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
Well, well, well. It’s not been a great start to the year for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party in Westminster and it seems the Scottish lot north of the border are having a tough time of it too. Leader Anas Sarwar has seen his popularity fall towards the end of 2024 while his SNP rival
Uh oh. There’s trouble in paradise this evening as it has emerged that 12 Reform UK councillors are set to quit over Nigel Farage’s leadership. As reported by the Guardian, it transpires that the mass exodus could begin as early as tonight, with the announcement that the group intend to resign en mass timed to
Mr Steerpike was interested to read over the Christmas break that young people are currently flocking to join China’s civil service, attracted by the job stability it offers compared to the volatile private sector, and seeking to escape the country’s relatively high youth unemployment. According to the Reuters piece, the civil service is still seen
It used to be said that parties were Eurosceptic in opposition but Europhile in government. The same might be true of China too. Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour initially adopted a Sinosceptic stance, calling out the Hong Kong crackdown and backing calls to formally recognise China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide. Yet in office,
Well, well, well. Mick Lynch, RMT’s infamous general secretary, has today announced he will be stepping down from the top job after four years in post. In a statement, the trade unionist remarked: It has been a privilege to serve this union for over 30 years in all capacities, but now it is time for
Following the defeat of the Tory amendment in parliament last night, No. 10 might have hoped that calls for a public inquiry into grooming gangs are now dying down. But the impetus for such a move has been given fresh life today by another helpful intervention from that well-known Starmer ally, Andy Burnham. Yes, that’s
Back to the Beeb, which continues to get better at being the focus of news headlines rather than, er, producing them. Now a freelance weekend newsreader is on the warpath, with the ex-BBC presenter claiming he was let go from the public service broadcaster after it emerged he made an anti-Keir Starmer charity Christmas single.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been the talk of London town this week and north of the border things are no different. The first First Minister’s Questions of the year has just concluded in Holyrood and, surprise surprise, the tech titan got a pretty prominent mention. In a speech on Monday, First Minister John Swinney
Who was the least popular man in Oxford this morning? Environment Secretary Steve Reed was certainly up there. The Labour man travelled through to the City of Dreaming Spires today to deliver a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, with the Environment Secretary keen to discuss matters like how farmers can ‘diversify’ their incomes and
Elon Musk has kept the British media busy in recent days, after persistently posting criticism of UK politicians over the grooming gangs scandal – and even calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be incarcerated. But actions have consequences and the billionaire businessman may soon be about to see what happens when he’s deemed to
A number of new Whitehall appointments have been made since the election, but there have been a couple of returning figures too. Sir Oliver Robbins is from the latter camp, with Theresa May’s former Brexit negotiator set to make a political return after accepting a top civil service job at the Foreign Office. He just
What goes around, comes around. In producing their latest attack ad, it seems Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative crowd has taken inspiration from their very own political opponents. Back in 2023, Sir Keir Starmer’s lefty lot conjured up a campaign poster in the run-up to that year’s local elections which showed then-Tory PM Rishi Sunak grinning cheerfully
It’s the big question all Westminster is asking right now. Who has got a golden ticket to Donald Trump’s inauguration? The quadrennial bash is happening in just twelve days’ time, with the great and the good all fighting to get a seat. Nigel Farage will be there, keen to show he’s still besties with ’47’
There’s no rest for the wicked. Twitter chief Elon Musk has barely come up for air over the last week with his continued attacks on the Labour Prime Minister over Britain’s grooming gang scandal. As calls for a national inquiry intensify, the tech billionaire has taken to his social media site yet again to take
It’s been an eventful week for UK-US relations. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has spent much of it berating the Labour government over Britain’s grooming gang scandal, calling first for Home Office minister Jess Phillips to take the place of far-right activist Tommy Robinson in prison before going on to say that Prime Minister Keir Starmer
All is not well in the Royal Society of Literature. It now transpires that the bosses of the prestigious 200-year-old organisation have resigned after a rather tumultuous year – and ahead of an AGM that could have seen a vote of confidence called by outraged former chairs, presidents and directors. The reason for the widespread
It’s all change at Meta HQ. As Mr S reported last week, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg – who has served as one of Mark Zuckerberg’s senior execs at the company since 2018 – is now on his way out. Taking, ironically, to rival platform Twitter, Clegg wrote that it was now ‘the right
The focus on Britain’s grooming gang scandal is very much here to stay. Calls for the government to hold a national inquiry into the matter are intensifying and the Labour government is coming under increasing pressure from opposition politicians in the wake of Elon Musk’s rather heated social media posts on the issue. Victims Minister
It’s not been a great start to the year for Sir Keir Starmer’s army. As if poor poll ratings and sporadic online attacks by Elon Musk weren’t causing enough problems, now the Labour party has landed itself in more trouble. The UK Labour party’s TikTok account was found to have released a rather bizarre video
Dear oh dear. There’s more bad news for the Labour lot as new polling by More in Common for LBC has revealed that a quarter of those who backed Sir Keir Starmer’s party in last year’s election now regret their decision. After the events of the last six months – from freebie fiascos to cronyism