Steerpike

It was the think tank which made Keir Starmer leader – but now Labour Together is struggling. The Sunday Times yesterday splashed on the news that the institute had commissioned covert research on two of its journalists in order to undermine their coverage of the organisation. In response, Alison Phillips, the new CEO of Labour

The SNP might be heading to another victory – but all is not going swimmingly for the nationalists. The party’s former chief executive Peter Murrell – best known as Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband – is in the firing line over more allegations concerning the party finances. Murrell is facing a charge of embezzling £459,000 from

When a PM is in crisis, what do they do? Sack the head of the civil service. Having lost both his Chief of Staff and Director of Communications at the beginning of the week, Keir Starmer resolved to make it a hattrick by dispensing with the services of his short-serving Cabinet Secretary. Poor old Chris

Just stop Doyle! It was another bad Prime Ministers’ Questions this week for Keir Starmer today. Once again, one of those mysterious appointments for which the Prime Minister is never responsible came back to haunt him in public. After Peter Mandelson last week, this time it is Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s former comms chief who was

This is Keir Starmer’s worst week in politics – and it is still only Tuesday. The constant flailings of the embattled Labour PM never cease to shock, amuse and entertain. But having successfully quelled the immediate revolt against his premiership, Starmer has, once again, pulled defeat from the jaws of victory. For tonight the main

Will the last person out of No. 10 please turn out the lights? First, it was Morgan McSweeney; then, Tim Allan. Tonight, Chris Wormald, is the latest name being about to depart the heart of government. It was just 14 months ago that Sir Chris was appointed Cabinet Secretary – the most senior official in

It’s a tough time for the nation’s finances – but don’t worry, one man is doing ok. Lord Mandelson received a taxpayer-funded payoff worth tens of thousands of pounds – despite being sacked as US ambassador over his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Sunday Times reports today that Mandy secured an exit payment

Oh Mandy. You came and you took and kept taking. For it is not just the Labour party wrestling with the fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal. Global Counsel – the lobbying firm which he co-founded in 2010 with his former aide Benjamin Wegg-Prosser – is battling to cope with the wave of bad PR

With 91 days to go until the Senedd elections, Reform are polling second – so it’s probably about time that they actually unveiled their leader. At a press conference in Newport this morning, Nigel Farage produced not just one rabbit but two. First, there was the long-awaited defection of James Evans after his expulsion from

It’s Wednesday so that means another ritual humiliation for Keir Starmer at PMQs. As his government limps towards the May elections, the weekly spankings by Kemi Badenoch often seem to blur into one. But this week’s session will stand out in the annals for the sheer torrent of criticism directed at Starmer over his decision

It’s been a pretty terrible start to the week for the government. Amid mounting revelations from the Epstein files, the police are now probing claims that the former British ambassador Lord Mandelson committed misconduct in public office. Despite Mandy’s links to the disgraced sexual predator being already well-known in late 2024, Keir Starmer nevertheless still

It is one of the staple headlines of British politics: Peter Mandelson has resigned. The ‘Prince of Darkness’ was sacked as US ambassador last September, but that has not stopped the flurry of stories about the alleged nature of his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. A further three million emails were published this

It’s a day ending in ‘y’ – so that means another scandal for Keir Starmer’s beleaguered team. This time it concerns a lobbying firm run by an ex-Labour MP. Jim Murphy, the party’s onetime Scottish leader, now heads up Arden Communications which has lobbied Sir Keir’s administration on behalf of arms manufacturers, oil companies and

Andy Burnham may not be standing – but at least we know one man who is. With only five weeks to go until the Denton and Gorton by election, the race is now on to find suitable candidates to win the Manchester constituency on 26 February. The Greens are due to unveil their candidate later

The in-and-out movements of the Bravermans have been quite something to behold. This morning it was the turn of Suella to (finally) join Reform, with Nigel Farage confirming that he had been in on-and-off talks with her for a year. ‘I thought she’d already gone’, was the reaction from one Tory wag on the wet

Poor old Andy and those sad eyes of his. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has had a pretty rotten day, being blocked by his own party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) by some eight votes to one. His sole backer was Lucy Powell, whose candidacy for deputy leader was memorably likened to Lurleen to Burnham’s

The Phoney War is no more. Former Labour minister Andrew Gwynne is on the brink of standing down as an MP, after losing the whip during last year’s WhatsApp group scandal. A by-election is therefore on the cards in Gwynne’s Manchester seat, potentially paving the way for the ever-ambitious local mayor Andy Burnham to return