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
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
It’s the question all Whitehall is asking. When will Simon Case appear before the Covid Inquiry? The Cabinet Secretary was due to give evidence prior to Christmas but was then signed off on sick leave in late October. Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, allowed Case to skip his scheduled questioning after reviewing his medical records
It’s the threat the Tories really fear: a high-profile defection at the beginning of an election year. Richard Tice’s Reform party might be polling at around 10 per cent nationally but until now they’ve struggled to make an impact in Westminster. That could all change if Lee Anderson, the red wall Rottweiller, chooses to defect
After four straight election defeats, Labour are desperately keen to prove that the party has changed. Gone – supposedly – are the bad old days of tax and spend. Fiscal restraint is now the order of the day. The £28 billion in green spending has been unceremoniously axed; a commitment to restore the bankers’ bonus
It’s D-day for Lindsay Hoyle as he battles to save his job. The Speaker of the House got into hot water with the SNP last Wednesday after kiboshing their attempts to force Labour into a bind on a Gaza ceasefire. Stephen Flynn, the nationalists’ Westminster leader, is now pushing for Hoyle to today grant a fresh
A difficult Monday morning for Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner. The right-on left-winger is facing some tricky questions today after Lord Ashcroft did some digging into her background for his latest book Red Queen? As part of his Rayner biography, the former Tory peer published documents which showed that in January 2006 the Ashton-under-Lyne MP
The fall-out from Lee Anderson’s suspension continues tonight. With speculation still ongoing as to whether the Ashfield MP might defect to Reform, friends of the red wall Rottweiler are concerned that his suspension will, in the words of one, only ‘embolden the wets’. Such fears have only been strengthened tonight by a bizarre row breaking
Oh dear. Lee Anderson has now lost the Conservative whip after refusing to apologise for comments directed at London’s mayor. Appearing on GB News yesterday, the red wall Rottweiler declared that ‘Islamists’ have ‘got control of London’ and its mayor, Sadiq Khan. He told the network that Khan has ‘Given our capital city away to his
Where would be without Liz Truss? The blonde bombshell hit Washington DC this week to attend the great right-wing jamboree that is the Conservative Political Action Conference. Appearing alongside Trump election mastermind Steve Bannon, Truss told the crowd that she had wanted to cut taxes and the size of the state while in No.10, but ‘the
It was Douglas Jay who wrote that ‘In the case of nutrition and health… the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves’. But that instinct, it seems, deserts Sir Humphrey when it comes to planning his own holiday. For civil servants have today been told to ‘use it or
These days, it’s not hard to find an example of departmental failure. From procurement problems at the MoD to accounting errors at the Treasury, Whitehall offers a rich mine of failure from which to draw. But of all the great ministries of state, few provide more gems than the Home Office. The mandarins at 2
Eyebrows in Westminster this week after Prince William opted to wade into the Gaza conflict. On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales declared that ‘Too many have been killed’, adding ‘I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible’. Royals typically remain neutral on geopolitical matters so why
Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has backed Lindsay Hoyle in the row over the Gaza ceasefire vote – and accused Labour of picking on the Speaker. Mordaunt said Hoyle was a ‘decent man’ and blamed Keir Starmer’s party for last night’s debacle in the Commons. The Tory MP hit out at her
The chaos of the Brexit days has reignited in parliament tonight. The drama broke out after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle selected a Labour amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the Clerk of the House’s warning that doing so went against parliamentary convention. Hoyle reportedly wanted to offer a wider debate, in light of concerns
It’s fair to say today that Boris Johnson and Tucker Carlson don’t like each other much. After the invasion of Ukraine, Boris, the former journalist and Prime Minister, accused Carlson, the journalist often tipped to be a future president of the United States, of ‘intimidating’ Republicans who might otherwise help the West stand up to
‘Change Labour, change Britain’ has been the internal mantra of the Starmer army since seizing the party leadership nearly four years ago. But while a 20-point lead suggests they’ve made considerable progress in that area, there are infrequent reminders of the not-so-distant Corbynite past. The Rochdale debacle proved to be an uncomfortable reminder of all
Turns out politics is harder than it looks. Having quit the civil service at the end of the last year, Sue Gray has received some glowing write-ups in her new capacity as chief of staff to Keir Starmer. But that appears to have been brought to a halt by her interview in yesterday’s Times in