Uk politics

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson: Maria Miller is being hounded

From our UK edition

As backbenchers apparently gang up on Maria Miller, she's seen Conservative and Lib Dem colleagues trying to defend her - and dampen down Esther McVey's comments - on the airwaves this morning. Boris Johnson told the Today programme that he felt Miller was being hounded (although he didn't give a view on whether she should go): 'I don’t know the facts of the case in great detail, but it seems to me she is being hounded quite a lot and my natural sympathies go out to people in hounded situations – how about that. I feel, there she is, she’s being hounded, I think what you need is [to] sort it out by having a proper independent system of evaluating what is owed and you cannot let the MPs do it themselves. Nemo iudex in causa sua is our motto.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Esther McVey breaks cover on Miller: ‘It wouldn’t be how I would have made an apology’

From our UK edition

Esther McVey is known as a plain-speaking Tory. That ability to avoid mincing her words might propel her into the Cabinet one day - possibly as a replacement for Maria Miller, the way things are looking. But tonight her plain-speaking nature hasn't been that helpful to her ministerial colleague. McVey has told ITV's The Agenda: 'I can honestly say it wouldn't be how I would have made an apology. But different people have different styles and do things in different ways.' Asked whether Miller should go, McVey said: 'David Cameron has the final say on this. He's standing by her.' On the programme, to be broadcast at 10.35 tonight, the minister did also remind the audience that 'this couldn't happen now' because the expenses system had changed.

Isabel Hardman

Even Iain Duncan Smith’s critics can’t reject his welfare reforms

From our UK edition

Iain Duncan Smith's speech today setting out the moral mission behind his welfare reforms (his series of interventions doing this was previewed in the Spectator at the start of this year) has attracted the usual criticism from Labour for having 'nothing to say about the cost-of-living crisis' and a programme 'in complete disarray'. The opposition has a point about the delivery of the reforms and the detail in some cases - it would be a fib to say Universal Credit has enjoyed a smooth ride, although some of its most nervous critics in government currently seem a little more optimistic - but what Labour does struggle to do is give any sense of a distinctive overall reform programme.

Isabel Hardman

Court of public opinion hands down awkward judgement on Miller case

From our UK edition

There are always all sorts of bizarre petitions calling on politicians to do this, that and the other. By and large, politicians tend to ignore them. But the petition calling for Maria Miller to pay back £45,000 in expenses claims or resign has managed to garner 70,131 signatures since it was set up on 4 April. Again, politicians could ignore this. It's just a bit more difficult to do so when it was David Cameron himself who said that his chief whip should use a 'smell test' to see whether the expenses claims were justifiable in the court of public opinion, as well as to the letter of the rules. Thus the court of public opinion should carry a bit more weight. As James said earlier, some MPs have been surprised and dismayed by the way this court is currently passing judgement.

Isabel Hardman

Will reforms to self-regulation of MPs be enough to distract from Miller row?

From our UK edition

The Prime Minister's position on Maria Miller has shifted a little in the past few days - but only on the wider issue of self-regulation. At this afternoon's lobby briefing, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'There are I'm sure a number of ways in which Parliament can consider this, I'm not going to try and pre-empt what they may be but as you've heard the PM himself say in the clip earlier, he is, he's very open to considering changes that Parliament may consider. 'He's very much open to looking at particularly sort of how Parliament may want, what changes Parliament may want to make, how that may happen, I'm not going to try and pre-empt that.' The spokesman said this was a matter for the House of Commons.

Isabel Hardman

Big catch for Tory reconciliation team as rebel gives up anti-Cameron fight

From our UK edition

Mark Wallace has a fascinating post on ConHome reporting that Andrew Bridgen has written to the Prime Minister withdrawing his letter calling for a leadership contest. Bridgen, if you remember, is the only MP to publicly confirm that he has written a letter to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady calling for a contest, and while he was flayed by the whips at the time, his letter stayed firmly in Brady's desk drawer until this week. One letter doesn't make a happy party, of course, but that it is Bridgen who has withdrawn the letter is significant. As I mentioned last week when covering his latest HS2 mischief, this is an MP who knows how to corral colleagues into troublesome rebellions.

Isabel Hardman

Maria Miller and the anatomy of a Tory row

From our UK edition

The papers are trying to keep the momentum going in the Maria Miller row this morning, with a fresh angle in the Telegraph. Such is the seriousness of an adviser's threat that a valid investigation into a politician's expenses could restrict the freedom of the press, and such was the inflammatory nature of her non-apology apology that the press will be very keen to keep the row going until some sort of conclusion or concession from the Tory leadership. Likewise, David Cameron is sufficiently stubborn on these matters that he will continue waiting until the row dies down. Last night a group called Conservative Grassroots called on Miller to go with immediate effect.

