Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from London and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk.

Listen: English doctors won’t accept a Scottish pay rise

11 August 2023 8:36 pm

Dear oh dear. Those pesky junior doctors strike again — literally. The fifth round of industrial action started this morning…

Diane Abbott deletes foul-mouthed migrant tweet

10 August 2023 2:58 am

Is Diane Abbott OK? A day after the independent MP hit out at Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson for…

Tory deputy chair: Tories have failed on migration

10 August 2023 2:41 am

Oh dear. It’s ‘Stop the Boats’ week in 10 Downing Street as the government tries to set the news agenda…

Why is Scotland’s government spending money on play doh and laser tag?

9 August 2023 9:13 pm

Another day, another ridiculous revelation emerges about the Scottish government. This time, it’s civil servants who are in hot water…

Number of civil servants on £100k almost doubles

9 August 2023 7:36 pm

It looks like trimming the fat isn’t going too well at the civil service, despite the government’s middling efforts. Between…

SNP splashes taxpayers’ cash on ‘How to run a government’ book

9 August 2023 3:38 am

As if there aren’t enough questions about the SNP’s spending habits, it turns out the Nats have been using £55,000…

Sadiq Khan takes a pop at Lee Anderson over asylum seeker comments

9 August 2023 3:01 am

Has Lee Anderson finally gone too far? Still reeling after finding out his son turned vegetarian at university (‘shocking, absolutely shocking’), the…

Sir Humphrey covers up, again

8 August 2023 8:56 pm

Good old Sir Humphrey. Tories, Labour, Lib Dems – whoever is in power, he always seems to win. In recent…

Nicola Sturgeon’s splurges on airport VIP services

8 August 2023 6:49 pm

Despite it being the SNP’s main political goal, Scotland came no closer to becoming an independent state during Nicola Sturgeon’s…

Watch: Matt Hancock’s cringeworthy Barbie singalong

8 August 2023 2:09 am

Can Matt Hancock sink any lower? Considering that only last year he lost the whip for abandoning his constituents to…

Could Corbyn derail Sadiq’s mayoral campaign?

7 August 2023 9:51 pm

Since the election date for next year’s London mayoral election was announced, Sadiq Khan has been putting on a show…

Inside the tussle over the Truss gongs

7 August 2023 9:21 pm

Another month, another resignation honours list. It was a row over Boris Johnson’s peerages that led to Rishi Sunak facing…

Five of the worst Gary Neville moments

6 August 2023 4:00 pm

Having previously been known simply as ‘that footy pundit off the telly’, over the past year Gary Neville seems to…

Rishi Sunak, the ‘Swiftie’

5 August 2023 10:20 pm

Taylor Swift mania has hit Los Angeles this weekend as the best-selling songstress takes her sold out Eras tour to…

Why won’t Keir Mather apologise to Germaine Greer?

5 August 2023 4:10 pm

Labour’s newest and youngest MP, Keir Mather, is fresh out of Oxford – and on a path to the very…

Eddie Izzard tries again to become a Labour MP

4 August 2023 11:13 pm

As the earth orbits the sun and leopards avoid changing their spots, so Eddie Izzard is again attempting to become…

Watch: Tory minister prepares for a Labour election win

4 August 2023 10:13 pm

Oh dear. It seems Health Minister Maria Caulfield failed to get the memo on government lines to take this morning,…

Where did it go wrong for the Scottish Greens?

3 August 2023 11:55 pm

Dear oh dear. Things haven’t been going well for for the Green party lately and now they’ve just got a…

‘Do you not speak English?’: Trump ally blasts BBC’s Chris Mason

2 August 2023 11:04 pm

Poor old BBC political editor Chris Mason got a rude awakening during his interview with Donald Trump’s former aide this…

Coutts gives Nigel Farage his account back

1 August 2023 6:02 pm

Is Nigel Farage’s war with Coutts finally over? The former Brexit party leader has claimed that the bank – which…

Watch: Trump calls Biden a ‘dumb son of a b****’

31 July 2023 9:09 pm

It feels as if almost every American presidential election is billed as the ‘nastiest in US history’. Steerpike, contrarian that…

Listen: Sunak hits back at BBC host over ‘private jet’ jibe

31 July 2023 6:51 pm

Rishi Sunak is up in Scotland today, hoping to woo voters with his plan to issue hundreds of new oil…

Nigel Farage faces another media battle

29 July 2023 5:00 pm

It never stops for Nigel ‘Rocky’ Farage. Having seen off the chief executive of both NatWest and Coutts in successive…

Has Gina Miller also fallen victim to ‘debanking’?

28 July 2023 5:59 pm

It might come as some small comfort to Nigel Farage to discover that it’s not just those on his side…

Farage claims another scalp as Coutts boss quits

28 July 2023 12:27 am

Two down, one to go. Following the humiliating midnight departure of NatWest chief Alison Rose, Peter Flavel is the next…