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
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Are CCHQ already planning how to push through their next coalition? Mr S only asks as word reaches Steerpike that Conservative backbenchers have been urged to return to London immediately after the General Election in the potential event of a snap vote. The pressure is on for any future coalition to be put to the parliamentary party after this failed to
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After months of speculation, the Guardian have appointed their new editor-in-chief and it is not a man. Katharine Viner, the Guardian US editor, will become the paper’s first female editor later this year when she takes over from Alan Rusbridger as the publication’s editor-in-chief . The decision comes after a drawn out process which saw the Oxford graduate come
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After the Ukip MEP Janice Atkinson was suspended from her party following claims that a member of her staff tried to get a fake receipt to increase an expense claim, media pundits have claimed that Ukip is in crisis. However, according to Nigel Farage’s right hand man, this is not the case. Raheem Kassam has taken to Twitter to say that
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Next week Lord Hall will read the BBC’s report into Jeremy Clarkson’s suspension from Top Gear and make a decision about Clarkson’s future. In light of this, Clarkson may well live to regret his night out at the Roundhouse gala. Mr S was a guest at last night’s charity fundraiser and witnessed Clarkson launching a foul-mouthed attack on the BBC over
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Last week the Green Party was forced to cancel a planned black tie fundraiser after their members complained that the champagne-fuelled event was at odds with what Natalie Bennett’s party was supposed to stand for. So Mr S was surprised to see that the Guardian has gone one step further and sponsored a white tie ball. The
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After David Cameron was asked in a live Q&A this week who his favourite Game of Thrones character was, the Prime Minster replied Ned Stark – the heroic head of the Stark family, who died at the end of series one. While many commentators were quick to claim that Cameron would be much more at home with the villainous
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This morning Danny Alexander is scheduled to reveal the Liberal Democrats’ proposed alternative budget. Alas, Vince Cable appears to have missed the memo. Speaking about the budget on LBC yesterday, Cable claimed he would be leading the Lib Dem budget: Presenter: Is it difficult to sit through a Budget like that and be barely mentioned? As a party, not personally.
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Zac Goldsmith recently wrote in the Spectator that it was his father – not the Labour party – who had stopped Britain from joining the euro. The Conservative MP claimed his dad Sir James Goldsmith was to thank, after his Referendum party battled to ‘ensure that Britain would never join the euro without the consent of the people’. One man
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Douglas Alexander claimed this week that Facebook has made it difficult for politicians to campaign successfully. He said that Labour were struggling to win back voters in Scotland as a result of conspiracy theories being posted on social media. Perhaps Labour’s campaign chief was simply trying to make early excuses for his own performance in the upcoming election. Alexander is predicted to lose
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Two of the biggest media circuses are set to collide. The 2013 press storm that greeted the arrival of Prince George looks likely to return when the Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to her second child. Today Catherine revealed that the baby is due next month. ‘I’m due in mid-April, to the end of April,’ the young royal told a crowd
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If Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham’s future leadership aspirations were ever in doubt, then take a look at his reaction to the news of Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election as Prime Minister of Israel last night: Burnishing his foreign policy expertise: tick. Cat-nipping the Labour left: tick. About as subtle as Burnham’s recent attempts in The Spectator to
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Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall documents the rise of Thomas Cromwell, one of history’s most famous anti-heroes. Chronicling Henry VIII’s ill-fated marriage to Anne Boleyn, it is just one of many accounts of life in Tudor times under Henry VIII. However as well known as the story may be, Mr S hears that there are fears it could be lost on Americans when the Royal Shakespeare Company’s
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After Mr S revealed the strict door policy for the launch of Nigel Farage’s new book The Purple Revolution at the Blue Boar in Westminster, the impromptu drinks affair was filled with mostly friendly faces from the media. Columnist Isabel Oakeshott introduced the Ukip leader, telling the audience that ‘of all the politicians I’ve had lunch with
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As the election approaches, politicians will find their diaries packed with various events. It’s an equally busy time for those born with the gift of looking like a politician. ‘I’m lucky that I look like Boris,’ says Drew, a Mayor of London ‘lookalike’ who is on the books at the Susan Scott agency. ‘I often
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Sarah Vine criticised Ed Miliband in the Daily Mail after the Labour leader posed with his wife Justine in a bare kitchen for a BBC interview. Although the ‘forlorn little kitchen’ turned out to just be his ‘kitchenette’ rather than his main kitchen, Miliband has gone on to insist that it is one he uses. It’s a different story, however, for his rival
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David Cameron came out in support for his old chum Jeremy Clarkson last week after he was suspended from Top Gear for allegedly punching a producer. Members of the opposition, however, appear to be in a less forgiving mood. Speaking at the LabourList pre-election conference, Michael Dugher criticised Clarkson for his actions saying that the idea that he could return
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Once upon a time there was a libertarian champion, who led a self-styled ‘People’s Army’. He stood up to ‘political correctness’ and was famed for his outspoken views that often got him into trouble with the ‘Establishment’ and the ‘mainstream media’ that he railed against. Yet look how far Nigel Farage has come. Privileged invitees
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In the BBC’s Sherlock, Mark Gatiss plays Sherlock Holmes’s sly older brother Mycroft. Now the actor has revealed in an interview with the Radio Times that the person who inspired his performance is none other than Peter Mandelson. ‘I based Mycroft on Peter Mandelson. It was explicit even before I was going to play him. Steven Moffat and I talked
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With Katharine Viner guaranteed a final round interview to be the next Guardian editor-in-chief after winning a staff ballot, rumours are circulating that her former colleague Ian Katz is the other horse left in the race. Hot goss: final two in race for Guardian editorship are now @iankatz1000 and @KathViner, insider tells me. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March
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Hippies have invaded the heart of St. James’s, occupying a building on Pall Mall to protest the evils of capitalism. Yet it seems they did not do their homework… 123 Pall Mall, where the invading lefties have hoisted their banners, used to be the home of the Institute of Directors – and they were the