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
With a week to go until polling day, the Tories are stepping up their attacks on Reform. Following Channel 4’s programme on Thursday, the Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has taken to the airwaves. Speaking to Times Radio today he warned that ‘there is a real pattern of racist and misogynistic views’ in Nigel Farage’s pattern
After a lamentable performance in Thursday’s debate, much of the Democrat press corps is demanding that Joe Biden step aside. Last night, the New York Times ‘Editorial Board’ said that, ‘to serve his country’, the President must go. If the octogenarian President were to throw in the towel, who could possibly replace him? Below are
Politics is a fickle business. One day, the idea that Joe Biden is unfit to be president is heresy; the next it is progressive orthodoxy. No greater example of this can be found than in the comment pages of the New York Times. Overnight, the great-and-the-good of liberal opinion has turned on their former hero,
When you’re in a hole, stop digging. It seems that those words of wisdom aren’t being heeded by Reform as the party battles to handle the fall-out from last night’s Channel 4 exposé. The broadcaster released an undercover report into the party’s campaign in Clacton, featuring examples of anti-migrant rhetoric, homophobia and one canvasser called
Most presidential debates tend to be underwhelming but last night certainly was not one of them. Much of the subsequent coverage focused on Joe Biden’s hesitant, stumbling performance, prompting Donald Trump at one stage to remark that ‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows
Can Joe Biden cling on? That’s the question being asked in Washington DC after a painful performance from the US President in the first debate of the contest. While there’s still plenty of time between now and the November election debate, even dedicated Democrats are struggling to shrug off Biden’s performance. There’s already talk that
After storming out of the blocks at the beginning of this campaign, polls suggest that Reform’s support has now tailed off slightly in the past week. So what’s the reason for this? Nigel Farage himself suggested to ITV yesterday that he had been ‘wilfully misinterpreted’ over his Ukraine comments but added that: ‘I think the
Oh dear. The Democrats are reeling from Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate of the election. After the US president stopped and started, looked puzzled and struggled to answer questions, commentators are out in force suggesting Biden is not fit for a second term. Yet this time something has changed. It’s not
The Greens like to portray themselves as the party of hope and change. But what exactly does that entail? An enlightening answer perhaps comes from Joe Taylor, the Green candidate for Battersea. In his zeal to save the planet, he advocates using legal action against those whom he holds responsible for climate change. But not
Uh oh. On the same day that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced his party would be dropping the two Tory candidates caught up in the election betting scandal, now Labour is facing problems of its own. It transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s party has suspended Central Suffolk and North Ipswich candidate Kevin Craig after the
With only nine days left until the general election, tensions are flying high and parties are under more scrutiny than ever. Labour’s muddled messaging on the gender debate has ignited heated discussions on the treatment of gender-critical feminists by Sir Keir Starmer’s party – namely one of his own colleagues Rosie Duffield – and has
As the election campaigns continue to pick up pace ahead of the national poll in nine days’ time, Mr S has been digging into some of the problems facing voters across the country. One issue stood out: crime. Sir Keir’s party has insisted it will cut down on antisocial behaviour and has this morning pledged to
Following JK Rowling’s rather scathing attack on Sir Keir’s Labour party on Sunday, some in Starmer’s army have been grovelling for the author’s support since. But Rowling isn’t prepared to let them off the hook that easily… After Rowling slammed Starmer’s lot for the party’s ‘dismissive and often offensive’ approach to concerns of gender-critical feminists,
Another day, another election mishap. This time it’s Reform UK under fire after one of the party’s candidates was found to have made pro-Putin comments during a hustings. Julian Malins KC, Reform’s Salisbury candidate, was booed at a recent election event after declaring that Putin ‘seemed very good’. Oo er. Asked by an audience member
‘Betgate’ might be giving us some laughs but there’s one person who clearly isn’t cracking jokes. A notably vexed Rishi Sunak gave an interview to STV this afternoon on a visit to campaign with the Scottish Conservative party. He told the broadcaster that he was ‘angry’ about allegations that Tory candidates put bets on the
Back to Scotland, where Rishi Sunak is attending the Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto launch in Edinburgh. Leaving the ongoing betting scandal in London, the Prime Minister walked into another controversy – about the football. Before Sunak launched into his speech he made a point of agreeing with Scottish Tory leader and linesman Douglas Ross that Scotland should
Uh oh. In the latest election drama, Tory candidate for North West Essex and business secretary Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at Labour’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell. The lefty spinner has a well-documented history of Brexit-bashing and Badenoch, it seems, has had enough. Urging readers of the Daily Mail to ignore Brexit sceptics and
Oh dear. In the latest election campaign blip, it’s the Green Party in the spotlight. It has now transpired that despite the Greens long urging voters to swap out gas guzzling boilers for heat pumps, the co-leader of Green Party herself has, er, a gas boiler. Rules for thee but not for me… Carla Denyer’s
With ten days to go until polling day, all signs point to a Conservative wipeout. In such tough times, celebrity support counts for all the more. And while few stars are lining up to snap selfies with Rishi Sunak, at least one is willing to take the fight to Labour. Step forward Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps
Oh dear. It seems that ‘honest John’ Swinney is embroiled in another fine mess, this time about taxpayer-funded election expenses at Holyrood. Strict rules state that MSPs are entitled to claim up to £5,500 per year for stationery, but it must be used only for parliamentary duties. Yet now one of the Scottish First Minister’s
