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
Dear oh dear. Back to Scotland and the chaos of the SNP. Former health secretary Michael Matheson was suspended for 27 days and received a 54-day salary ban last month after he tried to use the public purse to cover his £11,000 iPad data roaming bill. Now it transpires that the Nat has accepted a
At long last, Boris Johnson has joined the campaign trail. With less than three weeks to go until polling day, the former prime minister has today urged voters to back Rishi Sunak’s wounded party – just hours after a YouGov poll revealed that support for Reform has overtaken the Tories for the first time. And
There’s less than three weeks to go until polling day and the TV debates are continuing to roll in. This week, we’ve seen party leaders Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer quizzed by Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby before being turned on by the audience. And while the Prime Minister had a rather more gruelling
Today’s a big day in the election calendar. This morning, Labour launched its official manifesto, while campaigners hit the three-week countdown until the big day. As even the Tories seem to have accepted that the 5 July will see a victory for Sir Keir and his Starmtroopers, one Labour candidate seems to be especially enjoying
Oh dear. It’s not been the smoothest of starts this morning for Sir Keir Starmer, who is in Manchester launching the Labour manifesto. As the Labour leader was introducing his party’s official election manifesto to swathes of supporters and reporters, he was rather rudely interrupted. A rather young protestor holding a banner emblazoned with the
Uh oh. Back to Scotland where, for once, the chaos doesn’t concern the country’s biggest nationalist party. This time Alex Salmond’s pro-independence group, Alba, is in the spotlight over a rather public debacle with Scottish broadcasters STV. Salmond has taken issue with STV’s decision to move his party’s election broadcast slot from this Friday –
There may only be three weeks of election season left but there’s still a new development every day. Now Nigel Farage has made waves on the airwaves this morning in conversation with LBC’s Nick Ferrari. Quizzed about what the future if the opposition could look like, the Reform party leader hinted he was open to
Oh dear. Now it has transpired that the Prime Minister’s closest parliamentary aide, Craig Williams, placed a £100 bet on there being a July election — just three days before a rain-drenched Rishi Sunak announced the date to the public. The Guardian has tonight revealed that the Gambling Commission has launched an inquiry into the
Another day, another campaign disaster. Now it’s the turn of the Green party’s co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who was this lunchtime interviewed by Andrew Neil for Times Radio. Ramsay’s first mistake was to turn up late to the interview — while his next was to, er, not fully answer his interviewer’s questions. Introducing the Greens as
Back to Scotland, where the SNP’s Dear Leader is back in the news — literally, this time. It transpires that Nicola Sturgeon will be one of ITV’s election night pundits during the overnight vote count. The former first minister will appear alongside Ed Balls and George Osborne to provide expert analysis while the election results
Oh dear. The first clips of Rishi Sunak’s now infamous ITV interview have started to surface ahead of the full programme, to be broadcast on the channel at 7pm this evening. And if the Prime Minister thought his camera charm offensive might help soften hard feelings about his early departure from D-day commemorations last week,
Good heavens. Protestors are back to their old tricks and now it’s the King’s first official royal portrait that has ended up in the firing line. The all-new painting has been defaced by animal rights group ‘Animal Rising’, which today decided to vandalise the portrait — unveiled just last month by its artist Jonathon Yeo.
Nigel Farage is continuing his cross-country campaign as he makes the case for voters to back Reform UK on 4 July. But while the arch-Brexiteer’s new party is polling well — coming just two points below the Tories in last week’s YouGov survey — Farage isn’t getting a friendly response everywhere. A week after the
Another day, another drama. As general election campaign shenanigans continue, it now transpires that Robin Harper — the UK’s first ever Green parliamentarian and former leader of the Scottish Greens — has jumped ship to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party. With just over three and a half weeks to go until polling day, the veteran
Oh dear, it seems like the election scandals are coming thick and fast at the moment. Today, it was the turn of Reform UK, after it was revealed that one of the party’s candidates claimed Britain would be ‘far better’ if we had ‘taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality’ instead of fighting the
Labour have made much of their VAT raid on private school fees, proudly trumpeting the policy as one of the few instances of a ‘popular’ tax. So it must have been to the chagrin of Starmer’s spinners then to see two of their leading frontbenchers contradicting each other about the costs of the policy. Appearing
Another day, another BBC blunder. This time it involves Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Breakfast Show this morning, which announced that this week is ‘careers week’. In a call out for contributions, Ball urged listeners to phone in if they feel they have ‘the most obscure job’ and to divulge what their ‘careers officer’ told them
There are some decent arguments in favour of unilateral disarmament. So it’s a pity then that Carla Denyer did not make any of those when she appeared on LBC to give a car-crash interview earlier today. The Green co-leader decided that the best way to convince the British people to get rid of their Trident
Which Tory minister is having the worst week in politics? It’s a title that Rishi Sunak seemed to have sewn up after his D-Day disaster on Thursday. But it appears his Tory chairman is now giving him a late run for his money. Richard Holden was sent out to defend the government today, following Sunak’s
It’s three days since Rishi Sunak’s Normandy gaffe but there’s no sign of the row going away anytime soon. The Sunday Times reports that Lord Cameron was ‘apoplectic’ about the Prime Minister’s decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early but, when asked why he had not ‘picked Sunak up by his lapels’, replied ‘There is