Conservative party

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Alok Sharma’s big challenge: wooing ethnic minority voters

From our UK edition

Alok Sharma has been appointed Tory vice chairman and charged with improving the party's standing among ethnic minority voters. He certainly has a big task ahead of him. According to the Ethnic Minority British Election Study, the Conservatives received just 16 per cent of the ethnic minority vote in 2010, to Labour's 68 per cent. The Tory vote share among Black voters was actually in the single figures: Lord Ashcroft has suggested that this weakness prevented the Tories from picking up the extra seats they needed for a majority, noting that: 'The average non-white population of the constituencies the Tories gained from Labour in 2010 was 6 per cent.

Martin Bright

Face it: Ed Miliband could be the next prime minister

From our UK edition

It’s fun isn’t it, all this speculation about a leadership challenge to David Cameron? It was obvious really in the run-up to party conference season. We all needed a new narrative. Last year we enjoyed giving Ed Miliband a good kicking and his 'anti-business' conference speech played into the hands of his critics. The infantile booing of Tony Blair’s name by delegates made it look like the party was determined to make itself unelectable. But the reality now - and there are plenty on the left as well as the right who still find this a scary prospect - is that Ed Miliband is the man most likely to be the next prime minister. Looking back, the speech looks rather prophetic with its appeal for a shift in the country’s cultural values in favour of 'grafters'.

Sebastian Payne

The new Tory enforcers

From our UK edition

Last week’s reshuffle not only brought in some interesting new junior ministers, but also some fresh faces to the Conservative Whips' Office. Rebellions on the backbenches have become a headache for David Cameron in the last few months, leading him to adopt two new strategies to try to bring his party back under control. The first strategy has been to recall some more experienced tougher guns, who have prior experience in dealing with a split party. Many of these new whips are not necessarily allies of the Prime Minister but this may prove useful in reaching out to MPs beyond his immediate grasp. Here are some of the key players: Andrew Mitchell (Chief Whip) Previously International Development Secretary, Mitchell is the man chosen by Cameron to lead a return to order in his party.

Sunday

James Forsyth

Michael Fallon takes on health and safety

From our UK edition

The government is keeping up its new, frantic pace on the economy today by announcing that it wants to scrap half of all existing red tape and that the overwhelming majority of businesses will now be exempt from health and safety inspections. At the moment, health and safety officials classify businesses as high risk or low risk. Under the reforms being announced by Fallon, no business that is low risk (and a vast proportion fall into this latter category) will be subject to pro-active inspection. They will only be inspected if there is an incident, a track record of poor health and safety or a complaint. This is a sensible reform. There clearly need to be checks on health and safety at nuclear plants and on business sites.

James Forsyth

The Cameroons should be unsettled by Boris Johnson

From our UK edition

The stock Cameroon line on Boris has always been that he might be a rival to George Osborne, Michael Gove, Phillip Hammond, Grant Shapps and other future leadership contenders, but he isn’t one to David Cameron. This line, though, is becoming rather tenuous. For it is becoming clear that the London Mayor isn’t thinking about a Tory leadership election as some far-off, distant event. Certainly, the assiduousness with which he and those around him are reaching out to those left feeling bruised by Cameron’s reshuffle suggests a desire to build a support base for a rather more imminent contest.

James Forsyth

The coalition’s growth bargain

From our UK edition

The contents of the coalition’s grand bargain on growth will become clearer this week. On Monday, Michael Fallon will announce plans to scrap half of all existing regulation, and then later in the week Vince Cable will detail the changes the coalition will make to employment law. This combined with the planning reforms announced last week and the expected initiative on mini-jobs is the Tory supply side of the bargain. But there’s also an interventionist Liberal Democrat side to it, with the coalition announcing this week that it is adopting an industrial strategy. This is something that Vince Cable and his Tory deputy David Willetts have been pushing for over the last year or so.

