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.

Third of Reform voters want a new leader

11 March 2025 11:46 pm

Is Nigel Farage’s position under threat? Most inside Reform don’t seem to think so – but a new poll offers…

New SNP chief shared violent anti-monarchy posts

11 March 2025 10:24 pm

To Scotland, where the beleaguered Nats have appointed their third chief executive in two years. Yet Carol Beattie wasn’t able…

Rupert Lowe’s team rally around him

11 March 2025 9:16 pm

It was Alastair Campbell who declared that ‘if a story stays front page news for more than ten days, the chances…

Gove takes aim at Jolyon Maugham

11 March 2025 5:29 am

To the Covid Inquiry, the longest-running farce outside of the West End. With costs for the great gravy train now…

BMA consultants sound alarm on assisted dying

11 March 2025 2:13 am

As the Assisted Dying Bill continues to make its unceremonious way through parliament, various medical organisations are making themselves heard.…

Reform’s civil war blows up again

9 March 2025 8:06 pm

Oh dear, it looks like the civil war engulfing Reform UK is showing no sign of simmering down. On Friday,…

Tories smash Labour on latest donations

7 March 2025 9:20 pm

Some good news for Kemi Badenoch today. The latest donation figures for the end of 2024 are out – and…

Watch: Trudeau’s tears after Trump tariffs 

7 March 2025 8:43 pm

Donald Trump is intent on shaking things up in the White House and no one knows that better than neighbouring…

Watch: Tice forgets names of Reform defectors

7 March 2025 12:51 am

Oh dear. Poor Richard Tice is the latest politician to have an embarrassing memory lapse. During his first trip to…

NHS Scotland: call bearded trans staff ‘women’

6 March 2025 11:59 pm

It seems that NHS Scotland still hasn’t learned the lessons from the Sandie Peggie furore. Now it turns out that…

Nandy blasts Beeb over Gaza documentary

6 March 2025 12:07 am

It’s a day ending in ‘y’ – which means there’s more bad news for the BBC. Now the government has…

Speaker splurges £180k on luxury trips

5 March 2025 11:56 pm

Is Lindsay Hoyle turning into John Bercow? Mr S first asked the question in January after revealing that the Speakers’…

Assisted dying panel rejects Down’s Syndrome safeguard

5 March 2025 12:29 am

The western world might be collapsing but here in Westminster it is business as usual. In one of parliament’s dusty…

JD Vance accused of ‘disrespect’ to British troops

5 March 2025 12:01 am

As if transatlantic relations could not get any worse. Barely 72 hours after the Oval Office bust up, the Trump administration…

Tory MP: Trump is a ‘Russian asset’

4 March 2025 10:16 pm

Graham Stuart is perhaps not the best-known Tory backbencher, but the former energy minister has catapulted himself into the national…

‘Struggling’ Rayner gets her third aide

4 March 2025 4:36 am

When you’ve got a majority of 167, how do you keep control? The answer, it seems, is jobs for the…

Lee Anderson attacks ‘pathetic’ Ben Habib

4 March 2025 12:28 am

There’s a drama a day in Westminster. Today’s bust-up is between Reform MP Lee Anderson and the party’s former deputy leader Ben…

Farage blasts Zelensky over Trump meeting

3 March 2025 9:35 pm

The extraordinary scenes that came from the White House on Friday were the talk of the weekend – and relations…

Watch: Mandelson says Kyiv should back Trump plan

3 March 2025 9:13 pm

Oh dear. It has only been 22 days since Peter Mandelson formally became Britain’s Ambassador to Washington – and he…

Watch: Starmer rejects SNP call to cancel Trump state visit

2 March 2025 11:31 pm

Well, you can’t say they don’t try. With Europe still reeling from Donald Trump’s oval office bust-up with Ukrainian president…

SNP face fresh exodus as thousands desert party

28 February 2025 11:37 pm

Dear oh dear. Just as positive polling had lifted the spirits of the Scottish Nats, news of their membership exodus…

Trump: Joe or Hunter Biden left cocaine in the White House

28 February 2025 11:30 pm

Back in 2023, when Joe Biden was President of the United States, there was something of a drugs scandal in…

Trump: I was surprised to get on well with Starmer

28 February 2025 9:37 pm

By most accounts, Keir Starmer seems to have done a good job keeping Donald Trump on side when the two…

BBC apologises for ‘serious flaws’ in Gaza documentary

28 February 2025 7:25 am

The Beeb is better at becoming the news than making it these days. The last fortnight has seen the corporation…

Reform announce Olympic gold medallist as mayoral candidate

28 February 2025 7:09 am

As Prime Minister Keir Starmer is making headlines stateside after his big talk with Donald Trump, Nigel Farage is busy…