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.

Lib Dems take a swipe at JD Vance

16 September 2024 12:28 am

Conference season has begun in earnest and the Lib Dems are having a whale of a time in Brighton. After…

David Lammy’s lamentable media round

15 September 2024 11:08 pm

If there’s something bad and you’re in a jam, who you gonna call? David Lammy! That’s right, the flailing Foreign…

Starmer facing ethics probe over undeclared gifts

15 September 2024 7:16 am

Oh dear. It seems that the ‘passes for glasses’ row isn’t going away any time soon. A month after it…

Women’s committee chair struggles to define a woman

14 September 2024 3:12 am

To the Women and Equalities Committee, to which Labour’s Sarah Owen has been elected chair. The Labour MP for Luton…

Watch: Andy Haldane attacks Labour’s blackhole narrative

14 September 2024 2:19 am

Sir Keir’s Labour government hasn’t been in power for long but already his administration is causing quite the stir. Pub…

Could Starmer face a smoking ban rebellion?

13 September 2024 11:19 pm

Oh dear. It appears that Sir Keir Starmer’s own MPs are rather unhappy about the Prime Minister’s proposed smoking ban…

Ed Miliband’s Grangemouth hypocrisy

13 September 2024 3:49 am

To Scotland, where the closure of the country’s only oil refinery has been announced today. The site will shut next…

Policing minister’s purse stolen at conference about theft

13 September 2024 2:38 am

Sir Keir’s Labour government may be determined to deprive daily life of all fun, but there’s still a little humour…

Mick Lynch blasted for ‘bonkers’ pro-Palestine comments

12 September 2024 9:18 pm

To the Trades Union Congress conference, where Mick Lynch is once again at the centre of political controversy. The RMT…

Watch: Farage attacks ‘two tier’ Keir at PMQs

11 September 2024 11:00 pm

With two months to go until his successor takes over, Rishi Sunak only has a handful of PMQs sessions left.…

Watch: Scholz loses his temper as Germany’s migration debate rages

11 September 2024 10:13 pm

Ding ding! It’s not just in Westminster that the debate over illegal migration has got politicians tearing chunks out of…

Labour MP: Afros should be a ‘protected characteristic’

11 September 2024 8:58 pm

Prisoners are out, the unions are striking and pensioners are having their winter fuel payments pulled. With Starmer’s Britain now…

Donald Trump’s Taylor Swift nightmare

11 September 2024 7:06 pm

Look What You Made Me Do. It seems that last night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris convinced one…

Watch: the key moments in the Trump-Harris debate

11 September 2024 5:46 pm

On Tuesday night the former President Donald Trump and the current Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in Philadelphia for…

Keir Starmer’s prisoner endorsement

10 September 2024 10:26 pm

Happy prisoner release day, one and all! Today’s move to let out the lags is all part of the Ministry…

Watch: Andrew Neil and Piers Morgan ask – has Trump lost his mojo?

10 September 2024 3:57 am

It’s less than 60 days to go until polling day in America and the race could not be closer. Donald…

MPs swap booze for soft drinks

10 September 2024 12:24 am

Whither the future of parliament’s pubs? It was less than three months ago that Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue…

Will David Lammy apologise to Grenfell judge?

9 September 2024 4:27 pm

In the fall-out from last week’s devastating report on the Grenfell report, it seems one question has not been asked…

Veterans’ champion quits with blast at Starmer

7 September 2024 1:08 am

Labour have been encouraging plenty of controversy recently with the growing allegations of cronyism surrounding recent civil service and public…

Top Labour donor in ‘operation integrity’ storm

6 September 2024 11:13 pm

It’s a day ending in ‘y’, which means another Labour scandal. Today marks the return of Lord Alli, the media…

BBC bias on Israel set to be probed

6 September 2024 8:42 pm

More bad news for the BBC. Following the fall-out from the Corporation’s catastrophic handling of the Huw Edwards affair, a…

Watch: Miliband blasted over energy bill ‘false promises’

6 September 2024 5:00 pm

Another day, another drama. This time Ed Miliband is in the firing line after his opposite number took aim at…

Night czar’s City Hall no-show

6 September 2024 3:47 am

Over to the Mayor of London and his minions. While the Prime Minister has been busy giving pay rises to…

Tories call for watchdog inquiry into Labour cronyism row

6 September 2024 1:23 am

Back to Whitehall, where the row over civil service appointments continues to gather pace. It transpires that the Conservatives have…

Watch: Labour blasted over ‘shoddy’ Lords reforms

5 September 2024 10:41 pm

To the Lords, where this afternoon an urgent question was granted on the subject of hereditary peers. It follows today’s…