David Blackburn

David Cameron and the Tory troubles

From our UK edition

A scoop in the Mail on Sunday: Zac Goldsmith has allegedly told Boris Johnson that if he were to resign over a third runway at Heathrow, then he would encourage Boris to stand in the subsequent by-election (which everyone assumes that the Conservatives would win). Johnson’s aides have rejected the story ‘out-of-hand’, but it has inspired fevered speculation on Twitter, especially among those who dream that Boris is the answer to their electoral prayers. Those voices have also been given air by the revelation that Bob Stewart MP was approached earlier in the summer by a couple of backbenchers to run as a stalking horse against David Cameron. This prompts the question: if Stewart was to be the stalking horse, who then hopes to be the real contender?

Saturday

James Forsyth

How Europe rebels could be in line for promotion

From our UK edition

We haven’t yet seen precisely who has been appointed as a PPS following the reshuffle. But I understand that Downing Street has decided that those who defied the whip on the EU referendum motion will be considered for the jobs. However, no one who rebelled on the House of Lords will receive preferment. I suspect that there are three reasons for this. First, the talent pool is simply too small if you rule out anyone from either group of rebels. Second, this is meant to show the Lords rebels that there is a way back for people who rebel on one big issue.

Thursday

Steerpike

The peer who came in from the cold

From our UK edition

Mr Steerpike reported last week that the Tories’ shadowy donor-cum-puppetmaster, Lord Ashcroft was shunned in America. But it’s not all bad news for the man dubbed the sleaze of Belize. Last night Downing Street announced that he has been appointed to the Privy Council and made 'Special Representative for Veterans’ Transition’. While the worthiness of the new role is not in doubt, some observers might raise an eyebrow at the choice of Ashcroft and the timing. The one time Deputy Party Chairman has been very much on the outside since his tax affairs blew up before the 2010 election. And questions about one of companies, BCB Holdings, breaking London Stock Exchange rules arose earlier this year.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

How Cameron made ministers cry

From our UK edition

David Cameron has always nurtured a deep dislike of reshuffles, and the last week won’t have helped. The result might strengthen the government; but the process was as ghastly as the Prime Minister expected. He sought to be gentlemanly about things, publicising the promoted while granting the demoted privacy. Even so, I understand, three ministers burst into tears in front of him when he was delivering the bad news. Lady Warsi was so cross about being stripped of the party chairmanship that she went home to Yorkshire and carried on negotiations from there. Some ministers even succeeded in staying put when the Prime Minister would have liked them to move. On Monday afternoon, he asked Iain Duncan Smith to consider switching jobs.

Isabel Hardman

‘Where’s my letter?’ MP demands Cameron reply to Europe demands

From our UK edition

One issue that the reshuffle makes no difference to at all is the Conservative party's Europe problem. If the Prime Minister managed to forget about the pressure from his own party for an EU referendum over the summer, he's about to be reminded of it. In late June, Tory MP John Baron handed a letter to David Cameron signed by over 100 of his backbench colleagues calling for the government to introduce legislation now for a referendum on European Union membership in the next parliament. He has still not received a response, even though the Prime Minister said he would write back. Last week, Baron pestered Cameron's office, and this week, he has tabled a parliamentary question which must receive a response within five days.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Rebel MP: Reshuffle is Cameron’s ‘last chance’ to stand up to Clegg

From our UK edition

Party discipline is one of the key themes of David Cameron's reshuffle today. It is essential to bring Tory MPs, who have started to run riot of late, back into check, which is why Andrew Mitchell is now the chief whip. But I've spoken to MPs today who have argued that there is a far wider problem than the lack of an aggressive whipping operation. The strongest criticism comes from Angie Bray, who was sacked as a PPS when she voted against the government at the second reading of the House of Lords Reform Bill.

Isabel Hardman

Two groups to keep an eye on in the reshuffle

From our UK edition

The reshuffle is now under way. We already know that Andrew Mitchell is taking over as the chief whip, Baroness Warsi has just announced her departure via Twitter and the word now is that Ken Clarke is likely to move from Justice Secretary to Leader of the House. There will be live updates on Coffee House throughout the day as MPs start filing in and out of Downing Street, but before the shuffling begins properly, here are some names worth keeping an eye out for. These are the coalition casualties: MPs who served on the Conservative front bench when the party was in opposition but were not offered ministerial posts when the coalition formed. Some, like Stewart Jackson, have already become hardened rebels, but for others, this is their last shot at getting into government before 2015.

