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
So farewell then Lord Ashcroft: well, not quite. The former Tory Party treasurer has announced today that he has resigned his life peerage, yet will be able to keep his title for life, under changes to the rules passed in 2013. Having fallen out with Cameron in 2010, the billionaire one-time Tory backer and in-house pollster is
This morning Ed Balls gave a speech promising to help small firms succeed if Labour get into power. However, with Balls keen to inspire voters Mr S is curious as to why he chose to such an uninspiring location. Sky’s Sophy Ridge reports that the speech took place in a graveyard: Ed Balls is giving a speech on
Last week Mr S reported on the poshest squatters ever: dozens of angry militant lefties had taken over a building on Pall Mall to protest against a multitude of right on issues. However, the dopey hippies got the wrong building. They thought they were ‘occupying’ the Institute of Directors but it wasn’t the case as
Tonight Martin Freeman will take on a starring role in the latest Labour election broadcast. In the short film, the Sherlock actor says that for him ‘there’s only once choice’ and that’s Labour. Alas for Labour, that hasn’t always strictly been the case. Mr S recalls the 2001 general election during which Freeman voted not for Labour,
You might have thought Ukip bosses would want to distance themselves from their outspoken and eccentric candidate Winston McKenzie after he organised the disastrous ‘Carnival of Colour’ in Croydon last year before going on to declare that Farage was bigger than Jesus. However, Ukip don’t play by the usual rules. In fact senior party figures wear their allegiance to
Where did Nick Clegg go on the first stop of his General Election campaign tour? To visit a creature under threat. Not a Lib Dem MP struggling to hold on to a marginal seat, Lorely Burt, but a hedgehog who can only walk in circles after an injury. Of course. Mr Steerpike keeps a keen
During her time as a Labour councillor, Karen Danczuk has managed to have bust-ups with women in both the Conservative party and her own. As well as Danczuk’s ongoing spat with Louise Mensch over her revealing selfies, she claimed last month that Harriet Harman had told her to join Girls Aloud – something Harman has denied. With Danczuk now stepping down from
Earlier this month the Labour party were accused of not including pictures of Ed Miliband on campaign literature out of fear that the mere image of their party leader could scare off voters. Now Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy appears to have gone one step further and simply not mentioned Labour at all. Ruth Davidson, the leader of the
Ed Miliband used last night’s election interview with Jeremy Paxman as an opportunity to blast the Murdoch press. The Labour leader told viewers that he had stood up to Rupert Murdoch, and would continue to do so in spite of whatever bad publicity is thrown at him as a result. However, this appeared to come as news to Murdoch.
Tonight Kay Burley will moderate a ‘town hall’ style Q&A with David Cameron and Ed Miliband as part of the election debate package. When Mr S bumped into Burley’s Sky colleague Adam Boulton at this morning’s Helen Darroze Regency Power Breakfast at The Connaught, there was no sign of sour grapes about him not being assigned the gig: ‘Sky took
Benedict Cumberbatch once complained that ‘posh-bashing’ had got so bad in Britain that he was contemplating a move to America. Cumberbatch, who attended Harrow, moaned that people showed prejudice towards his background despite the fact that he is not actually that posh. ‘I wasn’t really born with a silver spoon in my mouth, or as part of the landed gentry,’
The Liberal Democrats have unveiled their funky new campaign poster this morning, only to unceremoniously dump it on a yellow line on an empty street in Westminster: Mr S is slightly concerned for the career prospects of whichever party bod designed the poster, as it appears they need to learn how to cross the road. In
Tonight Ed Miliband and David Cameron will be interviewed by Jeremy Paxman in two separate interviews, after Cameron declined to do a head-to-head interview with the Labour leader. Now, Mr S hears that the prospect of a Paxman grilling has been keeping Miliband up at night. Word reaches Steerpike that Miliband has hired the help of American public relations guru Michael
Ed Miliband had a disastrous PMQs today after the Labour leader claimed the Tories would raise VAT, only to have David Cameron deny that he would increase the tax. Besides leaving Miliband lost for words, Cameron’s pledge has also left a massive hole in Labour’s election campaign. It was only yesterday that Ed Balls unveiled a snazzy new poster,
Cracks within the Liberal Democrats began to surface this week after Vince Cable publicly denounced Tim Farron as a future party leader. Now things have got even stranger. An excruciating mash-up video featuring Nick Clegg, and set to the tune of Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, has been released. Mr S was surprised to see that the source
Last week Mr S reported how Jeremy Clarkson took to the stage at a charity event and called the BBC a bunch of ‘f—ing b—–ds’. He may well be uttering those words again today after Lord Hall released a statement saying that the BBC will not be requiring the Top Gear host’s services any more
Never one to miss a dig, hats off to the PM at the final PMQs of this parliament for managing to shoehorn a gag about Ed Miliband into a spurious point about the Battle of Bosworth. Responding to a question regarding Richard III from self-noted historian Chris Skidmore, Cameron couldn’t help himself: ‘Of course, this
Next week will see the dissolution of Parliament and the official start of the election campaign. With some MPs destined never to return to the House of Commons, offices are shut down and the keys to the country are handed over to the civil service for six or so weeks. So from 00:01 on Monday
After Boris Johnson got his dates muddled while discussing his biography of Winston Churchill on LBC yesterday, it has come to Mr S’s attention that a selective memory could run in the family. Speaking at an Oldie literary lunch earlier this month, Boris’s father Stanley Johnson revealed to Steerpike that there is an embarrassing mistake in his second autobiography Stanley, I
Boris was waxing lyrical about Winston Churchill during his weekly LBC phone-in earlier when it all went a little wrong. Discussing the ‘many different phases Churchill’ went through ‘in his life’, Boris recalled that ‘in 1908 I think you’ll remember, he was in favour of cutting defence spending when he was going around with Lloyd
