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.

Watch: White House attacks BBC over Hamas coverage

4 June 2025 6:39 pm

As ever, these days the Beeb is better at becoming the news than making it. Now the White House has…

Listen: Healey flails over defence plan costs

3 June 2025 10:55 pm

Dear oh dear. Mr S offers his condolences to anyone who tuned into Defence Secretary John Healey’s car crash interview…

Fact check: top policewoman’s grooming gangs claim

3 June 2025 9:46 pm

To BBC Newsnight, where Deputy Chief Constable Becky Riggs – the national policing lead on child protection and abuse investigations…

Watch: Speaker slams Sir Keir over defence review leaks

3 June 2025 4:07 am

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot are in the bad books with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle after details of the government’s Strategic…

First Labour councillor defects to Reform

3 June 2025 1:07 am

It’s all go in Scotland today. Nigel Farage made a quick stop in Aberdeen to announce his latest Tory defector…

Farage gains another Tory councillor in Scotland

2 June 2025 9:39 pm

To Scotland, where Nigel Farage is visiting for the first time in six years. It’s a day of firsts for…

Union chief in second home hypocrisy row

2 June 2025 8:41 pm

Well, well, well. The general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress has found herself at the centre of a…

Ash Regan’s prostitution blunder

2 June 2025 5:18 am

To Scotland, where once Britain’s greatest schools were found. These days, sadly, that can no longer be said, thanks to…

Did No. 10 clear Lord Hermer’s ‘Nazi jibe’ speech?

31 May 2025 7:10 am

Another day, another bit of bad press for the Labour party. Attorney General Lord Hermer sparked outrage when he compared…

Hermer admits Nazi comments were ‘clumsy’

30 May 2025 11:02 pm

As if the Attorney General hadn’t proven his ability for conjuring up negative headlines enough, Lord Hermer took it upon…

Labour ministers averaging a union meeting a day

30 May 2025 6:50 pm

Whatever happened to that £22bn black hole, eh? As yet more pay rises are dolled out to workers across the country…

Ex-Royal Marine charged over Liverpool crash

30 May 2025 3:48 am

To Liverpool, where former Royal Marine Paul Doyle has been charged over the car crash that injured almost 80 people…

NHS trust offers support sessions over Supreme Court ruling

29 May 2025 12:59 am

The National Health Service is struggling under increasing patient demand to provide quick appointments, A&E support or hospital beds –…

Met chief: release ethnicity data even if it ’emboldens’ racists

28 May 2025 11:29 pm

To the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who is now calling on forces to routinely release information on suspects’ ethnicities – even…

Labour poll share slumps to lowest since 2019

28 May 2025 9:27 pm

Another day, another bad poll for Sir Keir Starmer’s party. Now YouGov has revealed that Labour has recorded its lowest…

Will Rupert Lowe join the Tories?

28 May 2025 4:42 am

Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe is no stranger to the spotlight. Nigel Farage’s former colleague has made headlines in recent months…

Scottish Labour leader accuses Farage of poisoning politics

28 May 2025 4:15 am

To Scotland, where in just over a week’s time, the first Holyrood by-election for six years will take place. It’s…

Farage sides with Lowe over Lucy Connolly

28 May 2025 12:52 am

Nigel Farage has not seen eye-to-eye with his former colleague Rupert Lowe about much lately, but the outrage sparked by…

Watch: Macron’s wife caught shoving him in face

27 May 2025 4:44 am

Oh dear. It seems there’s trouble in one couple’s Parisian paradise after French president Emmanuel Macron was caught on camera…

Poll: trust in Starmer on migration falls again

27 May 2025 12:17 am

Oh dear. It seems that all Keir Starmer’s talk of an ‘island of strangers’ really wasn’t worth it. For a…

Labour MP backs Lowe’s calls to free Lucy Connolly

23 May 2025 11:38 pm

The case of Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Tory councillor who was jailed over an offensive tweet, has sparked…

Netanyahu accuses Starmer of siding with Hamas

23 May 2025 9:12 pm

To Netanyahu, who has taken aim at Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the deaths of a young Jewish couple in…

Reform gains another Scottish Tory councillor

23 May 2025 12:01 am

To Aberdeenshire in Scotland, where a fourth Scottish Tory councillor has defected to Reform UK. It transpires that Dominic Lonchay…

Kneecap member charged with terror offence

22 May 2025 6:35 pm

To Kneecap, the Irish republican band under fire over controversial concert footage – which appeared to show one of the…

Watch: Trump confronts South African president

22 May 2025 6:42 am

Just what is it with Oval Office encounters? Three months after his spat with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump is at…