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
Labour might be making headway in the polls, but the party’s rifts haven’t gone away. Today, Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, has hit out at the late Margaret Thatcher – only days after Sir Keir Starmer praised her ‘natural entrepreneurialism’ in his Sunday Telegraph op-Ed. Speaking to reporters, Sarwar said: Margaret Thatcher destroyed
Uh oh. Less than a day has passed since James Cleverly announced his new five-point immigration plan and already there are noises from the Tory right suggesting they want more. Recently-ousted home secretary Suella Braverman said last night the government ‘can go further’ and that the ‘package is too late’. It followed comments made last
He has served under four of the last five Tory premiers. So who better to address revellers at the ConservativeHome Christmas shindig than Michael Gove? This evening the Levelling Up Secretary took to the stage to deliver the canapé equivalent of a state of the nation address. And, in true Gove style, he began by
It’s another bad day for Rishi Sunak. Hours after the Prime Minister discovered that he is polling worse than his short-lived predecessor Liz Truss and losing supporters to Nigel Farage’s Reform party, he has tonight had to confront a Tory rebellion. The sliver of good news for Sunak is that it has turned out to be
It takes a lot for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to make headlines, but party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today gone and done it. The Lib Dem leader made a rather embarrassing gaffe when trying to vote remotely on a recent Holyrood motion, prompting calls for the politician to apologise for his ‘inappropriate’ conduct. Absent from
It seems a fresh scandal is embroiling the SNP. In recent days, reports have emerged that two of the party’s politicians were so wrapped up in an extramarital affair during Covid that they disregarded their own government’s pandemic restrictions to continue it. Matt Hancock, step aside… The SNP has denied the rumours as ‘categorically untrue’,
If there’s one thing Eddie Izzard can’t be faulted on, it’s enthusiasm. The comedian and actor, who also self-identifies as Suzy, is standing to become the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion. After Green MP Caroline Lucas announced she would not be standing for election in 2024, Izzard jumped at the chance to succeed her —
Merry Christmas to the rail unions – they strike quicker than Harry Kane. On Friday, the Aslef union began a week of industrial action and reduced service, ruining Christmas parties across the nation. But like the good trade unionists that they are, Aslef boss Mick Whelan made sure that his own union’s party plans were
If things seem bad, they can always get worse. That’s the message for poor Rishi Sunak in the latest ConservativeHome league table of party members. The Prime Minister today records his worst ratings ever, racking up a dire -25.4 among card-carrying Conservatives. It comes after a yo-yoing three months in which his negative ratings rose
Has Starmer Chameleon gone too far this time? In his never-ending bid to be all things to all men, the Labour leader has decided that now is the perfect time to tell Middle England of his love for Margaret Thatcher. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph today, Sir Keir declares that: ‘Every moment of meaningful change
All great tragedies must have a villain. And who serves that role better at the Covid Inquiry than Matt Hancock? After weeks of damning testimony from his critics, the Casanova of the Commons finally began his long-awaited evidence session yesterday morning. Most of his defence has previously been set out in his much-mocked Pandemic Diaries – a
Diplomatic ties are of great importance to King Charles. So it was no surprise that his sartorial choice at the COP28 summit has prompted a flurry of speculation about where his loyalties really lie. Speaking this morning at the great eco-shindig in Dubai, His Majesty donned a Greek-motif tie and breast pocket handkerchief. It is
Looking back, 2023 didn’t have all of the fireworks that the previous 12 months brought. As December fast approaches, both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer remain in post – a change from 2022 and the year of four Chancellors, three premiers and two monarchs as well. But at this year’s Spectator Parliamentarian Awards, the gossip
More trouble for Humza Yousaf’s beleaguered Health Secretary Michael Matheson. A new poll for STV News shows 61 per cent of Scots think he should resign over the £11,000 bill in data charges racked up on his parliamentary iPad during a family holiday to Morocco. The bill was covered by the taxpayer out of a combination of
A curious performance in the Commons today by Robert Jenrick. The Immigration Minister has long been seen – in the press at least – as a staunch Sunakite, put in at the Home Office to keep a watchful eye on Suella Braverman. But has that all changed after thirteen months at 2 Marsham Street? At
As the general election approaches, Scottish Labour are taking their battle positions. Douglas Alexander, former cabinet minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, has been selected as the candidate for East Lothian. Kirsty McNeill, former special adviser to Brown while he was in No. 10, has been selected as the next candidate for Midlothian. But
Talk about an undiplomatic row. Rishi Sunak has made much of his credentials on the world stage, most recently demonstrated at the Bletchley Park summit earlier this month. So it was some surprise then that Mr S read of an extraordinary row that has broken out between the British and Greek governments over, er, the
Oh dear. It seems that the Bank of England Governor is suffering from a permanent case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. Andrew Bailey – whose tenure at Threadneedle Street has done little for the Bank’s reputation – has caused needless headlines with another Eeyore-esque interview about the UK economy. Speaking, bizarrely, to local media in Newcastle, the
It’s another week of rancour and recrimination in the SNP’s unhappy family. Today it’s the turn of rebel backbencher Fergus Ewing. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, the born-and-bred nationalist hit out at his own party’s ’somewhat cack-handed’ handling of their proposed council tax freeze, bemoaning how there ‘was no proper consultation with our
Ding, dong, the bill is dead. Yes, that’s right: Holyrood’s much-trumpeted plan to pardon witches has now been dropped by the SNP, as the party desperately tries to conjure up something resembling a governing agenda. Around 4,000 Scots accused of being witches were tortured to gain their confessions and executed under the Witchcraft Act between