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
Back to the Tory leadership contest which is gathering pace post-conference season. In a matter of days, MPs will cast their votes to leave just two contenders in the race, before the membership gets its say. But there is consternation about the final two among the Holyrood group – which only appointed a new leader
When Sir Keir Starmer announced on Thursday that the UK will cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, he was met with widespread outrage. Opposition politicians were quick to blast the Prime Minister over the move, pointing to the strategic importance of the land, with ex-PM and one-time foreign secretary Boris Johnson slamming the
Boris Johnson’s new memoir Unleashed is to be published next week, and with the highly-anticipated account promising to be the ‘political memoir of the century’, Mr S was rather interested in what exactly it contains within its pages. Steerpike has put together a list of the top 15 things we learned from the former Prime
Who would want to work in Conservative Campaign Headquarters? The election this year was certainly not Tory high command’s finest hour, with rows over stitch-ups and misallocated resources neatly topping off the party’s worst election result in history. So with discontent high among both MPs and members, it is no surprise that Tory leadership contenders
It’s a day ending a ‘y’ – so there’s another Labour scandal brewing. After the ‘passes for glasses’ row about Lord Alli’s role in Downing Street, the party has been plunged into another row about claims of ‘cash for access.’ The Sun today reports that companies have been offered breakfast with the Business Secretary in
Mauritius is getting the Chagos Islands – and a lot of Tories ain’t happy. Tom Tugendhat calls it a ‘shameful retreat’; Robert Jenrick bemoans the ‘dangerous capitulation.’ The Telegraph calls it a ‘national scandal’ while the Mail splash screams it is ‘Starmer’s surrender.’ So with the Tory tribes raising a hue and cry, who better
There was national outrage this morning at the news that Sir Keir’s Labour has decided to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – but perhaps Brits shouldn’t be so shocked by Starmer’s move. It transpires that the Prime Minister is friends with Philippe Sands KC, who also happens to be Mauritius’ chief legal
The end of Nicola Sturgeon’s premiership was mired in controversy over her plans for trans rights, her botched gender reform bill and the rather disturbing revelation that trans rapist Isla Bryson had been housed in a women’s prison. And now it has emerged that Police Scotland even considered logging Bryson as female on the sex
As Scots look ahead to the 2026 Holyrood election, support for the Scottish National Party continues to plummet. One scandal that the Nats won’t want looming over them when Scotland heads to the polls is Operation Branchform: the long-running police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances. Mr S can confirm that the investigation into
To the latest development in Labour’s freebie fiasco, as it transpires that Sir Keir Starmer has paid back over £6,000 of gifts he received from wealthy donors. No. 10 revealed the Prime Minister chose to cough up the funds for six Taylor Swift tickets, four Doncaster racing tickets and the clothing gifted to his wife.
Well that’s awkward. Former prime minister Boris Johnson was due to be interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg today, ahead of the release next week of his memoir, titled Unleashed, which is currently being serialised by the Mail. Licence-fee payers would no doubt have been treated to Boris’s expositions on why he considered invading Holland to seize
Dear oh dear. It now transpires that Lord Alli is under investigation by the Lords Commissioner – with the millionaire businessman being looked into over ‘alleged non-registration of interests’ with concerns the Labour donor may have breached the Lords code of conduct. How curious… The donor – who funded workwear for the Prime Minister and
At long last, and not a day too soon, it transpires that London’s ‘night czar’ is standing down. Amy Lamé will leave her City Hall role at the end of the month after, er, eight years in the job on a six-figure annual salary – despite receiving a 40 per cent pay hike part way
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot have had a tough time of it lately with the freebie fiasco – and it’s only getting worse. Now it transpires that Labour figures received gifts from the gambling sector worth, er, over £1 million. Talk about a bad bet, eh? Starmer’s army accepted a range of items from the
Even the most ardent Trump-loathers are admitting that, last night, the Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance easily won his debate against his opposite number, Tim Walz. ‘Vance is going home with Walz’s wallet,’ said the veteran Never Trumper David Frum. It’s curious, then, that – at time of writing at least – Donald Trump still hasn’t
Uh oh. There’s trouble in Tory paradise after leadership candidate Robert Jenrick made some rather questionable remarks about the armed forces. At the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the wannabe leader claimed that: ‘Special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists’ because of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Tory frontrunner added that ‘those
This year’s Tory conference has seen a number of old faces as well as new – and the appearance of Boris Johnson’s former culture secretary at a More in Common event this evening has caused quite the stir. Nadine Dorries told delegates that her brief speech at a venue outside of the conference centre would
It’s the final night of Tory party conference and tempers are fraying. Three of the four leadership candidates have ended up weighing in on the 2019 sacking of the late Roger Scruton from his role as an unpaid adviser to the Department for Housing, after an interview he gave to the New Statesman (which was
The Tory leadership race is ramping up — and so is Kemi Badenoch’s anti-Reform rhetoric. The contender for the top job hasn’t held back on her views of Nigel Farage this week, and the back and forth looks set to continue… The Reform leader has been rather uncomplimentary about Badenoch of late — tweeting furiously
It’s the second day of the big Tory leadership interviews at party conference and Robert Jenrick is on the main stage. Making his case for why he should be elected leader of the Conservative party, the former minister slammed the state of the Home Office as being ‘in ashes’, promised he would ‘re-enact’ a version