Pests overrun the House of Commons

Who’d want to work in parliament eh? The roof is leaking and the toilets don’t work, the floor is damaged and the masonry is collapse. Now, Mr S...

Jamie Wallis joins the Women and Equalities select committee

It takes all types to make a parliament. The House of Commons is a veritable menagerie full of rich and exotic creatures – and few embody that...

Steve Baker’s political Odyssey continues

What a year it’s been for Steve Baker. In the space of 12 months he’s gone from Covid rebel ringleader to anti-Boris assassin; the ERG backbencher...

JK Rowling mocks Sturgeon over heckling

It’s really not Nicola Sturgeon’s week. Fresh from being slapped down by the Supreme Court over her Indyref2 bid, the First Minister suffered the...

Suella Braverman’s unlikely reading material

Since her (first) appointment to the Home Office, Suella Braverman has been at pains to point out that she is no fan of the left. The Fareham MP spent...

The New York Times does it again

Let me tell you a story, dear reader. It is about a land – a quasi-dictatorial kingdom nonetheless – where locals huddle round bin fires on the...

Logjams and leaks plaguing parliament

It was Enoch Powell who once called the whips’ office ‘the sewers of parliament’. But it seems that – much like the aforementioned...

Showdown looms over China’s new ‘super-embassy’

All eyes tonight will be on Rishi Sunak when he addresses the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet. The Prime Minister is expected to give his first major...

Wanted: a chief of staff for Starmer

Things are looking up for the Labour party. They’re twenty points ahead in the polls, the Tories are squabbling over planning reform and just last...

BBC snap up GB News alumnus

Is the BBC trying to mend its ways? Word reaches Mr S that John McAndrew – the former head honcho of GB News – is returning to Broadcasting House...

Lying-in-State leaves its mark on parliament

The Lying-in-State of Her Majesty the Queen was widely hailed in September as a triumph. The organisation was slick, the tributes were moving, the...

Matt Hancock comes third on I’m A Celeb

All of Westminster was glued to their screens on Sunday tonight to watch the final of I’m A Celebrity. For three weeks, SW1’s finest have watched...

Dehenna Davison becomes the latest Tory MP to quit

Will the last Conservative MP please turn out the lights? In recent days both Will Wragg, 34, and Chloe Smith, 40, have announced they will be...

Jeremy Hunt reveals the truth about Boris’s ‘gold’ wallpaper

If there’s an upside to spending tens of thousands of pounds – as Boris Johnson did – in doing up his Downing Street flat, it’s surely that...

Theresa May savages Piers Morgan

Perhaps the most cathartic moment of The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards was when the relatively quiet former PM Theresa May had a...

Boris takes a pop at Macron

He’s back! Denied power at home, Boris Johnson grabs headlines abroad. The Etonian elephant is currently marauding around Europe, firing off quotes...

Owen Paterson sues the government

Owen Paterson – there’s a name Mr S hasn’t heard in a while. It was just over a year ago that the former Environment Secretary became embroiled...

Hunt faces the wrath of Tory donors

The Autumn Statement was truly awful: no rabbits, no silver linings and no growth. But amid the many groups suffering this Christmas, spare a thought...

Chris Bryant blunders (again)

Oh dear. It seems that the Scarlet Pimpernel of politics is at it again. Chris Bryant likes to portray himself as the sleazebuster-in-chief,...

Commons staff warned of World Cup ‘malicious actors’

‘It’s coming home!’ England fans may cheer next week in Qatar but there’s one thing Commons’ bosses don’t want coming back with them:...

Is Rishi backsliding on China already?

It used to be said that political parties were Eurosceptic in opposition, but Europhile in government. The same perhaps could now be said of China....

Rayner’s war chest is wound up

Cast your minds back sixteen months ago. Back then, Boris Johnson was in his pomp, having narrowly missed out on winning the Batley by-election. The...

Matt Hancock starts his jungle jamboree

‘Mr Hancock, I presume?’ was the reaction our former Health Secretary presumably hoped to elicit upon entering the jungle last night....

Meghan speaks out (again)

These days, the Duchess of Sussex’s ambitions are a little more grandiose than that of a mere English county. Now, the recalcitrant royal seems to...

Boris’s babes to join the Lords

They were the dynamic, priapic premiers who guided their country through a pandemic – and the comparisons between Boris Johnson and David Lloyd...

Matt Hancock’s taxpayer-serviced Aga

For the first time since Covid, it’s the question all of Westminster is asking: where is Matt Hancock? Within the next 72 hours, the former Health...

Gavin Williamson faces the sack (again)

Ah Gavin Williamson – the man with more lives than Larry the Cat. Having been sacked as Defence Secretary for alleged leaking in 2019, then sacked...

Gary Neville called out over his work for Qatar

Former Manchester United player Gary Neville has been enjoying something of the political limelight in recent months. At the beginning of the year the...

Will Diane Abbott lose the whip?

Oh dear. It seems that another hard-of-thinking Corbynista has shown themselves up again. Labour has been enjoying the chance to make political...

Gove gets the gang back together

Tory MP burns Braverman

Rishi raids ITV (again)

Truss in Russian phone-hacking scare

Farage gets his fortune (and freedom)

Trevor Noah’s bizarre Sunak skit backfires

Watch: Sunak savages Starmer

Six of the worst reactions to Sunak as PM

Watch: Biden butchers Sunak’s name

Nadhim Zahawi’s political Odyssey

Zahawi’s Johnson U-turn

CCHQ scramble for membership ballots

Steve Baker backs Sunak

Ellwood’s endorsement backfires

Does Boris really have 100 MPs?

Watch: Xi’s predecessor marched out of CCP meeting

Liz Truss’s resignation honours list: runners and riders

Labour MP quits over misconduct claims

Who will Ben Wallace back?

Fleet Street revels in Boris comeback

Runners and riders for next Tory PM