Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from London and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk.

Reform support in Scotland rises again

11 December 2025 12:12 am

Another day, another bad poll for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party. With less than six months until the Scottish parliament…

Stella Creasy’s bizarre job advert

10 December 2025 4:16 am

Labour MP Stella Creasy is hiring for a senior campaigns manger, and the job specifications are quite something. The Walthamstow…

Plaid and Welsh Labour strike Senedd deal

10 December 2025 1:32 am

December is a time for spirits aplenty. But has the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visited early this year?…

Badenoch takes aim at Britain’s youth

10 December 2025 1:07 am

Christmas is nearly upon us – but there is no sign that Kemi Badenoch is ready to enjoy a rest. The Leader of…

Is Huw Edwards plotting a comeback?

9 December 2025 9:03 pm

To Huw Edwards, who has resurfaced on social media to post a professionally shot black-and-white portrait in what some assume…

Tories to move headquarters

7 December 2025 7:25 pm

You’re either in front of Mr S or you are behind. It was just six weeks ago that Steerpike reported…

Scottish Tory peer joins Reform

7 December 2025 1:42 am

To Falkirk, where Nigel Farage has flown ahead of the Holyrood elections – to announce another big name member of…

Watch: Zack Polanski’s bizarre migration remarks

6 December 2025 4:13 am

To BBC Question Time, where the leader of the Green party made a rather interesting intervention on migration last night.…

Farage: Corbyn and Sultana should ask me for tips

6 December 2025 12:29 am

To Reform’s Nigel Farage, who managed to dominate headlines today after he took a pop at the Beeb on Thursday…

Liz Truss launches ‘The Liz Truss show’

5 December 2025 2:16 am

Ping! An email lands in Mr Steerpike’s inbox. An exciting new project launches tomorrow. Liz Truss is starting her own…

Reform blasts Labour for delaying mayoral elections

4 December 2025 11:38 pm

Well, well, well. Labour’s decision to cancel four mayoral elections by two years is not going down well, to put…

Reform double Tory donations in new release

4 December 2025 7:57 pm

‘Anything you can do, I can do better.’ Throughout 2025, both Reform and the Conservatives have slugged it out, trading…

Jenrick rules out Tory-Reform pact ahead of 2029

3 December 2025 10:56 pm

To the parties of opposition, about whom some rather interesting stories have emerged. The Financial Times has reported today that…

Did Reeves mislead voters over her chess prowess?

3 December 2025 10:29 pm

When it rains for Rachel Reeves, it pours. This time it isn’t revelations about the now-Chancellor’s apparently plagiarised book or…

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor could face MP grilling

3 December 2025 2:26 am

Oh dear. It seems that the horror never ends for the Andrew formally known as Prince. Mountbatten-Windsor – as he…

Watch: Jenrick rips into ‘Lammy dodger’

3 December 2025 12:58 am

It is David Lammy’s big announcement on juries today – so that means another outing for the Tory Trident, Robert…

OBR probe reveals leak had happened before

2 December 2025 2:40 am

Well, well, well. The official review of the leaked Budget documents that circulated last Wednesday ahead of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal…

Tulip Siddiq handed two-year sentence in Bangladesh

2 December 2025 12:27 am

All is not well in Labour party at present. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spent the morning defending his Chancellor…

Jonathan Gullis defects to Reform

1 December 2025 9:21 pm

Another one bites the dust. Now it transpires that the onetime deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Jonathan Gullis, has…

Cabinet ministers turn on Reeves

1 December 2025 8:05 am

Oh dear. It seems that Rachel Reeves’ Sunday media round has done nothing to answer questions about whether she misled…

Fact check: are the NYT’s experts right about UK immigration?

28 November 2025 10:47 pm

Yesterday’s release of immigration figures by the ONS didn’t make for particularly pleasant reading. While net migration had fallen to…

Starmer faces Labour rebellion over employment U-turn

28 November 2025 9:46 pm

Another day, another drama. On Thursday afternoon, it emerged that Sir Keir Starmer’s government were rolling back their commitment to…

Reeves’s tax raid rocks Gibraltar

27 November 2025 11:27 pm

The Chancellor’s Budget may have gone down well with Labour backbenchers, but its ‘smorgasbord’ approach has managed to rather annoy…

OBR chief offers to quit over Budget chaos

27 November 2025 10:46 pm

As if the Labour lot hadn’t leaked enough ahead of Rachel Reeves’s big Budget announcement, a slip-up at the OBR…

Watch: Kemi Badenoch eviscerates Rachel Reeves

27 November 2025 1:55 am

Kemi Badenoch had a head-start in preparing her response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget after this morning’s OBR leak. It was…