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
Is Humza Yousaf set to repeat his predecessor’s mistakes? He’s certainly not doing much to avert fears: today, his government has confirmed that it will be launching a legal challenge against the UK government’s section 35 order that blocked the bill. Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet secretary for social justice, wrote in response to a parliamentary
Earlier this week, Elon Musk caused a fit of the vapours inside Broadcasting House when his social media site labelled the BBC Twitter account as being ‘government funded media’. The Beeb insists it is ‘publicly funded’ – even though not paying the licence fee is a criminal offence backed by the state – and duly kicked off
Over at Labour HQ, there’s a mood of triumphalism about the party’s string of attack adverts. Newspapers are full of gloating quotes about the success of its strategy, as sophisticated as, er, accusing Rishi Sunak of being indifferent to paedophilia. Glee is in the air at Friars House, with the Tories expected to lose up
Another tough week for the Scottish National party has come to a close, leaving viewers wondering what could possibly come next. Surely the nats will do all they can to toe the line to ensure the party’s reputation doesn’t diminish still further? But contradictions and hypocrisy remain in full swing at SNP HQ, with First
It’s less than a month to go until the Coronation and already the media are going mad for anything royal-related. A great hullabaloo has been raised over everything from the role of non-Anglican faiths in the Order of Service to the shortened route that the King’s procession will be taking, compared to the much longer
Since entering (and losing) successive Tory leadership contests last year, Penny Mordaunt has thrown herself into the role of Leader of the House with characteristic gusto. Her weekly sessions at Business Questions in the Commons have become required watching, as she dispatches SNP goons with a mix of bombast and brio. Indeed, watching her roast
What do you do when you’re in a hole? Stop digging. Apparently Emily Thornberry didn’t get the memo. The Shadow Attorney General was wheeled out on the Easter Monday media round to defend Labour’s attack advert which claims that Rishi Sunak isn’t tough enough on criminals convicted of child sexual abuse. Thornberry did her best
Oh dear. It seems that there’s something of a briefing war in the Sunday papers over who is to blame for Labour’s misfiring attack advert. On Thursday evening the party released a hard-hitting graphic which read: ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t’ alongside a smiling photo of the
Day three of the row over Labour’s backfiring ‘law and order’ advert. The Keirleaders in party HQ have clearly decided that attack is the best form of attack and have been busy creating another graphic, switching their focus from ‘dangerous child abusers’ to ‘dangerous gunmen.’ Labour’s latest post cites figures which show that since 2010
The SNP’s week goes from bad to worse. The party’s long-term auditing firm has resigned, according to reports today. Accountants Johnston Carmichael, which has worked with the party for over a decade, said that the decision followed a review of its client portfolio. The firm is understood to have resigned before the arrest of Nicola
Oh dear. It seems that Labour have been caught trying to be too clever by half with their latest anti-Tory attack ad. The Starmer army proudly put out a hard-hitting graphic last night, which read: ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t’ alongside a smiling photo of the
For all his praising of Nicola Sturgeon’s governance and Peter Murrell as an ‘election winner’, it now looks as though continuity candidate Humza Yousaf is cutting ties with the SNP establishment. Questioned on the raid of his predecessor’s house and the party’s Edinburgh headquarters, Yousaf has, for the first time, dared to criticise his former
Slowly but surely striking public sector workers have agreed to sit down at the negotiating table with the government and hammer out pay deals for themselves. But there is one sector that might prove more of a headache than others for Rishi Sunak to deal with: teachers. In September, the National Education Union (NEU) will
It’s a bad time for soporific narcissists in office. Just weeks after the self-indulgent grandstanding of Nicola Sturgeon’s farewell press conference, Jacinda Ardern has today followed suit. The New Zealand premier treated her long-suffering public to one last display of egotistical over-excitement. Swathed, bizarrely, in a traditional Maori cloak and fighting back tears, the world
Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP and the husband of Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, has today been arrested in connection with an investigation into the SNP’s finances. It is the latest development in Police Scotland’s 21-month-long probe into claims that Scotland’s governing party mismanaged funds. Below is a timeline of
Kate Forbes may have lost the battle but will she win the war? Forbes narrowly missed out in the SNP leadership race last month but she has handled her defeat much more gracefully than Humza Yousaf has greeted victory. While the Farce Minister has purged anyone of any talent from his cabinet, Forbes has done
Four weeks ago Rishi Sunak proudly unveiled the branding for his campaign to deter migrant Channel crossings. Standing at a lectern, the Prime Minister unveiled his new, stark slogan: ‘Stop the Boats’ – a message emblazoned on his backdrop and podium. And, in keeping with the Prime Minister’s other ‘five prioritises’ of reducing debt, Mr
It seems that Labour have a secret weapon in their local election campaign. For months now, Carol Vorderman has been on a one-woman war against the Tories, taking to Twitter to decry the incumbent government. The former Countdown star is a devotee of the all caps tweet, railing against her onetime friend turned bête noire
Where public opinion goes, Sir Keir follows. Tony Benn used to divide politicians into two categories: the Signposts and the Weathercocks, with the Labour leader falling decidedly into the latter group. As public attitudes on women-only spaces and elite sport have hardened in recent years, the Leader of the Opposition has slowly, painfully followed suit,
Is Labour’s state of confusion about sex and gender going global? Labour leader Keir Starmer was widely mocked this weekend when he was asked by the Sunday Times to define a woman, and claimed that 99.9 per cent of women don’t have a penis – which if nothing else, rather contradicted his previous assertion that