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
Scotland Yard has opened an investigation into allegations lockdown rules were breached at a party attended by Tory MP Bernard Jenkin in parliament. The announcement from the Met comes more than a fortnight after allegations emerged about the senior MP’s attendance at the gathering held in December 2020, to mark the birthday of his wife
Another one bites the dust. Mhairi Black today becomes the sixth SNP MP to announce she is standing down at the next election. It’s a rather big deal given Black is the Westminster group’s deputy leader. She famously pushed Labour’s Douglas Alexander out of his seat at only 20 years of age, with her entry
King Charles III is all set for his ‘Scottish coronation’ in Edinburgh tomorrow. Yet despite the royal fervour north of the border, Mr S hears that the nationalists are still not satisfied. Alex Salmond of the pro-independence Alba party and Green co-leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, have all snubbed the royal invitation. Quelle surprise.
These days, the reputation of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) Unit is at a low ebb, following the scandals over its former members David Carrick and Wayne Couzens. A review of the wider force found it was institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic, with the PaDP singled out for particular condemnation. In March of this year, Politico
Talk about getting your priorities right. As ministers battle to get inflation down from the double digit highs of earlier this year, it seems not all at the Bank of England are preoccupied with this struggle. For it has today been revealed that staff at Britain’s central bank – whose main job is to keep
Sue Gray did break the Civil Service code, according to a Cabinet Office investigation released by the government. The Partygate prober-in-chief has today been found to have breached the guidelines which she did so much to uphold during her six years as head of the government’s, er, Proprietary and Ethics team. Gray began negotiations with
It seems that Zac Goldsmith’s decade-long dance with government is over. The Old Etonian today handed his notice after four years as a minister, accusing Rishi Sunak of being ‘simply uninterested’ in environmental issues. It (for now) ends a 13-year career in Tory politics which saw him elected MP for Richmond thrice, lose said seat
The Court of Appeal’s rejection of the government’s Rwanda plan spells trouble for Rishi Sunak in his bid to ‘stop the boats’ – but at least one man is happy about the verdict. Step forward, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. The celebrity chef was on Question Time last night, telling viewers he is ‘delighted’ about the apparent end
France is in chaos after another night of violence sparked by the shooting of a teenager by a Paris policeman. Cars have been torched, roads barricaded and hundreds of people arrested. But while the country’s security forces have been struggling to keep order, France’s president Emmanuel Macron has been keeping himself busy: attending an Elton
Life appears pretty good for Nigel Farage right now. Winning awards for his TV show, enjoying the adoration of fans and scorning the opprobrium of Remainers everywhere. But it appears the reality isn’t so rosy for the former Ukip leader. Farage has taken to Twitter today to claim that ‘the establishment are trying to force
To the House of Lords, where last night the neophyte neoliberals of the Adam Smith Institute were toasting three centuries of Scotland’s greatest economic thinker. And while Rishi Sunak preferred to spend his night cracking jokes about Boris Johnson at the nearby Policy Exchange party, his Foreign Secretary was on hand to offer some much-need
Who could have seen it coming? Daniel Korski’s shock decision to drop out of the London mayoral race yesterday took most of Westminster by surprise, coming after he had spent several days trying to rebut allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct. But Mr S can reveal that he, exclusively, knew it was all over for Korski
Hell hath no fury like a select committee scorned. Fresh from chastising Boris Johnson, the Privileges Committee has now turned its guns on the Tory MPs who vociferously backed him during their investigation. The seven-strong panel has identified eight Boris backers who interfered with their 14-month long probe into whether or not Johnson lied to
It’s been a difficult few years for Paul Bew, chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC). Bew picked up his own peerage in 2007, but since being appointed chair of Holac in 2018, he has been busy fighting off the claims of others put forward for a peerage. There was the Lord Lebedev farrago
It’s the 75th anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service next week, which can only mean one thing: mass, ostentatious displays of affection for a creaking arm of the British state. Still, even Mr Steerpike was taken aback by how quickly our state broadcaster descended into bizarre jingoistic tub-thumping for ‘our’ NHS ahead
The questions aren’t going away for Tory mayoral candidate Daniel Korski. The self-proclaimed tech entrepreneur is having a tough time answering questions about claims that he grabbed the breast of a woman when he was working in No. 10 under David Cameron. In a bid to clear the air, Korski – who denies the allegation
Remember Eric Pickles? The larger-than-life Coalition mainstay who inspired such legendary headlines as ‘I did not spend £10,000 on extra biscuits.’ These days Lord Pickles is chairing the Cabinet Office watchdog Acoba, which vets appointments for senior civil servants and ministers upon leaving government. The agency is currently somewhat overworked, with onetime appointees from the
Drama tonight at the latest hustings for the Tory mayoral candidate. The Conservative Environment Network were putting the final three candidates through their paces when a story from the Times broke accusing Daniel Korski – one of the favourites in the contest – of sexual misconduct. Daisy Goodwin, the former head of a TV production company, claimed
Will Partygate claim yet more scalps? For a fortnight now, Sir Bernard Jenkin, the Privileges prober-extraordinaire, has refused to comment on claims that he attended a lockdown-breaking bash for his wife in December 2020. But will that silence continue to hold, given fresh revelations from the Guido Fawkes blog about other attendees at the aforementioned
Breaking: Sadiq Khan is a big fan of grass – and not the kind you can decriminalise. The Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority have been forced to shell out a whopping £200,000 to re-turf Parliament Square Gardens – a site often favoured by the unwashed masses of eco-protestors like Extinction Rebellion. City