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
The Tory leadership battle is now underway with the traditional first act: to identify a frontrunner and start blowing poison darts. Kemi Badenoch is the frontrunner and famously combative. She’s in her early 40s. So it must stand to reason that she’d have let off steam in a chatroom somewhere, surely? This is where it
These days when it rains for the Tories, it pours. Now it transpires that more voters under the age of 30 backed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK than the Conservatives this election – with experts convinced that recent years of economic instability is pushing younger voters away from the two largest parties. How curious… Over 35,000
As Conservative MPs start to declare their candidacy for the Tory leadership race, north of the border conversations are heating up about who the next Scottish group leader will be. As Mr S wrote on Monday, so far the first official contender is justice spokesperson Russell Findlay – who announced his bid by penning a
Another day under a Labour government and – you guessed it – another U-turn. Now ministers are in the spotlight after it emerged that David Lammy used the government’s private plane to jet off to India today for international trade talks. The same private jet, Mr S would remind readers, that Sir Keir’s lefty lot
James Cleverly, the first official Tory leadership contender, has today ruled out a merger with Reform if he becomes Tory leader in November. After announcing his candidacy in an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph, the shadow home secretary was quick to get across the airwaves today. Cleverly secured a prime slot on the Beeb’s Today
She’s back! It was less than three weeks ago that Liz Truss lost her seat after suffering the biggest ever swing from Tory to Labour in a general election. But in true Truss style, she’s picked herself up and soldiered on, visiting the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin last week and doing the rounds with
Labour won the election on a campaign of change and its politicians certainly have a knack for, um, changing their minds. Sir Keir has made some fascinating U-turns over the years, and it now appears that Lisa Nandy has a taken a leaf out of his book – rather publicly changing her tune on the
It’s a red letter day for Nigel Farage. The former Ukip leader entered parliament this month at the eighth attempt of trying and today delivered his maiden speech to fellow MPs. In an address that mixed wit and wisdom, Farage observed the custom of paying tribute to a member’s predecessor by saying of Giles Watling
To the House of Commons, where today Reform’s Nigel Farage made his maiden speech after returning from Milwaukee’s RNC. Attempting a number of times to gain access to the Commons, Farage was successful on his eighth shot this election – and this afternoon’s speech shows he’s wasting no time getting down to business. In his
Back to the BBC, which these days is better at being in the news than making it. The six-figure salary list for 2023-24 has been published and with it come some quite interesting revelations. Top earner Gary Lineker received £1.35 million, while Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball isn’t too far behind on £950,000. Big names
After President Biden announced he would be standing down on Sunday evening, it’s been all go in the White House. But while speculation about the next Democrat nominee continues, there is a separate side plot that Mr S is rather interested in – involving Biden’s son. Robert Hunter Biden has spent a fair amount of
Another day, another drama – only this time it’s not MPs in the spotlight. Now politician-turned-pundit Nadine Dorries has taken aim at journalist Emily Maitlis and her ‘cosy “centrist” podcast’ The News Agents. In a scathing attack laid out in the fine pages of the Daily Mail, Dorries slams Maitlis’s ‘neurotic’ perspective of politics, her obsession
To Scotland, where First Minister John Swinney appears to be trying to make a career for himself as a spin doctor. The leader of the Nats has a new tactic to win back support for his beleaguered party – convince voters that, contrary to their daily experiences, his party has actually been, er, ‘formidable’ over
Dear oh dear. With all that’s happening in the US Democratic party just now, one might have thought it would be near enough impossible for politicians elsewhere to catch the eye of the media. Well, fascinatingly, the Green party has defied all odds. The eco-zealots have found themselves in the spotlight this afternoon after a
To Scotland, where the SNP infighting continues. After dozens of nationalist MPs were ditched this month by the electorate, some are already channelling their disappointment at MSP colleagues. It transpires that ex-MP Mhairi Black – who herself announced she was stepping down at this election due to Westminster’s ‘toxic’ culture – has taken aim at
Back to Westminster and the looming Tory leadership contest. No one has officially announced their candidacy yet, but the rumour mill is in overdrive as the list of potential runners and riders continues to grow. And who better to pour petrol on the sparks of speculation then Boris Johnson’s longtime ally, Nadine Dorries? She has
And so now we have it: the first official contender for the Scottish Conservative leadership contest. Russell Findlay, the party’s current justice spokesperson announced this morning that he was throwing his hat into the ring — after his party’s rather underwhelming general election campaign. In a lengthy article for the Scottish Daily Mail, Findlay first
Over the past four years, Joe Biden has featured on 18 covers of The Spectator. They range from the upbeat – the halcyon days of 2020 and 2021 when he swore to restore the world order – to the sombre – such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaos in the Middle East. Overall
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