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.

Labour minister: Freebies are ‘part of the job’

19 September 2024 7:36 pm

Dear oh dear. Things are only getting worse for Sir Keir, as it now transpires that the Prime Minister accepted…

Sue Gray paid more than the Prime Minister

18 September 2024 11:48 pm

To Westminster, where more trouble is afoot. It now transpires the Prime Minister is paid less than, er, his own…

Reform voters are ‘our people’, insists Badenoch

18 September 2024 9:18 pm

How to solve a problem like Reform? The Tories have been scratching their heads on the matter since their rather…

David Lammy: Climate change a more ‘fundamental’ threat than terrorism

18 September 2024 3:34 am

Back to the Foreign Secretary, who seems unable to keep himself out of the headlines these days. It transpires that…

Starmer’s Frockgate saga rumbles on

17 September 2024 10:46 pm

Back to Westminster, where the Prime Minister is facing some rather uncomfortable questions about freebies received from top Labour donor…

Diane Abbott: Keir Starmer treated me like a ‘non-person’

17 September 2024 6:56 pm

All is not well in the Labour party. Diane Abbott has launched an attack on the Prime Minister over his…

Starmer faces backlash over Meloni meeting

17 September 2024 3:14 am

There’s trouble in Sir Keir’s Labour paradise, it seems, after the Prime Minister jetted off to Italy for a migration-focused…

Lib Dem conference plunged into gender row storm

17 September 2024 12:52 am

The Liberal Democrat party conference: surely a bastion of good old-fashioned free speech? Sadly not, it seems, given the storm…

Huw Edwards avoids jail time over child abuse images

16 September 2024 11:07 pm

To Westminster magistrates’ court where Huw Edwards has this afternoon been handed a suspended jail sentence of six months imprisonment,…

Watch: Yvette Cooper’s awkward interview on Lady Starmer’s wardrobe

16 September 2024 9:13 pm

Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t been in office three months yet and already the Labour government is mired in cronyism controversies.…

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…