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 Budget day today. With the tax burden predicted to amount to 37 per cent of national income by the next election, the 2019 to 2024 parliament is set to go down as the biggest tax-raising parliament in modern times. A rather impressive feat for a Tory party that likes to paint itself as one
Another day, another government figure in a spot of bother. Michelle Donelan, Science and Technology Secretary, has today had to retract false accusations she made about an academic and agreed to pay the damages and costs. It’s a rather embarrassing case of the science minister unable to get her facts right: sub-optimal to say the
What a week for TV broadcasters: it’s been non-stop breaking news about, um, themselves. After BBC Verify’s debacle yesterday, it’s TalkTV that is making headlines today. The television channel, launched to much fanfare in 2022, is moving entirely online from this summer. Staff were informed by email on Tuesday, just a month after the channel’s
Following an ill-timed interview with the BBC, Londoners have been reminded of the existence of the capital’s underwhelming ‘night czar.’ Amy Lamé has a claim to being Sadiq Khan’s worst mistake in office, having presided over a disastrous decline in London’s nightlife since taking up the post in 2016. Since then, her pay has been hiked
They say opposites attract but the battle brewing between Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn is evidence to the contrary. The pair have become embroiled in a war of words and now Jezza has got the long arm of the law involved. Last night Corbyn took to Twitter to announce that he was planning to sue
If you thought the Rwanda Bill was a headache last year, 2024 is shaping up to be no different. Rishi Sunak’s flagship legislation was debated in the House of Lords on Monday night and the government suffered no less than five defeats at the hands of the unelected chamber. While the amendments are likely to be
He’s back. George Galloway, victor of Friday’s Rochdale by-election, has this afternoon been sworn in as MP in the House of Commons for his fourth different constituency. After a morning swanning around the estate, ‘Gorgeous George’, who last sat in 2015, arrived to a rather empty chamber, flanked by Alba MP Neale Hanvey and Father
There’s rarely a day now that the blundering BBC isn’t the news itself. This time the spotlight is back on BBC Verify, the Corporation’s much-lauded fact-checking service launched to combat the scourge of fake news. Yet journalist David Collier has done some digging and has suggested that BBC Verify looks to be falling short of
Oh dear. It never takes long for the perpetually-warring SNP to take a pop at someone — but now the party’s leaders are, er, squabbling among themselves. The cause this time? Whether or not the nationalists should boycott Westminster, following Gazagate last month. At least we’d be spared Ian Blackford’s bloviating… Keith Brown, the party’s
Poor John Bercow just can’t seem to catch a break. In his never-ending quest to find some relevance post-parliament, the former MP has been thwarted at every time. First, Covid put a stop to his burgeoning career on the speaking circuit. Then a report into his bullying behaviour led to a suspension of his Labour
After Rishi Sunak’s speech criticising the Rochdale result, there was only one reaction worth getting. The duty of interviewing George Galloway was left to Sam Coates of Sky News, following Sunak’s claim that last night’s result was ‘beyond alarming.’ Galloway initially played ball, telling Coates that he wasn’t taking the matter too seriously: We’re talking
When Hacked Off first launched in 2011, Hugh Grant was its lead spokesman, regularly appearing on shows like Question Time to preach the importance of press regulation. And while others like the-then DPP Keir Starmer are now less keen to talk about their role in the subsequent phone-hacking scandal, Grant remains a vocal supporter of Hacked Off.
In order to be inclusive of as many sexual orientations and gender identities as possible, Mr Steerpike uses the acronym LGBTQIA2S. Readers won’t need to be reminded that this stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and Two spirit. During a debate in the Commons this afternoon, Tory MP Alicia Kearns preferred the
You’ve got to hand it to Just Stop Oil: just when you think you’ve seen the last of the climate protest group, up they pop again. The eco-activists gave George Galloway a not-so-warm welcome back to Parliament, heckling the newly-crowned MP for Rochdale during his victory speech. Galloway was mid-flow in his speech, declaring bullishly,
Following his triumph in the Rochdale by-election, George Galloway marked the occasion by dropping another bombshell. Speaking to reporters at the count, Galloway was asked about the criticisms of Richard Tice, Reform party leader, who said that his candidate Simon Danczuk suffered intimidation throughout the campaign. Yet, in a shock twist, Galloway responded by claiming
Thursday morning in parliament brings with it Business Questions and the chance for Penny Mordaunt to slap down another opponent from the despatch box. Today though, her stand-out moment came not against her regular SNP opponents but rather a former colleague. Andrew Bridgen, the sage of North West Leicestershire, called for a debate on capital
All eyes were on the House of Lords this afternoon where it is the second reading of the Media Bill. Lord Forsyth, the former Scotland Secretary, has tabled what is known as a ‘motion to regret’ – a device which allows peers to express their opposition to legislation without stopping it. Forsyth’s ire had been
Prince Harry just can’t seem to catch a break. The renegade royal this morning lost his High Court legal challenge against the British government over the level of his security protection provided when he is in the UK. It comes after he quit being a ‘working royal’ back in February 2020, a decision that led
Ping! An email arrives in Steerpike’s inbox. It seems that the Tony Blair Institute – the eponymous creature of the perma-tanned politician – has gone on a bit of a recruitment drive. Not content with having, in their words, ‘100 staff embedded in governments around the world’, Blair’s babes have now bagged themself a general
The Lee Anderson saga shows no sign of going away anytime soon. Five days after the Ashfield MP had the whip removed for claiming ‘Islamists’ had ‘got control’ of the Mayor of London, Tory ministers are still tying themselves in knots over how best to elegantly distance themselves from their now-suspended colleague. Prime Minister Rishi
