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
Just when Boris thought the worst was over with Partygate. The former Prime Minister has today been referred to the police by the Cabinet Office over fresh claims that he broke Covid lockdown rules. According to the Times, Johnson’s ministerial diary from 2020 and 2021 has revealed visits by friends to Chequers during the pandemic.
It turns out that Home Office can get some things right. The department’s lawyers have today triumphed in their battle to thwart Prince Harry’s legal challenge over his right to make private payments for police protection. Legal eagles for the renegade royal wanted a judicial review of the rejection of his offer to pay for
They say genius is never appreciated in its own time. So we can only be grateful that Gary Lineker’s activism is now getting the attention and recognition it deserves. The millionaire motormouth will be awarded a gong on Wednesday from – no joke – Amnesty International, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s leading human rights organisation.’ Ironic, given
Fresh from claiming the scalp of Dominic Raab, is the civil service now after Suella Braverman? The Sunday Times reports this weekend that the Home Secretary wanted civil servants to help her ‘dodge’ a speeding fine, amid much grumbling about the government’s migration policies. Plus ça change… Mr S read the latest reports with intrigue.
Another day, another report about the SNP’s behaviour in office. Now, the accused is Education Secretary and former transport minister Jenny Gilruth, who faces claims that she breached the ministerial code. Gilruth is alleged to have deliberately chosen to delay vital rail works – which will cost the taxpayer around £1 million– to allow her
Ben Wallace has confirmed the worst-kept secret in Westminster: he’s the likely UK candidate for the Secretary General of Nato. Speaking in Berlin on Wednesday he told reporters: ‘I’ve always said it would be a good job. That’s a job I’d like.’ It’s a position that falls vacant in October and Wallace has a good
‘Think without borders,’ declares the masthead of the New European. But while the pro-EU paper claims to be an advocate for unity and tolerance, it seems they hold no qualms about stirring up division on Fleet Street. Its star columnist, Will Self, has filed a bizarre 2,300-word rant this week about the Guardian’s editorial choices,
Humza Yousaf’s regime is not exactly a government of all the talents. There’s Patrick Harvie, the Zero Carbons minister, whose list of achievements is shorter than his fuse. There’s Shona Robison, resurrected five years after taking Scotland to the top of the European health league for, er, drug deaths. And then there’s the First Minister
Oh dear. It seems that FBPE’s (Follow Back, Pro EU) favourite journalist is paying the price for her accusations against Arron Banks. The Court of Appeal costs have just come through against Carole Cadwalladr after making claims about Banks’ ties to Russia. And with costs on both sides in the region of £1.6 million, the
The Corbynites might have been routed but there’s still one area where they hold sway. In Islington North, the home patch of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour members are still staying loyal to their local MP and former party leader. The magic Grandpa has sat for the seat for 40 years but was blocked from standing as
Here’s something that will make John Cleese splutter on his cornflakes. The Cambridge Footlights – whose alumni include Peter Cook, Clive James and David Mitchell – is now recruiting for a new ‘sensitivity reading’ service to ensure that ‘all student comedy’ is as ‘inclusive and welcoming as possible’. This is ‘to check for potential oversights
He’s been writing PMQs lines for 20 years but today, at long last, Oliver Dowden got the chance to deliver them himself. With Sunak globe-trotting, his deputy relished the chance to face off against the Stockport scrapper, Angela Rayner. Labour’s deputy leader got some laughs with her reminder that after last year’s locals, Dowden had
Another set of local elections offers another chance to expose the fallacy of the ‘progressive alliance.’ Every so often, misty-eyed centrists of a certain age like to wax lyrical about Labour, the Lib Dem’s and Greens joining together to kick those wicked Tories out of office. A Marvel Universe for moderates, if you like. Sadly
It’s not the SNP’s year is it? Just when the nationalists thought they could catch a break after the chaos of recent months, fresh revelations have been published about the infamous police raid on Nicola Sturgeon’s house. It turns out that Police Scotland put in their requests for a search warrant of the Sturgeon-Murrell property
It was Yes Minister which joked that open government is ‘a contradiction in terms: you can be open or you can have government.’ And it seems that the Sunak regime has now taken that maxim to new limits in its bid to avoid anything that might cause the slightest embarrassment to King and country. Back
It’s fair to say there was some controversy about the selection of Mae Muller as Britain’s entry to this year’s Eurovision song contest. Muller is a 25-year-old Corbyn supporting Twitter devotee, whose past efforts include posted a number of messages on Twitter critical of Boris Johnson, including one post in which she declared ‘I hate
Oh dear. It was all meant to be going so well for British-Irish relations. Earlier this month both the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Republic’s president, Michael D. Higgins, flew out to London for King Charles’ coronation – the first Irish nationalist leaders to attend a British coronation in over a century. Even Sinn Fein’s
To Bournemouth, where two-hundred odd attendees of the Conservative Democratic Organisation are meeting for their first conference. The CDO has been labelled a ‘Tory Momentum’ and a ‘Bring Back Boris’ effort by its opponents, though its chairman David Campbell-Bannerman insists that it is nothing of the sort. ‘We are not enemies of Central Office’ he
Oh dear. It seems that the king of spin’s onetime winning touch has deserted him. The omnipresent Alastair Campbell popped up again on Newsnight to continue his latest ‘forever war’ – this time the never-ending crusade against Brexit. Campbell was up against Alex Phillips, the former MEP, and managed in the space of just seven
Prince Harry is no stranger to demanding that everyone, everywhere should mind their own business and give him privacy – unless they’re reading his autobiography or watching his Netflix show, that is. However, if the Duke of Sussex’s latest awkward run in at the High Court is anything to go by, he might have to