Steerpike

Steerpike

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

Watch: Stonewall chair grilled on transgender issues

It’s been a difficult time for the gay rights charity Stonewall. Chief Executive Nancy Kelley is due to leave her job next week, after a torturous year that saw the Allison Bailey case and numerous employers withdraw from the charity’s ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme. Iain Anderson, Stonewall’s Chair, was probably hoping to put all this behind

Starmer turns on Sadiq over Ulez

You just hate to see it. Less than 12 hours after the Uxbridge result and already the Labour blame game is well underway. The chairman of the local party has quit in disgust, citing Starmer’s lack of principles. And now Starmer has decided that the solution to his problems is to, er, throw his party’s

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Labour’s Uxbridge chair quits and attacks Starmer

For all Keir Starmer’s eager spin, last night wasn’t the great Labour triumph it was supposed to be. While the party pulled off an impressive triumph in Selby, it was a different story down south after the Ulez issue cost Labour the chance of winning Boris Johnson’s seat in Uxbridge and Ruislip. Recriminations are already

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Watch: Johnny Mercer attacks Labour ‘Inbetweeners’ MP

An enjoyable bit of by-election telly this morning. As political bigwigs trooped into the news studios to discuss last night’s results, Sky’s deputy political editor Sam Coates took the chance to ask Johnny Mercer what he made of Selby’s new MP Keir Mather. The ‘baby of the House’ is just 25 years old and is

Humiliation for Coutts as they grovel to Farage

Gerald Ratner, eat your heart out. The decision by Coutts to ‘de-bank’ Nigel Farage over reputational concerns and then brief the BBC that it was due to financial requirements will go down as one of the worst corporate own goals in recent history. After two days of media fury, whipped up by the former Ukip

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Do the public really support Mick Lynch’s rail strikes?

Britain is once again stuck at a red signal – with yet another set of rail strikes bringing the country’s trains to a halt today. The key question is whether most commuters will even notice the strikes are on, considering the dire state of the railway network. Still, at least one person is in a chipper

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Defence Select Committee move against Tobias Ellwood

Oh dear. It seems that Tobias Ellwood has slipped up one too many times. On Monday night he posted a video declaring that Afghanistan under the Taliban has become a ‘country transformed’ with ‘security vastly improved, ‘corruption reduced’, the ‘opium trade ended’. An immediate outcry followed, with a furious Mark Francois raising the matter at

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Watch: Nigel Farage launches fresh attack on Coutts

Coutts gave Nigel Farage the boot as a customer because their reputation risk committee didn’t approve of his political views. But the decision has backfired spectacularly and has sparked one of the biggest crises in the bank’s 330-year history. The row shows no sign of dying down: last night, Nigel Farage appeared on BBC Newsnight

Watch: Mark Francois savages Tobias Ellwood at PMQs

There was a good old ding dong at PMQs today. No, not between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, but rather between Mark Francois and an absent Tobias Ellwood. The two Tories both sit on the Defence Select Committee, with Ellwood serving as chair. But the Bournemouth MP has horrified his fellow MPs this week by

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Will the BBC now apologise to Nigel Farage?

Oh dear. It seems that Auntie has done it again. This time it’s the row over Nigel Farage’s bank account, with the Brexiteer revealing at the end of last month that his Coutts account had been closed with ‘no explanation.’ Farage suggested that this was for political reasons but a week later, the BBC offered

Tobias Ellwood’s Taliban blunder

It’s long been the case that trips abroad can allow for a new perspective – to broaden the mind. But Mr S can’t help but think, Tobias Ellwood’s summer jaunt to Afghanistan is taking this to an extreme. The Tory MP and chair of the Defence Select Committee has shared a video on Twitter urging people to

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What Elena Whitham’s leaked messages reveal about the SNP civil war

A fierce new critic of the SNP has burst onto the Scottish political scene. This acid-tongued detractor describes Humza Yousaf’s deputy Shona Robison as ‘a bit of a cold fish’, ‘like an automaton’ and ‘painful to listen to’, and says Angus Robertson’s promotion to the Scottish cabinet meant ‘the ego has landed’.  Who is this

Labour mayor quits and torches Keir

So. Farewell then. Jamie Driscoll. The left-wing North of Tyne mayor – widely described as the ‘last Corbynista in power’ – has today quit the Labour party with a double-barrelled blast at Keir Starmer. Driscoll was last month barred from the longlist to run in the new expanded north east authority after appearing at an

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Six times Starmer’s team demanded benefits cap be scrapped

In fairness to Keir Starmer, he only U-turns when his lips move. In an impressive double yesterday, the Labour leader managed to U-turn twice in one interview with Laura Kuenssberg. Starmer managed to both float and then, er, reject the notion that Labour would change the Bank of England’s inflation target (nice one!) while also

Boris: Get Ukraine into Nato ASAP

Boris Johnson’s post-premiership crusade continues. The former PM has today attacked Nato for being too soft on Ukraine’s accession. The alliance decided earlier this week that any invitation would be handed out only once ‘conditions are met’ (Svitlana Morenets has more here). Johnson writes in his Daily Mail column: No country is in greater need

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Ex-BBC presenters close ranks around Huw Edwards 

In the days since the Huw Edwards scandal broke, the television broadcaster’s wife has been praised for a dignified statement citing her husband’s mental health struggle – with the presenter currently in hospital. Meanwhile, the police finding of no evidence of criminal behaviour means that the BBC is allowed to resume its original investigation. Some staff

SNP in crisis, again

In fairness to the Nats, they never let things get too dull. Just days after losing his party’s whip, SNP MP and Salmond ally Angus MacNeil has now announced that he will sit as an independent candidate until at least October. MacNeil was seen in the Commons last week having a bust-up with Chief Whip

Alex Salmond to launch pro-indy TV show

They say all publicity is good publicity. But perhaps that sentiment isn’t shared by those in Bute House at the news that Alex Salmond is launching his own pro-independence TV programme. The former First Minister will become the latest politician to turn TV presenter this week when he launches his new show on Thursday: ‘Scotland