Simon Danczuk

Has anyone noticed Tory tanks rolling onto Labour’s lawn?

From our UK edition

It’s unfashionable to talk about the battle for the centre ground these days. The fight to win political credibility is conducted through a new prism. Populists versus the establishment, centralisers versus decentralisers, radicals versus those in favour of shrinking the offer. But the fundamentals remain the same, and much of the hard-fought credibility that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown earned during Labour’s three General Election victories is now the target of sustained Tory fire. And my worry is that Labour’s not taking it seriously enough. The last Tory Government used to speak in strident, right wing terms. 'Unemployment is a price worth paying', 'the homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera' are some of the most memorable examples.

Sunday

James Forsyth

Cameron’s renegotiation strategy is no longer an obstacle to a second Tory-Lib Dem coalition

From our UK edition

David Cameron’s plan to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the European Union has long been regarded as a major obstacle to a second Tory-Lib Dem coalition. But, as I report in the Mail on Sunday, this is no longer the case. The Lib Dem logic is essentially that any deal that other European leaders are prepared to offer Cameron is one that they can accept as well. One Clegg confidant tells me that when it comes to the renegotiation, ‘It is not us David Cameron is going to have a problem with but the Tories.’ Indeed, there are parts of the renegotiation that the Liberal Democrats are already on board with. Clegg is fully supportive of the tightening up of the benefit rules for EU migrants that Employment Minister Esther McVey will announce on Wednesday.

Sebastian Payne

Will Maria Miller become a victim of the ten-day rule?

From our UK edition

Today’s newspapers do not make happy reading for Maria Miller - or David Cameron. After informing the press that it was ‘time to draw a line’ under Miller’s expenses, he ought to have known what to expect. The Sunday Times splashes with ‘MPs can’t be trusted on expenses’ while the Sunday Telegraph quotes an anonymous minister saying ‘Maria must go’. The Mail on Sunday has commissioned some polling, to the effect that 80 per cent of the public want her out of the cabinet. According to the Survation polling, 82 per cent of Conservative voters want her to be sacked, while two thirds of Tories think she should resign from Parliament: [datawrapper chart="http://static.spectator.co.uk/z8bs7/index.

Saturday

Sebastian Payne

An afternoon in Tower Hamlets on the stump with Lutfur Rahman

From our UK edition

It’s been a busy week for Lutfur Rahman. On Monday, the mayor of Tower Hamlets was the subject of a Panorama investigation, which alleged he had misdirected public funds. Yesterday, Eric Pickles announced he was sending in PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a fraud investigation. Rahman has vehemently denied all of the claims, describing the BBC as ‘Islamophobic’. On Thursday, he announced a ‘community walkabout’ to counter #PanoramaLies, so I decided to go along and find out what Rahman had to say. Arriving outside at the Sir John Cass School in Stepney this afternoon, I found a group of around 75 waiting for the mayor. There was a fraternal vibe (I did not spot a single woman during my time there) amongst the crowd, who hugged and greeted each other.

James Forsyth

Maria Miller, a political zombie

From our UK edition

Talking to Tory ministers in the last 24 hours, one of the things I’ve been struck by is the level of irritation with Maria Miller’s graceless apology. It is easy to see why this is the case. If Miller had been more contrite in the Commons on Thursday, the story would not be running as strongly today. Miller could easily have talked about how the old system under which she had been claiming was not fit for purpose and pointed out that it is no longer in operation. She also could have explained in human terms why she had been so slow to cooperate with the inquiry. If she had done those things, she would have helped herself. But, instead, Miller finds herself a political zombie. It is now nigh-on-impossible to imagine her rising further than Culture Secretary.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

The twists and turns of the Miller tale

From our UK edition

From tonight's Evening Blend - a free round-up and analysis of the day's political events from the Coffee House team. Subscribe here. 'I think that we should leave it there,' said David Cameron when asked by reporters today about Maria Miller. Of course, the press won't leave it there as many suspect that there is something about this that doesn't quite meet the 'smell test' that a leader of a party in opposition once set out. Why has the Prime Minister been quite so warm and supportive towards a minister who failed to co-operate with the investigation into her expenses? Why was she allowed to make such a recalcitrant apology?

