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
Oh dear. It seems that some Labour ministers are in desperate need of some media training. First, there was Seema Malhotra mixing up the inflation rate with interest rates. Now, Darren Jones – Rachel Reeves’ No. 2 – has managed to put his foot in it on her proposed benefit cuts. Appearing on Politics Live
Happy spring statement day, one and all. Today’s fiscal event – which is definitely NOT an ’emergency Budget’ – looks set to contain more gloom and doom about Rachel Reeves’ vanishing fiscal headroom. Looks like that £40bn October tax raid didn’t help much eh? So, with inflation still running high and the growth figures revised downward,
As Denis Healey said: ‘when you’re in a hole, stop digging.’ It has been a furious day in Trumpland after White House officials accidentally added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a highly sensitive group chat on Signal about planned airstrikes in Yemen. Initially, the administration went on the offensive, with Defense Secretary Pete Hesketh calling Goldberg
Ding ding ding! To the latest round of political infighting, involving Reform UK and its former MP Rupert Lowe. The independent report commissioned by Nigel Farage’s party into the suspended politician has been released today – and, for Lowe, its conclusions won’t make for comfortable reading… The 13-page report describe the complaints of bullying and
Should the race to net zero come at any cost? Ed Miliband’s crowd appears to think so. The Energy Security Secretary will overturn a ban on forced labour to further his zero carbon ambitions, it transpires, as today the government will whip its parliamentarians to vote down an amendment that would prevent eco-friendly materials being
This week was never going to be an easy one for Rachel Reeves, what with her Spring Statement – likely to include controversial spending cuts – tomorrow. But things are going from bad to worse for the beleaguered Chancellor as yet more Labour ministers hit out at her latest Sabrina Carpenter freebie. Dear oh dear…
Tick tock. There are less than 48 hours to go until Rachel Reeves’s big Spring Statement on Wednesday and as the Treasury finalises its preparations for the big reveal, YouGov has been running some tax-related tests of its own. In a blow for the reds, the polling company has found that it is becoming more
It’s a day ending in ‘y’ which means there’s more bad news for the Scottish Nats. Now new polling for unionist group Scotland in Union shows that most Scots feel safer as part of the United Kingdom. The Survation survey revealed that most of Scotland’s population believe they are more secure – and have more
It’s a hard time to be in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government, what with poor poll ratings and dismal economic forecasts to contend with. Perhaps that’s why Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner felt she deserved a free safari tour during a work trip to Ethiopia earlier this year. But it transpires her hopes were rather
To Buckingham, for a blast of soundness at the annual Margaret Thatcher conference. Star of the show was David Frost, the guest speaker at last night’s dinner. And the Tory peer has certainly been brushing up on his political bon mots, judging by his lines to the 200 attendees. Frost compared the ‘amateurish farrago’ of
For years now, Mr S has been covering the long-running farce that is China’s proposed new ‘super-embassy’. Back in 2018, Beijing bought the site of the old Royal Mint, declaring their intention to turn the Tower Hamlets location into the country’s largest diplomatic mission in Europe. But for the past seven years, various planning concerns
The BBC’s legions of staff seem to be struggling to cope with, um, the news. The corporation has issued an emotional support notice for colleagues affected by events across the water, after the election of US President Donald Trump – with the Beeb gushing that its ‘commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging remains unwavering’. How
To Scotland, where the Holyrood exodus continues. Now SNP veteran Fergus Ewing – son of Winnie Ewing, one of the first nationalist politicians to be elected to Westminster – has announced that he will not stand for the party at the 2026 election. But on whether he will leave frontline politics altogether, Ewing is less
Uh oh. As the news about the closure of Heathrow airport circulates around the country, Mr S has been rather concerned to see instances of faulty reporting by the media. Both Sky News and, surprise surprise, the Guardian got rather confused in their coverage this morning – mixing up the Swedish airline SAS with British
There’s no such thing as a quiet day in Westminster. This afternoon, demonstrators invaded the House of Lords in protest at the existence of the unelected second chamber – carrying leaflets reminiscent of a Sex Pistols album, with the words: ‘Never mind the Lords, here’s the House of People.’ Charming! The rather rude interruption waylaid
Back to Scotland, where former chief executive of the SNP, Peter Murrell, has appeared in court charged with embezzlement. The ex-husband of Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon was charged in connection with the ongoing police probe into the party’s funds and finances last April – and this morning appeared in Edinburgh Sheriff Court. And now, it
What does it take to be excluded from the SNP’s candidate list? Quite a lot, it seems, as being arrested in connection with a police probe into your party’s funds and finances doesn’t appear to be a barrier anyway. Colin Beattie, the SNP’s ex-treasurer who was arrested as part of the Operation Branchform investigation, has
Nicola Sturgeon may be stepping down at the 2026 Scottish parliament election but fear not, the SNP’s Dear Leader won’t be out of the public eye for good. While many might have expected the former first minister to retire to the shadows after the rather tumultuous two years she has faced, it appears the Queen
As if Brits haven’t had enough elections and leadership competitions lately, north of the border political parties are gearing up for the 2026 Scottish parliament poll. While the embattled SNP has had a rocky few months, now Scottish Labour is under fire thanks to Sir Keir Starmer’s unpopular policies. But there is one party that
The Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced a range of cuts to benefits payments in the Commons on Tuesday in a bid to save money and get people back to work. On the evening broadcast round that followed, Labour MP and pensions minister Torsten Bell was quizzed on Newsnight about what exactly the reforms