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
If the Scottish Labour party are keen to get one message across at their Glasgow conference, it’s that they are the party of change. ‘That is what change means. That is why change matters,’ riffed Anas Sarwar throughout his keynote speech – 14 times, to be precise. But while more specifics about Scottish Labour’s ‘change’
Irony alert up in Scotland. Conference season is upon us again, with Anas Sarwar’s Labour party hosting their three-day soiree in Glasgow. It’s significantly busier — and bigger — than last year’s event, with one veteran declaring to Mr S: ‘This looks like a party preparing to win an election.’ And it was in that
She may have lost the Wellingborough by-election by more than 6,000 votes but Tory candidate Helen Harrison is determined to show there’s no dampening her quest to become an MP. Exiting the vote count after the by-election results were announced, Harrison declared she would ‘absolutely’ run again and stand at the general election. Pressed by
How much longer can Sir Keir Starmer’s local survive under the ever-blundering regime of Sadiq Khan’s City Hall? As every Westminster obsessive knows, Starmer’s favourite pub is The Pineapple in Kentish Town – a site ‘woven into the fabric of the community since it was built in 1868.’ Yet the battle-class boozer is struggling to
Crime is up, half the Tube network is delayed or suspended, but never fear, Sadiq Khan is here. The Mayor of London has today unveiled his latest wheeze to show he’s not all inaction man: bestowing six different parts of the Overground with new, right-on names and distinct colours. After all, who needs a statues
David Cameron is currently in the States, urging politicians there to back support for Ukraine. Currently Washington DC is ensuring a stalemate over £75 billion of aid for Kyiv’s struggle against their Russian invaders. The Foreign Secretary used an article in the DC website the Hill to urge Congress to support Ukraine with more funding. He
As Keir Starmer flounders over Rochdale, Rishi Sunak is enjoying the delights of County Durham this evening. But speaking at the GB News ‘People’s Forum’, the Prime Minister was confronted by one voter who certainly wasn’t willing to stay on script. An audience member used his opportunity to speak to Sunak to angrily raise qualms
Another day, another Tory MP announcing that they are standing down. Tracey Crouch has this morning become the latest member of the 2010-vintage to declare that she will retire at the next election. In so doing, the Chatham and Aylesford backbencher becomes the 90th MP (and 57th Conservative) to announce she won’t be standing. In
The Tory vote might be tanking among the under-40s but don’t despair: Michael Gove is here to save the day once more. The Levelling Up Secretary did the media round on Sunday morning, talking up his plans to get young people on the housing ladder. It came after his interview in the Sunday Times in
Oh dear. It seems that the all-conquering Labour by-election machine might have come unstuck in the treacherous terrains of Rochdale. Following the death of veteran MP Tony Lloyd on 17 January, the party quickly moved the writ to elect his replacement to the House of Commons. The ensuing by-election is due to be held on
Happy new peerages’ day! These auspicious occasions seem to roll around quicker now. Rishi Sunak has clearly learned something from the rows over resignation honours for his two predecessors: stagger the names, slip out a list in recess and then hope that no-one notices. Thirteen new peers have been ennobled in the latest drive to
Another twist in the ongoing TV wars. After nearly two years of competing with GB News, TalkTV’s biggest star last night dropped a bombshell: Piers Morgan is taking his daily Uncensored show off the terrestrial network to focus on its YouTube channel. The former Mirror editor says that television schedules had become an ‘unnecessary straitjacket’
Special Counsel Robert K. Hur submitted his report on the confidential documents found in President Biden’s Delaware garage — and Mr S can confirm, it’s a doozy. The report is brutal in its characterisation of Biden’s acuity. It says that Biden ‘did not remember when he was vice president’ Hur found that Biden wilfully concealed
In most countries, it would be a major scandal if foreign hackers successfully mounted a major cyber-attack on the national library. Unfortunately, the UK does not seem to be one of them. On 28 October, the British Library suffered a major incident which has brought the venerable body to its knees. Yet you would scarcely
Oh dear. It seems that the iron law of British politics has held true once again: everything Ed Miliband touches, he breaks. Whether it is the botched Falkirk reforms or gaffes as shadow business secretary, the infamous ‘Edstone’ or even eating a bacon sandwich, the hapless wonk can never seem to do anything right. And
So. Farewell then Michael Matheson. The embattled SNP MSP threw in the towel today after three months battling in vain to save his job as health minister following the row over his £11,000 data bill. The announcement came just hours before he was set to give a major announcement to the Scottish Parliament on minimum
Back in the far-flung days of 2019, the Tories won plaudits for their unconventional use of social media in their landslide electoral triumph. Five years and two leaders on, it’s looking like a tough ask to turn it around this time. But in Rishi Sunak, the party at least has a leader who has never
Rishi Sunak’s transgender jibe at Prime Minister’s Questions has riled Labour and Lib Dems MPs. The PM mocked Keir Starmer for not knowing what a woman is, just moments before Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered trans teen Brianna, came into the Commons. ‘Of all the weeks to say that when Brianna’s mother is
Today’s lethargic PMQs session was brought to life by a furious row over comments made by Rishi Sunak about transgender people. Labour leader Keir Starmer began the exchange by paying tribute to Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna. He then moved on to NHS waiting lists which Sunak had previously promised would
They say politics is show business for ugly people. But at yesterday’s right-wing rally, one celebrity singer managed to disprove that maxim and truly put the ‘pop’ in ‘PopCon’. For Holly Candy – formerly Holly Valance of Neighbours fame – was among those who rocked up to the shindig, alongside her husband, the billionaire property-developer
