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
It’s going to be a long day for Rishi Sunak. It’s the second reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the Prime Minister is expecting to see a number of his own politicians vote against his smoking ban this evening. Opponents of the bill include Sir Simon Clarke and Sir John Hayes while Penny
There’s 16 days to go until the London elections and Labour is comfortably in the lead. But is Sadiq Khan now feeling the heat? Perusing Twitter/X this morning, Mr S could not help but notice a new account has sprung up, under the name of ‘London Tory Fact Check’. Its bio reads simply ‘Exposing London
Happy NatCon day, one and all. Yes, it’s that time of year again, when some of Europe’s most vocal right-wing exponents get together in a room for the annual National Conservatism conference. Last year’s shindig was in Westminster and spawned numerous headlines about Miriam Cates and Lee Anderson. This time though it’s being held in
If you don’t want to know the answer, don’t ask the question. That seems to be the mantra by which the SNP is currently abiding. Careful analysis of the many, many years of the ferry fiasco to the recent confusion over former health secretary Michael Matheson’s iPad bill has shown that important queries haven’t always
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, received a rather humiliating dressing down in the Commons today. His ticking off followed the Health Secretary’s statement on Dr Hilary Cass’s report into gender services. During his intervention, a holier-than-thou Russell-Moyle welcomed the report for moving the discussion on but claimed that his reading of the review
Uh oh. The Prime Minister hasn’t been back from Easter recess for one full day yet and he’s already facing bad news. In the latest poll of Tory party members by ConservativeHome, Rishi Sunak’s net satisfaction rating has dropped to a new low of, er, -27.7. In fact, Sunak is the least popular member of
Eighteen months have passed since Liz Truss left Downing Street and after an initial period of silence, she has been making up for lost time. In recent months, Truss has tabled a bill in parliament, launched her own ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement and even done the lecture circuit in the US. And now, at last, the
The question of how Israel will respond to Iran’s attack dominated David Cameron’s first broadcast round since he became Foreign Secretary last year. Immediately condemning Iran’s attack as a ‘very, very dangerous act in an already dangerous world’ on BBC Breakfast, Cameron added that ‘fortunately, it was a failure’. The Foreign Secretary told LBC’s Nick
Another day, another nationalist gaffe. This time it’s pro-indy filmmaker and columnist — for that august journal the National — Lesley Riddoch in the spotlight. In a rather bizarre attempt to persuade the good people of Scotland that independence wouldn’t be a terrible idea, Riddoch has demonstrated exactly why the Nats should not be in
Oh dear. It seems that the sage of Hackney has blundered once more. Having lost the Labour whip last year for an asinine antisemitism letter, Diane Abbott is doing little it seems to try and win it back. She took to Twitter yesterday to criticise Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary, for daring to suggest
Back to Scotland and Humza Yousaf’s controversial new hate law. The First Minister’s Hate Crime Act has left an already overstretched and under-resourced police force swamped with trivial complaints. Of the over 7,000 reports made in the first week, only three per cent of these were actual crimes. And now the spotlight is on the
Well, well, well. Less than 24 hours after Keir Starmer tried to brush off questions about Angela Rayner, it turns out she is now the subject of a formal police investigation. Greater Manchester Police have this morning confirmed it is looking into claims that the Labour deputy leader may have mispaid capital gains tax over
Angela Rayner appears unable to shake off questions about her tax affairs — literally. And now in an interview with ITV Granada, even Sir Keir Starmer’s confidence in his deputy doesn’t seem to be watertight. The media attention on his second-in-command continues after weeks of speculation about whether Rayner avoided capital gains tax on her
Uh oh. Reform UK has not had an easy ride with its general election candidates, to put it mildly. Richard Tice’s party has already had to drop ten prospective candidates for posting inappropriate comments on social media, including one who identified as a ‘pastafarian’ while another called for documentary maker David Attenborough to be ‘killed
All is not well in the Harry Potter universe. Author of the hit wizarding novels and prominent women’s rights campaigner JK Rowling has revealed that, even if they apologise, she will not go easy on the lead actors of the Potter films for their stance on the trans debate. Less, er, expecto forgiveness and more
Oh dear. Having his leadership questioned is becoming an almost-daily occurrence for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. When he announced he was going to introduce a smoking ban at the Conservative party conference in October, there were people in his own party rather aghast at the proposal, with more recent talk of a rebellion on the
Well, well, well. In a turn of events that is good news for Canada’s monarchists, a motion that would have amended the country’s Constitution Act — and made the oath to Canada’s monarch optional for MPs — was, on Wednesday, defeated. 113 voted for the motion while 197 voted against it. A cross-party group of
Try as she might to duck questions on her tax affairs, the issue just keeps following Angela Rayner around — literally. On a campaign event today in Teesside, the deputy Labour leader was met by three men in high-vis jackets, one of whom was later identified as local Tory councillor John Coulson who took part
Uh oh. Today brings tidings of misery for hapless Humza Yousaf as a new poll reveals that support for Labour has overtaken the SNP for the first time since the 2014 indyref. The YouGov survey sees Labour on 33 per cent, up a point since October last year, while support for the Nats has gone
Reform UK’s election campaign hasn’t got off to the best start. Richard Tice’s party has already had to drop ten prospective parliamentary candidates after some rather unsavoury social media posts were highlighted by media organisations and campaign groups. The Reform leader has since said that his party had published its candidate list early so that