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
As the chairman of the standards committee, Sir Chris Bryant doesn’t always demonstrate the highest standards. Whether it’s making false claims in the Commons about Nigel Farage or accusations about unparliamentary language, the winner of the 2022 ‘Civility in Politics Award’ can sometimes falls short of what he demands of others. An excellent demonstration of that
Amid all the excitement about peerages on Friday, it was easy to overlook the fact that, once again, Boris Johnson had managed to upstage the Northern Research Group’s annual conference. Last year it was the Zelenskyy visit; this year it was Nadine Dorries’ shock resignation. And it meant that the words of a jet-lagged Rishi
Not another one. Less than 24 hours after Nadine Dorries and Boris Johnson announced they were quitting the Commons, Nigel Adams has declared that he too is quitting with immediate effect. The longtime Boris backer was reportedly in line for a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours’ list but did not make the final cut. Now,
There has never been any love lost between Nadine Dorries and Rishi Sunak. The former holds the latter responsible for bringing down Boris Johnson and has made her feelings clear in multiple angry tweets. During last summer’s leadership race, she attacked him for his expensive clothes and shoes; she complained that his premiership had seen
What happens when you lose in court? Lose, lose and lose again. Carole Cadwalladr has today suffered yet another setback in her never-ending war against Brexit ‘bad boy’ Arron Banks. The Court of Appeal has denied the Observer journalist’s request to appeal her most recent libel loss to the Supreme Court. In its decision the
It’s the end of an era. Ian Blackford has this week announced he will be standing down as an MP at the next election. Not quite making it to a decade in the Commons, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber released a 659-word article about his resignation that, er, didn’t quite manage to explain the
It’s Rishi Sunak’s final day in Washington. Having ducked an invitation to throw the first pitch at a baseball game last night, he will today sit down for a formal ‘bilat’ with Joe Biden at the White House, host a joint press conference and hobnob with business bigwigs at a roundtable. What larks! But while Mr S
You can’t leave Scotland alone for five minutes without another front opening up in the gender wars. Between legislating for doctor-free gender changes at 16 and housing trans rapists in women’s prisons, the Scots are apparently eager to rebrand themselves as the world’s most achingly progressive nation: Canada without the mounties. Even Justin Trudeau would
Even with the force of the mighty SNP establishment behind him, Humza Yousaf’s premiership is still struggling. So when your own side fails you, who better to call in than your arch-nemesis’s second-in-command? Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond’s one-time spin doctor, has today been conscripted to help keep Yousaf’s sinking ship afloat. Keep your friends close,
So. Farwell then. Margaret ‘plague’ Ferrier. The least-loved Covid carrier in all of Westminster today suffered the ignominy of watching her colleagues vote to turf her out of parliament. Back in March, the Commons’ Standards Committee recommended that she should be suspended for breaching lockdown rules. And this afternoon MPs voted 185 to 40 to
Some vintage blue-on-blue today over at the European Scrutiny Committee (ESC). Kemi Badenoch, the Business and Trade Secretary, was up before MPs to face a grilling on her department’s Retained EU Law (REUL) bill. The legislation was introduced under Liz Truss when Jacob Rees-Mogg was Business Secretary, with the aim of removing all EU legislation from
What a surprise: the ultimate Whitehall insider looks set to be cleared by Whitehall. Sue Gray, the keeper of ministers’ secrets, caused outcry back in March when it was revealed she was lined up to become Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. How, asked outraged Tories, could a supposedly impartial mandarin defect from being the government’s
‘I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment,’ says the now Dame Jacinda Ardern, reflecting on how ‘humbled’ she feels today to receive the Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. ‘For me this is a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the
Has the BBC been taking diversity hiring tips from the RAF? Leaked emails released last week showed RAF officials urging the recruitment of fewer ‘useless white male pilots’. Now it appears BBC 5 Live might be just as done with white men. Steerpike notes a tweet from Rick Edwards, co-presenter of the radio station’s breakfast programme, calling
If politics is showbiz for ugly people, then showbiz is surely just politics by uglier means. By media standards, Mr S has barely covered the Phillip Schofield saga – penning just two articles on it – but given the skullduggery going on at This Morning, how could he not return to the fray? Especially when
For a man who says that his ‘life’s work’ is to change the British ‘media landscape’, Prince Harry has a funny way of showing it. The Duke of Sussex skipped the first day of proceedings in his case against the Mirror because, er, he was celebrating his daughter’s birthday. Talk about getting off to a
Oh dear. The long-running feud between Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham has blown up again this weekend, this time over a row about the decision to block a sitting mayor from standing for a new role in the North East. Jamie Driscoll, the serving North of Tyne mayor, revealed on Friday that he has been
Huzzah! The momentous day has arrived at last: finally Britain can reap the Brexit benefits and enjoy some delicious free-trade Tim Tams. For today is the day the UK’s trade deal with Australia comes into force. Unfortunately it seems that not all our friends down under aren’t, er, quite so sold on the mutual benefits
Oh dear. It seems our beloved national broadcaster has slipped up again. Flicking through the channels last night, Mr S was perplexed to see Newsnight interviewing notorious TikTok ‘star’ Mizzy. His ‘fame’ comes various ‘pranks’ he commits on the video-sharing app, such as entering people’s homes without their consent, stealing a pensioner’s dog, jumping on
President Biden continues to project strength ahead of the 2024 election — by tumbling on stage at the US Air Force Academy Graduation. The 80-year-old commander-in-chief fell today while handing out diplomas to graduating cadets in Colorado. Rest assured, he was quickly helped up and escorted off stage by three Air Force officials. The White