Monday

Alex Massie

The Conservative party has an empathy problem. Does it care about that? It should. – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

For people in the communication business politicians have an uncanny ability to confuse even their better intentions by resorting to clumsy, even stupid, language. Thus David Davis earlier today. When normal people hear the phrase "shock therapy" I'm pretty sure they associate it with pretty awful, even ghastly, measures that, most of the time, don't even have the saving grace of working. You wouldn't want any of your relatives to be given shock therapy. It's A Clockwork Orange or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest stuff. Davis is not alone. Dominic Raab says the "talented and hard-working have nothing to fear" from removing "excessive" employee protections. I suspect many hard-working people, including talented hard-working people, might say it's damn easy for him to say that.

Steerpike

Say Nay to Kay

From our UK edition

There I was, enjoying a liquid lunch with a senior Tory who is long beyond accepting any front bench job, when we were interrupted by his vibrating iPhone. He raised an eyebrow at the private number. Could this be the call of which more ambitious men have been dreaming all reshuffle-day? Apparently not. ‘Hello... yes, yes it is. Oh BBC or Sky? Sky eh, who is it? … No, no not her. Anyone else. Well can’t you try someone later on? … Why not? … I will tell you why not: because Kay Burley is a thick as two planks and there is no point in being interviewed by her ... Ok ... Yes, see what you can do. Thanks. Bye.’ Poor Kay.

James Forsyth

David Davis breaks ranks

From our UK edition

David Davis’ speech today is the most significant criticism of the coalition’s economic policy from Tory ranks. Davis might not be the force he was back in the early 2000s but he’s still a big figure who demands attention. To be sure, there’s much in the speech that the Chancellor would agree with—the criticism of green taxes, for instance—and it is worth noting that Davis avoided calling for Osborne to go. But the speech with its call for ‘economic shock therapy’ and lament that the cuts have been done at too slow a pace was full of criticisms both implicit and explicit of Number 11. ( I wonder, though, whether in coalition a speedier deficit reduction programme would have been possible.

Isabel Hardman

The trouble with tax

From our UK edition

MPs are clip-clopping their way through the corridors of power once again this morning after the summer recess. Not unlike the first day back at secondary school, those returning to Parliament bring their rows and rivalries back with them from the beach. There are those vying for a place in the reshuffle, who could find themselves remaining on the outside of the tent while an old foe is beckoned in within the next 24 hours, and there are those who prefer to remain on the outside, offering advice. Former Conservative leadership candidate David Davis will be doling out some of that wisdom from the outside this lunchtime when he gives a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies calling for deep tax cuts to help businesses, and deregulation.

Sunday

James Forsyth

Osborne reveals his new strategy for growth

From our UK edition

The contours of the coalition’s autumn growth offensive are beginning to emerge. The impasse that existed before the summer appears to have at least eased. On Marr this morning, George Osborne announced that the Treasury is now working on plans for a small business bank which will please Vince Cable who has been pushing for this for a long time. At the same time, Osborne also backed more airport and runway capacity in the South East and announced that the government will announce further measures to simplify the planning system. His message: ‘we have to do more and do it faster’.

Saturday

David Blackburn

Tories swing into action in Corby, at last

From our UK edition

The Corby by-election campaign is warming up, with the Tories selecting Christine Emmett as their candidate. Emmett is a local woman who lives in neighbouring Rutland. She runs her own management consultancy, and claims ‘extensive experience’ working with the NHS and in other areas of the public sector, notably in the fashionable area of ‘health and wellbeing’. The emphasis that the party is placing on Emmett’s work with public services, particularly the NHS, suggests that its strategy will concentrate on public service reform rather than economic policy.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem MPs are still remarkably loyal to Clegg

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg may or may not be thrilled that Paddy Ashdown has urged party members to stand by their leader after Lord Oakeshott's rather vicious attack on him yesterday. It depends slightly on the Deputy Prime Minister's reading of history: as Tim Montgomerie observed last night, the endorsement of a former party leader can sometimes seem like a death knell. It is interesting, though, that it was Lord Oakeshott who launched the first public attack on Clegg's leadership (that is, if you discount the helpful suggestions from ex-MP Lembit Opik). Not surprising, of course: the party's former Treasury spokesman in the Lords is not known for delicacy when it comes to radio interviews.