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
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
It’s been a bad month for dogs, first there were reports of the fatal poisoning of a prize-winning Crufts dog, and now there will be no canine lead in the new series of Downton Abbey. Downton fans were left outraged last year after the Grantham family’s beloved Labrador Isis was killed off during the fifth
What Dave said in his kitchen during an interview with the BBC has blown this week’s news agenda wide open, yet Mr S couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact the PM was in the kitchen at all. After Miliband’s ‘kitchenette’ spin gaffe last week, it was no coincidence that Dave and Sam invited James Lansdale
Some voters may be rather puzzled by David Cameron’s comments that Prime Ministerial terms ‘are like shredded wheat: two are wonderful but three might just be too many’. The most popular Shredded Wheat today is the bitesize variety (above). But Mr S is informed that the original, monster-sized Shredded Wheat was a staple of the breakfast halls of
Who needs the Comedy Channel when you have Newsnight? The best part last night was watching Michael Gove who has been dispatched to try to make sense of David Cameron’s tragicomic pre-resignation. You can’t, of course, there is no logic that justifies starting a leadership race on the week you’re supposed to launch a general election campaign. Gove
David Cameron is facing calls from Labour to discipline a local council candidate after they dressed as Oscar Pistorius for a costume party. Gregg Peers – who is standing for the Conservatives in a Cumbria County Council by-election – posted photos of himself in the fancy dress on his Facebook page. Labour’s Liz Kendall has said the
Miliband finally got some good media coverage this weekend. Alas, it was David rather than Ed who was on the receiving end. The Labour leader’s brother was branded ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in a glowing profile in the Sunday Times. According to well sourced ‘friends’, the former Foreign Secretary turned Labour leadership loser has conquered America and is
After Sarah Vine took Ed Miliband to task in an acerbic Daily Mail column for having a bare kitchen, the wife of Michael Gove received a grilling on the BBC’s This Week from both Alan Johnson and Michael Portillo. Now, Mr S’s colleague Tanya Gold has joined in. Writing in this week’s edition of the Spectator, Gold takes time
Are CCHQ already planning how to push through their next coalition? Mr S only asks as word reaches Steerpike that Conservative backbenchers have been urged to return to London immediately after the General Election in the potential event of a snap vote. The pressure is on for any future coalition to be put to the parliamentary party after this failed to
After months of speculation, the Guardian have appointed their new editor-in-chief and it is not a man. Katharine Viner, the Guardian US editor, will become the paper’s first female editor later this year when she takes over from Alan Rusbridger as the publication’s editor-in-chief . The decision comes after a drawn out process which saw the Oxford graduate come
After the Ukip MEP Janice Atkinson was suspended from her party following claims that a member of her staff tried to get a fake receipt to increase an expense claim, media pundits have claimed that Ukip is in crisis. However, according to Nigel Farage’s right hand man, this is not the case. Raheem Kassam has taken to Twitter to say that
Next week Lord Hall will read the BBC’s report into Jeremy Clarkson’s suspension from Top Gear and make a decision about Clarkson’s future. In light of this, Clarkson may well live to regret his night out at the Roundhouse gala. Mr S was a guest at last night’s charity fundraiser and witnessed Clarkson launching a foul-mouthed attack on the BBC over
Last week the Green Party was forced to cancel a planned black tie fundraiser after their members complained that the champagne-fuelled event was at odds with what Natalie Bennett’s party was supposed to stand for. So Mr S was surprised to see that the Guardian has gone one step further and sponsored a white tie ball. The
After David Cameron was asked in a live Q&A this week who his favourite Game of Thrones character was, the Prime Minster replied Ned Stark – the heroic head of the Stark family, who died at the end of series one. While many commentators were quick to claim that Cameron would be much more at home with the villainous
This morning Danny Alexander is scheduled to reveal the Liberal Democrats’ proposed alternative budget. Alas, Vince Cable appears to have missed the memo. Speaking about the budget on LBC yesterday, Cable claimed he would be leading the Lib Dem budget: Presenter: Is it difficult to sit through a Budget like that and be barely mentioned? As a party, not personally.
Zac Goldsmith recently wrote in the Spectator that it was his father – not the Labour party – who had stopped Britain from joining the euro. The Conservative MP claimed his dad Sir James Goldsmith was to thank, after his Referendum party battled to ‘ensure that Britain would never join the euro without the consent of the people’. One man
Douglas Alexander claimed this week that Facebook has made it difficult for politicians to campaign successfully. He said that Labour were struggling to win back voters in Scotland as a result of conspiracy theories being posted on social media. Perhaps Labour’s campaign chief was simply trying to make early excuses for his own performance in the upcoming election. Alexander is predicted to lose
Two of the biggest media circuses are set to collide. The 2013 press storm that greeted the arrival of Prince George looks likely to return when the Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to her second child. Today Catherine revealed that the baby is due next month. ‘I’m due in mid-April, to the end of April,’ the young royal told a crowd
