Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Andrew Lansley’s international role in public service remains a mystery

From our UK edition

Coffee House apologises unreservedly for keeping readers in suspense for two days about Andrew Lansley's mysterious international role in public service. Yesterday, Number 10 did tell us that discussions were 'ongoing', which could suggest advisers are still discussing what on earth they could give to the ex-minister. His valedictory letter may have been the first that Downing Street had heard about this international role in public service. But today William Hague gave us a further glimmer of hope when he paid tribute to his predecessor as Leader of the House. He said: 'I would also like to thank my predecessor as leader of the House, my right honourable friend the member for South Cambridgeshire… I wish him well for the future and a continuing major contribution to public life.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: the fallout

From our UK edition

New ministers are marching through the corridors of power today with the special 'I mean business' walk that denotes an MP who finally has a job they consider important. Meanwhile in Portcullis House, old ministers are trundling about with the sort of gait that denotes a newly sacked, bewildered MP hoping that at the very least they'll get a decent office with a good view of the Thames as compensation. As the dust settles from this reshuffle, all sorts of rumours are flying around about who is angry and humiliated after losing their job (e.g. Andrew Lansley and Owen Paterson) or after not being offered the plum promotion they'd wanted (Liam Fox).

Isabel Hardman

Tories vs Labour tax row continues

From our UK edition

Labour has now reviewed the Harriet Harman interview on LBC in which she said 'I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes' and concluded that she wasn't calling for the squeezed middle to pay more in tax than it currently is. Very few people can honestly say they are able to make crystal clear assertions in every broadcast appearance they make, but Harman, had she had any idea that CCHQ was listening to her interview, hoping for something juicy, could have clarified what she meant by adding 'than those on low incomes' to 'I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes' so that the Tories couldn't suggest that she meant 'than they currently do at the moment'.

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: How will Labour attack?

From our UK edition

How will Ed Miliband deploy the reshuffle at Prime Minister's Questions today? The Labour leader may not use it as his main theme, but he has plenty of elements from yesterday's surprisingly big shake-up to work with. He could probe on just how good a reshuffle this has been for equality. Most of the focus is on gender equality, but some appointments yesterday were about more than just the ladies in waiting for a Cabinet post. Stephen Crabb, for instance, was raised by a single parent in a council house, although there seems to be more interest in his minority status as a bearded Cabinet minister.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Andrew Lansley, international man of mystery

From our UK edition

Earlier today, Andrew Lansley was just very cross. He wasn't Leader of the House anymore, and he wasn't the UK's nomination for European Commissioner. But in a few hours, the former Health Secretary has gone from just being grumpy to being an international man of mystery. Read his exchange of letters with David Cameron on his departure from the government - and the end of his parliamentary career. I have emphasised a particular point of interest in each. FROM ANDREW LANSLEY: Dear Prime Minister, For nearly nine years, I have been a member of your Shadow Cabinet and Cabinet. This has been a great privilege and I am grateful to you for this.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s cosmetic exercise bemuses the Tories

From our UK edition

Today's reshuffle has been largely about cosmetic improvements to the Conservative party — not just through the promotion of female MPs, but also by neutralising certain policy areas such as education and planning reform that had antagonised some groups. But an important element in any changing of the guard is party management, and not just managing cross sacked ministers. So how has the Conservative party reacted to today's events? Naturally, all Tory MPs are as startled as everyone else by Michael Gove's departure. But it does make sense to them.

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: where is the new centre of gravity in the Tory party ?

From our UK edition

After a night of firing, we should start to see a round of hiring in David Cameron's government from around 8.30 this morning. Only one post has been filled - Philip Hammond moving to the Foreign Office - and yet some observers are already trying to pin down the new centre of gravity in the Tory party. Labour seems to have given its MPs a line to take that the is a lurch to the right and the end of moderate Tory governing. Without wishing to begrudge the Opposition a decent, disciplined line on a day when it's very difficult to attract attention away from the other party doing the shuffling, it is far too early to make this sort of judgement, and there is insufficient evidence to do so.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Lady Butler-Sloss steps down from child abuse enquiry

From our UK edition

It is not a surprise that Lady Butler-Sloss has stepped down as chair of the independent inquiry panel into child abuse: a critical mass of stories had built up against her which meant it was impossible for her to continue leading an inquiry that is partly about conspiracy theories without herself becoming the target of conspiracy theories which would eventually weaken her findings. A resignation before the inquiry has even kicked off is a serious blow to the government, which had been trying so hard to play conspiracy whack-a-mole, to stay ahead of the critics by acting fast and appointing big names to lead big investigations into historic allegations. But it is not quite right to say that this is a blow to David Cameron's authority.

