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
Evan Harris, the former Lib Dem MP turned Hacked Off campaigner, told the Daily Politics that he was ‘quite happy’ to serve on party policy committees with panjandrum Lord Rennard. Harris was camped next to Bridget Harris, a former Special Advisor to Nick Clegg and one of the women at the centre of the scandal.
President Hollande’s private life continues to fascinate the whole world (other than the French press pack, obviously); but it is worth noting that the embattled president signalled a major shift in economic policy yesterday. France is a couple of years late to the austerity party; but it will experience €50 billion worth of cuts in
Francois Hollande, was framed by a set of panto-esque red curtains as he attempted to conduct a gigantic U-turn on fiscal policy while simultaneously fending off interest in the identity of the First Lady of France. The President wanted to sound and appear dignified; but it seemed to Mr S that his make-up had been
Russell Brand is in the naughty boy’s corner today after he jokingly told raucous members of the Cambridge Union last night to: ‘Shut up, you Harry Potter poofs.’ Naturally, there have been absurd calls for the millionaire revolutionary to apologise for cracking an inoffensive and tame quip Mr S is delighted to see that the
Some MPs really will do anything to get noticed. Today Alec Shelbrooke pitched up on the Daily Politics in a tiger onesie. Apparently it’s all for a good cause, but that didn’t seem to reassure fellow guest Charlotte Leslie all that much…
Last week the sugar police were on the beet beat. This week the ‘thinnist’ lobby is claiming that a 2007 report into obesity, which predicted that half the country would be obese by 2050, was ‘an underestimate’. The National Obesity Forum says that ‘it is entirely reasonable to conclude that the determinations of the 2007
There was a moment when it looked like French Closer had done President Hollande a favour. His poll ratings have been abysmal and the economy has tanked. What better distraction than a little ooh la la? Scandals such as these reveal the character of a nation and its politics. If a British minister had dispatched
Fancy owning a slice of media history? Or living in a notorious crime scene? Well now you can lay your press hat where you call home at ‘Fortress Wapping’, home of the UK branch of Rupert Murdoch’s empire ever since the antipodean mogul’s 1986 battle with the print unions. With News Co moving to the
Yesterday’s PMQs was a sombre affair, because of the untimely death of well-liked Labour MP Paul Goggins. The party leaders made a concerted effort to be a little more civil to one another. And backbenchers seemed subdued by the loss of one of their own. There were a few exceptions, though. Labour’s Chris Bryant took
The open primary to choose the 2016 Labour candidate for London Mayor is a dot on horizon; but speculation is underway. Mr Steerpike has been reading the form. Tessa Jowell, the former Olympics minister and outgoing MP for Dulwich, had a busy festive period: turning on the waterworks and displaying signs of Tourettes in this
While Michael Gove and academic lefties continue to row about the causes of the Great War, the education secretary’s wife, Sarah Vine, has helpfully poured some fuel on the fire. Vine’s always-mischievous Mail column reveals that her husband admires the Germans: ‘While I wasn’t looking, my husband, Michael Gove, appears to have declared war on
Did Robert Halfon, the Tory MP for Harlow, get a new suit for Christmas? He was resplendent in this russet/chestnut suit at today’s Education Questions. Had he not been wearing short hair, he would have passed for Ron Burgundy of Anchorman fame. Bold.
The Chancellor is scaring the horses up in Brum with his ‘hard truths’ speech on the economy. Meanwhile, the troops in Westminster have that ‘back to school’ feeling. Mr Steerpike has been asking Conservative MPs, ranging from loyalists to rebels and from old timers to young scamps, for their New Year predictions. Many of the
Ministers have spent the past 12 months in an almighty flap about how to stem a feared flood of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants once transitional controls on their freedom of movement lift. They’ve announced and re-announced measures on benefit tourism, housing and access to public services. But while they’ve been tinkering with these measures which
After a seasonal interlude, rival Tories are back to doing what they do best: warring over the heart and soul of the party. In the cuddly corner, we have Bright Blue; a think tank of hoody-huggers who are imploring the PM to be nice to immigrants. The Guardian has been purring with approval since Bright Blue’s
Tory Defence Minister Anna Soubry has never been famed for her delicate, flowery language. An MP recently complained to Mr Steerpike that he’d ‘had to leave the smoking room after hearing her and Simon Burns banging on in there’. Today she took the smoking room language to Andrew Marr’s sofa. After watching comedian Rory Bremner
Sanctimonious Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes has accepted a government job, despite having said that he would not. Speculation about who might replace him reached fever pitch last night at the annual Nick Clegg bash, which is always a night to remember. Insiders deride the job as ‘talking to bearded activists about hemp soup’.
There has been much amusement in the last couple of days after Sophie Gadd, a student at the University of York, snapped a picture of Johann Baptist Lampi’s 1794 oil on canvas portrait of Catherine II the Great while visiting the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Eagle-eyed Sophie pointed out the immediate and obvious similarities
Home truths hurt the most when they come from your own side. Mr S was gabbing with a backbench Tory MP the other day, talking about how the Tories might connect with what the said MP described as ‘[those] parts of the public that we used to rely on in the Eighties and Nineties.’ The
Boris may be under fire for his London bike scheme – what with soaring costs, declining use and Barclays cutting their sponsorship. But not everyone is so critical. The iconic blue bikes have achieved international fame, not least in Gambia. Probably tricky to find a docking station in the desert though. Via Oxfam Campaigns and