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
There are rare few quiet days in politics and today is not one of them. Tonight President Joe Biden has abandoned his campaign to win a second term in the White House, writing that ‘it is in the best interest of my party and country’ to stand down. President Biden has been fast to endorse
Well, it’s finally happened. After all the speculation, the spin and the denials, Joe Biden has today, finally, announced he is dropping out of the race for the White House. The last President to do so was Lyndon Johnson in 1968, but that was in March of that year, rather than late July. Biden has
Uh oh. While Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity has had a post-election bounce (with an approval rating now at 19 per cent compared to -1 before the Labour win) not everything is looking rosy for the new Prime Minister. Splits over certain policy stances are beginning to emerge and the two-child benefit cap is taking centre
Back to the Commons, where Kemi Badenoch has been making waves. The shadow housing secretary has been ruffling feathers in her own party as its attention turns to a looming leadership contest and Badenoch has not been making life easy for opposition politicians either – and this time it’s Angela Rayner in the firing line.
Well, well, well. Off the back of his thumping majority, Sir Keir Starmer has been making good use of the perks of being premier. Given Labour’s long history of bashing Rishi Sunak for flying private, one might have thought that the fleet of government jets at their disposal would be stowed away in a hanger. That’s not
Uh oh. The Covid inquiry has been ticking along in the background for the last two years, and finally its first report has been published. A shock to no one, it transpires that neither the UK nor Scottish governments come out of it particularly well. It appears both were rather unprepared for a pandemic –
To Scotland, where the Scottish Conservatives are facing problems of their own. North of the border, a leadership contest is looming after outgoing leader Douglas Ross announced his resignation mid-campaign. Since then there have been animated discussions about who his successor will be. And while contenders for the UK party are already making their mark,
David Lammy is in the firing line over comments he made in the past about Donald Trump. The Foreign Secretary was quizzed this morning on BBC Breakfast about his past attacks on the presidential candidate – particularly when Lammy called Trump a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’. What a charmer… Instead of showing contrition, the Foreign Secretary
Today’s King’s Speech was filled to the brim with bills – the most jam-packed since 2005. While Sir Keir can’t be accused of submitting a lightweight list of announcements, some of his political opponents have been quick to criticise. One of these is former prime minister Liz Truss, who is particularly displeased about how much
Good heavens. Now it seems that Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay has forgotten his own party’s raison d’être. Today the MP for Waveney Valley has confirmed he will oppose new electricity pylons in his East Anglian constituency – pylons that would be used to transport, er, green energy from offshore wind farms to the grid. How
What is it with Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Brits? First, she advised the-then Foreign Secretary David Cameron to ‘kiss my ass.’ Then, she told ex-BBC star Emily Maitlis to ‘go f**k off’. And now she has pinned the blame for the Trump assassination attempt on, er, British broadcasters at Times Radio. Clearly the spirit
The great and the not-so-good of the international conservative movement have descended on Wisconsin this week. Liz Truss and Nigel Farage are among the Brits jetting in to toast President Trump’s formal nomination at the Republican National Convention. But what of the man they once called ‘Britain’s Trump?’ Boris Johnson yesterday made a rather low-key
Well, well, well, constitutional monarchy looks set to continue after all – despite the best efforts of Labour’s Clive Lewis. The MP for Norwich South was forced to swear in to parliament for a second time after his first attempt didn’t quite, er, cut the mustard… Last Wednesday, Lewis drew attention to himself when he
In a further blow for outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak figures have revealed that donations to the Conservative party this year were not quite as generous as they have been in the past. It transpires that Sunak’s Tories received less than 10 per cent of the donations Boris Johnson managed to wrangle in 2019. And to
To Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the great and the good of the Republican elite have arrived to crown Donald Trump as their presidential candidate once again. After the 2020 convention was hit by Covid, this year’s political jamboree is a full-blown Trump-fest. Hot topics of conversation include his pick of JD Vance for his VP nominee
Another day, another drama. This time it’s in Wales, where Labour leader Vaughan Gething has this morning resigned from his role as First Minister. In a statement the outgoing FM admits he had hope that over the summer period ‘rebuilding and renewal could take place under my leadership… I realise now that this is not
Donald Trump has chosen JD Vance as his US vice-presidential running mate – but the author of Hillbilly Elegy has some, erm, interesting views on the UK. At a conference last week, Vance said that the UK could become ‘the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon’ after Labour’s landslide election victory. He
Oh dear. The National is renowned for neither grace nor charm and Saturday’s front page was no exception. Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper sparked outrage this weekend after it splashed a rather, er, creative cartoon across its cover a day ahead of the Euros final. When the Jocks failed to progress through the tournament – instead
As Rishi Sunak prepares to step down, the race for a new Tory leader is underway. Although no one has officially announced they’ll run, there are already a number of names in the mix. Kemi Badenoch is a top contender, according to Conservative Home, which suggested that over a quarter of party members back the
Back to Scotland, the land of failing upwards. Very recently, Humza Yousaf held the top political job in the country for just over a year – despite the SNP’s former cabinet minister having a record of underdelivering while he held the posts of transport, justice and health secretary. Now the First Minister is John Swinney,