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
When Simon Danczuk met Nigel Farage for a pint in December, the Labour MP was accused of plotting a defection to Ukip. While Danczuk denied this at the time, his wife Karen appears to be warming to the idea herself. Karen, who announced that she will stand down as a Labour Councillor from her Kingsway ward, got better
It was the culmination of an elaborate lobbying operation. The scene was set, the piper poised and the whisky flowing. As the Haggis was piped in to Boisdale on Bishopgate last night for the launch of the ‘Campaign to Overturn the US Haggis Ban’, all eyes were on Mr Stan Phillips, the Councillor for Agricultural Affairs from
After Michael Gove’s mobile phone went off in a Cabinet meeting, everyone’s been trying to find out what the ‘jazzy’ ringtone is. As Mr S documented, even Charles Moore was thwarted in his attempts to catch the Chief Whip out by ringing his phone when they were both at dinner. Now his wife has revealed the woman
‘Most people will feel that Obama does not really know what is going on in this country,’ said a snappy Harriet Harman last night. The Labour deputy leader was sent out to bash the President after his glowing endorsement of David Cameron and tactical backing of the Tories for the May election. But Harriet has
Since Jeremy Paxman quit Newsnight last year, he has hardly been discreet with regards to his feelings about the BBC’s flagship current affairs show, claiming it is run by 12-year-olds. Now, he tells this week’s Radio Times what programmes he has been enjoying of late, and surprise, surprise, Newsnight isn’t one of them. ‘I’m watching Take Me Out and listening to the
When Ukip officials arrived at Facebook HQ for a meet-and-greet, they were surprised to be led to a boardroom that went by the name of ‘sceptical’. However, far from a tense affair, Steerpike‘s mole insists Facebook employees didn’t mean anything by it. ‘They swore it was entirely by chance,’ a Ukip source tells Mr S. ‘It was a
Russell Brand’s stints filming for his new documentary on the financial crisis have so far seen him storm RBS and upset a bank employee by causing his lunch to go cold. Now Mr S learns that the 39-year-old comedian’s forays haven’t stopped with capitalist banks. Brand recently made an unwelcome visit to the home of
Word is that Friday’s edition of The Sun was the last to have a topless woman on Page 3 – thereby closing a chapter of British cultural history. Immortalised, perhaps, in the following sketch from Yes, Prime Minister:- PM: Don’t tell me about the press, I know exactly who reads the papers: The Daily Mirror is
Uh oh, looks like Chuka Umunna hasn’t been doing his homework. The shadow business secretary walked out of a live television interview on Sky News after he was asked his opinion on a letter Eric Pickles sent to Muslim leaders. The Labour MP, who was invited onto the show to talk about the economy, appeared
Last week the Green Party announced that their membership has soared to 52,000, thanks to a little help from the free publicity awarded to them by the Prime Minister over the leaders’ debate. However, Steerpike hears that all is not well at Green Party HQ, or their ‘National Office’ as the non-hierarchical collective delicately call it. ‘Our
Chris Bryant’s call for more diversity in British culture, has hit a nerve with James Blunt. After Bryant, the new shadow culture minister, remarked that ‘we can’t just have a culture dominated by Eddie Redmayne and James Blunt and their ilk,’ the You’re Beautiful singer has responded in an open letter. Despite initially brushing off the comments on Twitter,
On election night, Al Murray will not be in South Thanet as is the usual custom among candidate hopefuls. Instead, the 46-year-old comedian will be performing a gig in Dartford. Despite launching his campaign last week to run as a Free United Kingdom Party candidate in the same constituency Nigel Farage is vying for, Murray’s comedy
Ubiquitous Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has had to admit that he ‘spent’ £25,000 in a disastrous and embarrassing threat to sue his counterpart Jeremy Hunt. Burnham has had to declare donations in kind of £16,665 worth of legal services offered by Steel & Shamash, the Labour Party’s solicitors, and £8,250 from Gavin Millar QC,
Ever since Michael Gove was scolded at Cabinet for bringing his noisy mobile phone into the room, everyone’s been trying to find out what the ringtone is. Cabinet sources various described it to The Times as a ‘female ballad’ and a ‘Jazz FM-style comedown music after a heavy night out’. But the Chief Whip is
After Vince Cable was ditched last week as the Liberal Democrat’s main economic spokesman, Mr S is pleased to hear that he still has some titles left to his name. Word reaches Steerpike that a number of staff working with the Business Secretary, who has a PhD in Economics, have been advised to refer to him strictly as Dr
Although Nigel Farage referred to his new political rival Al Murray as the first ‘serious opponent’ he has encountered in South Thanet, not all of Ukip are amused that The Pub Landlord is running for the seat their leader is after. David Coburn, the Ukip MEP for Scotland, has got himself embroiled in a Twitter spat with the Oxbridge educated
After Mr S’s ‘Red Meat Month’ article revealed the trouble brewing between Neil Parish and Peta’s UK director Mimi Bekhechi over the Tory MP’s proposal for a meat month in Parliament, the pair appeared on today’s Daily Politics to try and put their beef to one side. listen to ‘Neil Parish and Peta UK director Mimi Bekhechi debating #redmeatmonth’ on audioBoom
Patriotic peers have demanded that David Cameron raise the US haggis import ban with President Obama at the White House today. As Steerpike noted yesterday, the 1971 ban on the product is under renewed scrutiny in the run up to Burn’s Night, with Lord McColl demanding answers to great cheers in the House of Lords
Tomorrow, parliament will debate a topic of immense significance. Steerpike hears that Tory peer Lord McColl is planning on championing a great repressed minority, in a land that claims to be free. Not so much a political hot potato, rather a hot sheep stomach stuffed with the animal’s heart, liver and lungs. Since 1971 haggis has
The last 007 film saw James Bond substitute his trademark vodka martini for a Heineken, after producers found a £30 million advertising deal with the Dutch brand too good to refuse. Thankfully, the next film Spectre will see Bond reunited with his martini as a result of a sponsorship agreement with Belvedere vodka. So Mr S was reassured to hear