Conservative party

In 2012 Charlotte Church met with David Cameron at the Conservative Party Conference as part of a Hacked Off fringe event. Although the meeting appeared to be civil at the time, the classical singer turned anti-austerity activist later said he came across as 'gross and really misogynistic': 'He was so dismissive to what I had to say. It just really irked me that whole situation.' Now three years on, Steerpike understands that the pair will have the chance for a reunion at this year's Tory conference, which is to be held in Manchester in October.

On the radio this morning, a campaigner from the Child Poverty Action Group had an 'emperor’s new clothes' moment. Why not, she said, treat the young like the old. If the Tories insisted on having a 'triple lock' on pension benefits for the elderly, which guaranteed that the state pension must increase every year by whatever target was the highest - inflation, average earnings or a minimum of 2.5 per cent - why not put a triple lock on the benefits of poor families. The state would then treat the young like the old, and subsidise the future as it subsidises the past. You will understand why she was speaking out of turn when you listen to David Cameron describe his plans to cut £12 billion today.

The new chairs of the select committees have been announced. Before 2009, the party whips handed out the chairmanships of these committees but now they are voted in by MPs. As well as several returning chairs, there are a few interesting new appointments. Labour’s Frank Field will be an effective chair of the Work and Pensions committee, holding the government to account over roll out of Universal Credit and the £12 billion cuts to welfare spending. Jesse Norman steps back into the limelight as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, after being passed over for a job in the new government.

The government has defeated Bill Cash’s rebel amendment on the changes to the ‘purdah’ rules during the EU referendum campaign, but only thanks to Labour abstaining. The actual vote was 288 to 97. Now, the SNP voted with the Tory rebels as did Douglas Carswell, a few Labour Euro-scpetics, Plaid and the DUP. This means that around 2o to 30 Tories rebelled, we’re still waiting for the full division list to get the precise number. This is a rebellion that is embarrassing rather than earth shattering. But with Labour support, it would have been enough to overturn the government’s majority, which is a reminder of how hard governing with a majority of 12 could turn out to be.

Privately, senior Tories admit that winning the EU referendum, by which they mean securing a vote to stay in on Cameron’s new terms, is the easy part. The more difficult challenge, they admit, will be keeping the Tory party from splitting over the issue. But this realisation doesn’t seem to be informing how the government is actually approaching the referendum hence the row over the attempt to lift the normal purdah restrictions for the campaign itself. Cameron should be bending over backwards to ensure that the whole process is seen as ‘fair’ and to ensure that everyone on the Tory  bench has to accept the result. For as one senior backbencher warns, ‘If the thing doesn’t appear fair, people aren’t going to accept it’.

On Wednesday at Noon, George Osborne will rise to respond for the government at Prime Minister’s Questions. The symbolism of this moment won’t be lost on anyone on the Tory benches. It will be the start of Osborne’s audition for the top job. A few years ago, the idea of Osborne as Prime Minister was—as one of his backers puts it—‘a minority taste’. But now, he continues, ‘it is a mainstream assumption’. What has changed things is the economic recovery and the Tories’ surprise election victory, which has vindicated Osborne’s political strategy. Osborne, I argue in the Mail on Sunday, has also become a better politician in recent years; more comfortable in his own skin and in public.

David Cameron is now facing the biggest challenge of his leadership: how to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the EU without destroying his party. His dilemma mirrors the situation of Harold Wilson 40 years ago this month. So far, the old Labour man looks the better strategist. Wilson, who had a majority of three, avoided mass resignations from his cabinet by suspending the convention that members of the government must back its entire programme in public. Of his 23 cabinet ministers, seven joined the campaign for Britain to leave the EU. They didn’t win the argument — but they ensured that the question was properly debated, and settled for many years afterwards. David Cameron need only have followed that example.

It is probably reasonably cold comfort to him, given he’s already lost his Cabinet job, but Grant Shapps has today seen a Wikipedia administrator who accused him of editing his own page and those of other ministers reprimanded. Wikipedia conducted an investigation, which concluded there was no evidence Shapps was connected to an account called Contribsx which made edits to his profile. It said the administrator in question, who operated under the name ‘Chase me ladies, I’m the Cavalry’ (but whose real name was Richard Symonds), ‘struggled to provide an accurate timeline’ on blocking the account and coverage of the account in the Guardian.

Over the last few weeks, a string of senior Tories have urged Zac Goldsmith to run for Mayor of London. Goldsmith is, as I report in the Mail on Sunday, regarded by the Tory hierarchy as giving the party the best chance of keeping City Hall blue. In a contest that it will be very difficult for the Tories to win, Goldsmith scrambles the race—what other Tory would get Green second preferences? The attraction of Goldsmith is particularly strong as Nick Ferrari, as Daniel Boffey writes in the Observer, is unlikely to throw his hat in the ring.

Given that Zac Goldsmith once likened the possibility of himself running for City Hall to 'a suicide mission', it comes as little surprise that not everyone in the Tory camp is ecstatic about the Richmond Park MP's rumoured London mayoral bid. Mr S understands that there are concerns that after Labour increased its control of the capital in the general election, the Old Etonian, who is currently the odds-on favourite to be the Conservative candidate, may be viewed as too posh to appeal to the more diverse London boroughs. As a result, Steerpike hears that there is growing support in the Conservative camp for Syed Kamall to go for the top job.