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
If ever there was a tell-tale sign of who won the Great War between the Speaker and the Clerk of the Commons, it was today’s Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Sir Robert Rogers picked up the top prize, declaring: ‘Common sense and good governance will prevail before very long’. Mr Speaker failed to show
The great, the good and not so good of the establishment turned up at the Savoy Hotel today for this year’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards. The awards were presented by the Home Secretary Theresa May:
‘Tis the season for forgiving, and Mr S is pleased to report that what Vanity Fair called ‘one of the juiciest rows in recent Fleet Street history’ appears finally to have been put to bed. After months of squabbling in the press, Alexander Chancellor and Richard Ingrams were seen chatting amiably at the launch of
What a busy week for Theresa May as she picked up a gong for Politician of the Year at the Political Studies Association awards at Church House last night. The BBC’s Nick Robinson was in full sycophant mode as he presented the Home Secretary’s prize, laying it on thick for his academic hosts, thanking them
‘Apologies everyone and especially to our Leader’ tweets Rachel Johnson after a very rude word appeared on her Twitter feed about the Prime Minister: Apparently the columnist and famous sibling was ‘hacked’. Mr S knows how these things are: you go out of the room for five minutes and bam! your naughty sibling has seized your computer
Since 2010, every government department has tried to highlight the profligate spending of their predecessors in the most imaginative ways possible. In return, Labour have been on the look out for the slightest whiff of waste upon which to jump in order to claim they have changed their ways. Parliamentary Questions are placed, diaries tipped
When food blogger and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe isn’t appearing in Labour Party political broadcasts or writing for the Guardian, she’s the face of Sainsbury’s. Their website proudly boasts: ‘Sainsbury’s is pleased to welcome food lover Jack Monroe, who will be showing us how to cook two delicious recipes with leftover chicken. Jack is a
The fallout from Emily Thornberry’s ‘snobbish’ photo of a flag-furnished house in Rochester looks like it still has plenty of gas. The house’s owner, Dan Ware, has travelled to Thornberry’s Islington house today in search of an apology. Thornberry, who resigned from the shadow cabinet yesterday following a furious conversation with Ed Miliband, has said
On zero sleep and only seven hours after being re-elected, Mark Reckless was back in the Commons and sitting on the opposition benches. Rushing back to take part in a Labour PR stunt/debate on the NHS in order to shore up a Ukip weakspot, Reckless wasted no time in getting sworn back in. The Tory
‘Any system for chatting up women is in itself questionable’ says Russell Brand today in response to the Julien Blanc scandal, that has seen the Home Office ban the controversial American ‘pick-up artist’ from touring in the UK. Brand continues: ‘any (system) that’s sort of based on objectifying or undermining women I would never, never,
It seems the most exciting thing to come out of today’s Commons press gallery lunch with Danny Alexander was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s claim that George Osborne locks his fridge in the department. Mr Steerpike has never been afflicted by an attack of the munchies while lurking in that part of Whitehall but
At the height of the 2005 election, the then Tory leader Michael Howard (advised by one Lynton Crosby) declared: ‘Let’s be clear. It’s not racist to talk about immigration. It’s not racist to criticise the system. It’s not racist to want to limit the numbers. It’s just plain common sense.’ Howard was lambasted by Labour for
Having walked across Afghanistan, governed a province of Iraq and written award winning books about his adventures, now Rory Stewart has delivered his own son: ‘Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart has announced the birth of his first son – which he ended up delivering himself on the bathroom floor. Alexander Wolf Stewart was
After the disgraced PR guru Max Clifford was sentenced to eight years at Her Majesty’s pleasure for a series of indecent assaults, he was forced to close his management firm with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of debts. Still, word reaches Mr S that Clifford’s jail term hasn’t stopped him from trying to trade
‘This a long way from the pigsties in east Kent where I smoked my first cigar,’ said 92 year-old Baroness Trumpington as she collected her lifetime achievement award at the Spectator’s Cigar Smoker of the Year awards last night. At a packed Boisdale, the top prize was awarded to Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Frasier’s Kelsey Grammer
Of all the watering holes across the capital, Mr S knows full well that the Pig and Eye club is both the most elusive and exclusive. So Steerpike was curious to hear that the MI5 joint has apparently been forced to change its name in order to err on the right side of political correctness. Originally set
Labour’s efforts to demonise the hostile anti-Ed media is working. At the Labour leader’s eighth ‘relaunch’ speech on Thursday at Senate House, every single question from journalists was greeted by boos, hisses and tuts. The Labour leader actually dealt with the smattering of questions about his latest leadership woes rather well, yet the crowd were
One of the things that every political team needs is a Liz Sugg. Sugg works in Downing Street and makes sure that every trip the Prime Minister makes anywhere runs with military precision and doesn’t involve him walking through a door with the word EXIT on it when he’s delivering a make or break speech
Big news on the front page of the Mirror today as the paper goes heavy on the report from the Regnum news agency that Samantha Lewthwaite, the British female terror suspect dubbed the White Widow, was shot dead by a Russian sniper while fighting for the Ukrainians two weeks ago. A very big claim given that
In his campaign to make every single member of the Conservative benches want to throttle him, the Speaker launched a bizarre broadside against Winston Churchill’s grandson Sir Nicholas Soames on Monday. Hansard reports the moment as such: Sir Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con): Is my hon. Friend aware of the serial bad behaviour by the
