pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home. And Burchill has seen nothing during her long, wicked, wonderful life to make her change her ways — or her weight. But what will Katie Hopkins, arch-enemy of
Last year Mike Read had to withdraw his Ukip Calypso song from sale after a number people complained that it was racist. So Mr S was cheered to hear that there could be a turn in the party’s musical fortunes today after The Rifles voiced their support for Ukip. The indie band tweeted that Nigel Farage’s party are
If voters pick up party manifestos, chances are they might not make it all the way through the 80-150 page tomes the people pitching for government have produced. But they might leaf through and look at some of the bullet points, graphics and the pictures. Here are some of the best (or perhaps the oddest)
When Charlotte Edwards collected her CBE today from the Queen for services to cricket, the acclaimed sportswoman and current captain of the England women’s cricket team, got slightly more than she bargained for. Her Majesty used the meeting as an opportunity to let her feelings be known on the appropriate length of cricket matches for all-female
The BBC appeared to have put an end to their Jeremy Clarkson woes when they made the decision not to renew his contract following a ‘fracas’ between the Top Gear presenter and a show producer. Despite this, the Clarkson saga continues to cast a shadow on the corporation. The presenter’s untimely departure has meant that the producers
Earlier this year Lynton Crosby was accused of recycling a ten-year-old ‘attack ad’ the Liberal Party used in the 2004 Australian elections, to criticise Ed Miliband in the general election. At the time the advert was used in Australia, the Tory election strategist was helping to run the Liberal Party’s election campaign. Now it appears Crosby may have been
As regular readers will be aware, Mr S has tracked the growing hostility toward the press at Labour Party events. Today’s manifesto launch was no different. The Labour leader took the extraordinary step of pre-butting jeers and boos from audience members toward journalists, by asking them to hear the media out: ‘Now, we’re going to
This morning Lord Ashcroft wrote a blog post for ConservativeHome detailing information regarding his upcoming biography of David Cameron, Call me Dave. Ashcroft, who is known to have a lukewarm relationship with the Prime Minister, said that the book will be published in the autumn, after the election. He went on to claim that Cameron’s official biography,
‘Do you mind not splitting your infinitives then. Dear me’, said Alastair Campbell to a Tory candidate on Twitter last night. After chastising Beth Prescott, who is standing against Yvette Cooper in Normanton, Campbell was given an earful: .@campbellclaret I’m a young, Northern, former apprentice trying to make a positive difference&best you can do is
After Mr S broke the news last month that staff at the Express offices who were concerned about redundancy were to be offered a pep talk from Tom Bower on how to deal with their proprietor Richard Desmond, the offer was revoked as Bower was refused permission to enter the building. Happily, Express staff fearing the axe will now have a
Earlier this month the Sun‘s election website ran a story about their plans to back Labour. In the online article, they teased that the paper was backing Labour, something which would come as a shock given that their owner Rupert Murdoch has an ongoing feud with Ed Miliband. IT’S OFFICIAL: We’re first out of the traps… http://t.co/nmQZX3lzAJ #SunNation pic.twitter.com/Tr4oxLI8x5
Is Labour’s war on the media finally over? After Mr S reported this week that journalists were jeered for asking questions at a Tony Blair event, relations between the party and the media appear to have warmed. As Ed Miliband and Ed Balls head north of the border to campaign with Jim Murphy, it fell to
This week David Cameron invited Ukip voters to ‘come home‘ to the Conservative party. ‘Come with us, come back home to us rather than risk all of this good work being undone by Labour,’ he pleaded at a campaign event. However for all of Cameron’s talk, Labour sources claim that the Tories would be quite
Forget the red lines in this election, it’s the yellow lines that Labour are having a daily struggle with. Yesterday it was there campaign bus, today it’s Ed Miliband’s motorcade. The vehicle was snapped flouting the law in Victoria this morning: A gas guzzling Range Rover for his security detail? Whatever happened to the Energy and
Despite their leader playing the pious ‘not angry, but disappointed’ shtick at his press conference this morning, it’s not all po-faces over in Labour land after the Tories’ latest attack on Ed Miliband. ‘Lynton Crosby has literally had to go nuclear to distract from non-doms,’ chuckles a chirpy Labour source. Tory sources back this up, saying it was
After Jenni Russell kicked off the ‘Two kitchen’ Miliband drama when she tweeted about his kitchenette, Mr S would have thought she might be keeping her mouth firmly closed when it came to the Labour leader. Ed Miliband’s kitchen is lovely. Daily Mail pix: the functional kitchenette by sitting room for tea and quick snacks. —
Today Owen Jones has criticised Michael Fallon for using the term ‘stabbed in the back’ to describe what he thinks Ed Miliband would do to Britain over Trident. The Guardian columnist has gone so far as to say that the phrase is ‘anti-Semitic’. Michael Fallon’s “stabbed in the back” metaphor is deeply sinister. It is a
