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
New year, same problems. Already Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is in the firing line again – this time facing criticism for private school VAT adverts. Now the Treasury has been accused of breaching impartiality for saying that Starmer’s move to apply 20 per cent VAT to private school fees ends a ‘tax break’. Dear
Once Jess Phillips was the queen of Twitter, harrying and hounding the Tories at every chance. But these days it’s a very different story. Having been handed government responsibility for safeguarding back in July, the Home Office minister swiftly parked a social media back lash after suggesting she got better NHS treatment for her Gaza
It’s been an eventful year in British politics, with a snap general election and multiple leadership contests keeping political journalists across the country busy. And how have political party leaders fared? With the help of the Spectator’s data hub, Mr S has examined which party leaders, both north and south of the border, have had
Farewell to 2024, the year in which no incumbent was safe. Whether it was the Democrats in the White House or the Tories in Downing Street, the tide of change carried all before it, from the LDP in Japan to the BDP in Botswana. But one man successfully bucked the trend: Sadiq Khan was re-elected
Farewell 2024. It’s certainly been an eventful year. Elections across the globe have taken up much of the newscycle, leaving Britain with a new Labour Prime Minister and the US seeing President Trump return for a second term. The Russian invasion of Ukraine surpassed its 1000th day, while conflict in Gaza continues to rage. Scotland
It’s certainly been an eventful year for Britain, what with the snap election, a change in government and yet another new Tory leader. But 2024’s drama hasn’t only been political. The UK media landscape has also faced a number of challenges this year – with our public service broadcaster very often making the news rather
Dear oh dear. The Labour lot have not fared well in opinion polling this year and More in Common’s New Year poll has certainly not bucked that trend. The new survey, which quizzed more than 2,400 people, reveals that half of Brits believe 2025 will be worse than 2024 – while less than a quarter
Not even the Christmas season can keep attention off Labour’s controversial policies for long. The furore around this year’s early prison releases is still haunting Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot – and those criminals let out early are doing nothing to reassure the public. As Steerpike revealed in October, Isaac Donkoh – a gang member
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a family feud. Reform has spent this Boxing Day trumpeting its membership figures, which, it says, now outnumber the Conservatives. Nigel Farage’s party projected a ‘countdown clock’ onto CCHQ last night to mark the moment when Reform got its 131,670th member – thus beating the number who voted in the
Well, well, well. It now transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party has spent thousands of pounds on media training for its ministers since winning the July election – yet, despite this, senior politicians have still managed to make a series of rather embarrassing gaffes. Hardly money well spent, eh? Starmer’s army spent almost £17,000
In some rather strange news this festive season, it transpires that the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) has banned John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from being studied at GCSE level in Wales. The news comes amid concerns about the use of racist language in the novel, with the move to come into force from
It’s been a pretty good year for Nigel Farage. At the beginning of 2024, he was out of politics and fresh out of the jungle, having returned from I’m A Celeb… with no imminent plans of a comeback. Now, fast forward 12 months, he is an MP, party leader and beating Keir Starmer as a more
Another day and another thumping defeat for Keir Starmer. This time, it’s for one of three seats in the previously safe ward of Brockmoor and Pensnett in Dudley. Labour previously won here in July with almost 64 per cent of the vote. But, this morning, it transpires that they have now slumped to third in
Uh oh. Less than 24 hours after Peter Mandelson was appointed the next UK ambassador to Washington, Donald Trump’s team are kicking up a fuss. Now Chris LaCivita has taken to Twitter to blast the new ambassador and Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government for the decision. Writing on the social media platform, LaCivita – who
Well, well, well. The political peerages list is finally here and the nominations from Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey have been formally approved by King Charles III. The list includes some rather interesting names – including the Spectator’s Toby Young, Liz Truss’s former deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey and despite her
Parliament may be in recess, but Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government still can’t catch a break. The Prime Minister is facing further allegations of cronyism after a pro-Labour lobbyist was appointed to a top government advisory job. Dear, oh dear… Iain Anderson, a prominent businessman who defected to Labour from the Tories in 2023, has
Is there room for more than one furry feline in Whitehall? Initially brought into quell the government’s mouse problem, the various departmental cats have over the years become a brand in themselves – with one of the longest serving being No. 10’s Larry the cat. Yet since Labour got into power, Larry has been the
When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. The Prime Minister is now facing ridicule today after making a rather, um, strange pronouncement at this afternoon’s liaison committee. At Sir Keir’s first appearance before the group, he faced questions everything from public services, foreign affairs and the economy. But one of his answers has
The Labour drama just never seems to stop. All eyes are now on Tulip Siddiq after the Daily Mail revealed the Labour minister was named in an embezzlement probe. It has been reported that Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an investigation into the lefty MP, her mother and her aunt over claims the family embezzled
To Scotland, where the focus is back on Operation Branchform. It now transpires that the late former first minister Alex Salmond met and spoke with police in the probe into the SNP’s funds and finances – which saw three senior nationalists arrested and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell charged with embezzlement. How interesting… It has