Isabel Hardman

Books and the justice establishment

From our UK edition

Every politician who engages in major reform ends up with scars on their back. Tony Blair famously complained about those scars from grappling with the public sector, while Michael Gove mostly relishes his tussles with the education establishment that he likes to call the 'Blob'. But the education world isn't the only one with a big, scary blob wibbling about with rage whenever a minister embarks on reform. In my Telegraph column today I look at the justice 'Blob', which has scored a pretty impressive scar on Chris Grayling with a campaign about a ban on books for prisoners which isn't quite as it seems. Books are a useful weapon for the Blob, but other fights are taking place in the justice world at the moment.

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

Elizabeth Truss: look at Wales to see what Labour would do with education

From our UK edition

Want to see what Labour would do with Michael Gove’s reforms? Just look at Wales, says Elizabeth Truss. At the Spectator’s schools conference this morning, the Childcare Minister used the demolished the Euston arch (pictured above) as a symbol of how Britain went wrong, and its HS2-stimulated rebirth of how this government is making amends. Speaking after a robust lecture from Tristram Hunt, Truss explained how the changes to education in Wales have set a dangerous precedent of what a Labour government might do. She pointed out that after abandoning national testing, Wales has fallen to 40th in international league tables for maths: 'In terms of accountability, this is one of the big issues with Wales and why they’ve fallen down so dramatically.

Isabel Hardman

The other awkward May elections and why they matter

From our UK edition

After all the excitement of Nick vs Nigel and the endless mutterings in the Tory party about uprisings following the European elections, you might be forgiven for thinking that the European elections are the only game in town in May. But there are 4,161 local council seats up for election on the same day - and the main parties are quite keen to make big efforts to secure a good result in those polls. The Conservatives have been holding campaign days in London, where many of the seats up for election are located, and making those local council seats a focus for the parliamentary party, which descends on different areas to canvass and deliver leaflets on set days. The whips hold their campaign days on Tuesdays and take a band of MPs along with them.

Fraser Nelson

Why Tristram Hunt is wrong about free schools

From our UK edition

‘I’ve come to exorcise you lot,’ said Tristram Hunt cheerfully, as he turned up to deliver the keynote speech in The Spectator’s schools conference today. He had come to explain why free schools, a project this magazine proudly supports, are going wrong. His speech was as elegant and clever as it was wrong, which is why it’s worth studying. We’ll post the audio of his speech soon, but here’s my take. Hunt started by claiming the free school system is in meltdown, because a few of them have failed. He mentioned IES Breckland in Suffolk. Then Al-Madinah free school in Derby - so bad, he said, that Ofsted had to invent a new category of dysfunction. The Discovery New School in Crawley has closed.

Alex Massie

The Scottish Tories have a chance to make themselves relevant at last. Will they be bold enough to take it?

From our UK edition

Like everyone else, I've often been mean about the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party. I recall suggesting they were the worst, most useless political party in the world. Fushionless and quite possibly beyond redemption. But hark this shipmates, something is afoot and there are, titter ye not, modest grounds for modest optimism in Tory circles. After what was, I think it fair to say, a steep learning curve in her early days as leader Ruth Davidson is coming into her own. She has a poise and a stature that was not apparent even a year ago. The party's recent conference in Edinburgh was a success and her speech her best since becoming leader. Why, the Tory vote has even been nudging upwards in local council by-elections.

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: Adapting to climate change, monogamy in gay marriage and new forms of electioneering

From our UK edition

Is the world finally realising it has to adapt to, rather than halt, climate change? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Matt Ridley discusses this week’s Spectator cover on the IPCC’s latest climate change report with Fraser Nelson. What do the findings mean for climate sceptics and the green lobby? How has the received wisdom on climate change shifted over the past eight years? And how big of a political issue is climate change? Julie Bindel and Douglas Murray also discuss gay marriage and the new responsibilities that come with it. Should gay marriages follow the same monogamous virtues as heterosexual marriages? Has the gay rights movement been taken over by too many conservative ideals? Is marriage a failed institution anyway?

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem manifesto horsetrading begins

From our UK edition

After Tim Farron set out a new position for the Lib Dems on the 'bedroom tax' this morning, Labour wants to try to humiliate the party by staging a vote on the policy in the Commons. It was approved long ago, but this lunchtime Labour sources were saying that they would put pressure on the Lib Dems by finding a mechanism to force a vote on the bedroom tax. This is always exciting for the Labour party as they can dig out some lines about flip flops and broken promises, but the chances are that an Opposition Day debate would either be ignored by Lib Dem MPs, or a mollifying amendment tabled by the government which allows the Coalition parties to walk through the same lobbies.