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: Cameron’s key challenges

From our UK edition

What does David Cameron need his reshuffle to do? As has been the case with every reshuffle in this Parliament, the changing of the guard, which is expected to start later today (Coffee House will have a liveblog full of the action and gossip when it all kicks off), is being billed as a 'reshuffle of the women'. But as I explained in my post last night about the Prime Minister considering voluntary all-women shortlists, even the incredibly talented crop of female Conservative MPs can't stop Labour billing any shuffle as a disappointment for women, which it is ready doing before any jobs have changed hands. Cameron also needs to shore up his relations with the Eurosceptic right wing of his party.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists

From our UK edition

David Cameron could introduce 'voluntary' all-women shortlists if the Conservatives continue to struggle to recruit female MPs, senior Tory sources have said. The Prime Minister has also set party chairman Grant Shapps 'on the case' to remedy the current situation, whereby women are less likely to be selected for safe seats. But he is also interested in local associations using all-women shortlists on a voluntary basis after the next election if his party fails to make sufficient advances. Cameron does not want to impose shortlists on constituency parties, although of course 'voluntary' can cover a multitude of sins: many people 'voluntarily' work longer hours than those stipulated on their contract, but have little choice about the matter.

Isabel Hardman

Mental health and benefits: ministers get the wrong end of the stick

From our UK edition

Every so often when ministers are considering a policy, they send a little kite up to see how it's received. Sometimes it gets hit by a lightning bolt of fury from a party's target voters, and is never heard of again. Sometimes it flutters about and no-one plays a blind bit of notice. And sometimes the kite gets rapturous applause. There seems to be a mixed response to the kite flown today that people with anxiety and depression could be forced to have a talking therapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy or risk losing their benefits. On the one hand, it's welcome that ministers want to help people with mental health conditions that can be managed so that someone can go back to work. Unemployment is hardly conducive to good self-esteem and strong mental health.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Is cross-party agreement on surveillance legislation a good thing?

From our UK edition

So all three party leaders agree that it's worth rushing through emergency surveillance legislation. While David Cameron and Nick Clegg were holding their rare joint press conference, Ed Miliband released a joint letter with Yvette Cooper in which he said 'we have been guided by our firm conviction that it is essential to maintain the security of our citizens and also ensure people's privacy is protected'. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister both needed to make the case for the emergency legislation today but Nick Clegg also needed to make the case for his support for it, given he had rejected the full Communications Data Bill.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Will Ed Miliband attack over Lady Butler-Sloss’s appointment as head of the child abuse inquiry?

From our UK edition

Will Ed Miliband decide to attack David Cameron on the appointment of Lady Butler-Sloss to chair the child abuse inquiry when he stands up at Prime Minister's Questions in a few minutes? The government has been playing a desperate game of whack-a-mole on this issue, and it looked as though Butler-Sloss was an ideal answer to conspiracy theorists. Appointing Lady Butler-Sloss, a judge, to chair the inquiry, answered complaints about this not being a judge-led inquiry. Appointing Richard Whittam QC, a senior Treasury counsel, as the independent legal adviser who will oversee the review of the review quelled mutterings about documents held by the intelligence services because Whittam already has security clearance.

Isabel Hardman

Inside the whips’ ‘dirt books’

From our UK edition

So all three parties are to trawl their 'dirt books' held by the whips and disclose any evidence that they find of child abuse. The role of the whips was raised by Lisa Nandy in the Commons on Monday, when she quoted former Tory chief whip Tim Fortescue, who told Michael Cockerell's documentary on the whips: ‘Anyone with any sense, who was in trouble, would come to the whips and tell them the truth, and say now, 'I'm in a jam, can you help?'. It might be debt, it might be... a scandal involving small boys, or any kind of scandal in which... a member seemed likely to be mixed up in, they'd come and ask if we could help and if we could, we did.' In May 1995, Cockerell wrote a Spectator cover story on this documentary.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

‘Hopeless’ Warsi ‘resisting’ David Cameron’s fight against extremism

From our UK edition

The government has failed to produce an adequate strategy to tackle non-violent extremism because the minister in charge of it is said to disagree with the Prime Minister's approach, sources have told Coffee House. Baroness Warsi is alleged by multiple sources in and out of government to have consistently resisted calls to develop a proper strategy on integration and tackling extremism at its roots, even though this is the Prime Minister's policy and part of her job at the Communities and Local Government department. One source says: 'Sayeeda made clear when she got the job at CLG that she didn't agree with the Prime Minister and that she simply wasn't going to do this bit of her job.

Isabel Hardman

Harriet Harman’s push for gender equality – and her own career

From our UK edition

Harriet Harman's scathing attack on the top men in politics for their failure to advance gender equality has certainly annoyed Damian McBride, who argues that Labour's deputy leader is talking 'utter bilge'. It's utter bilge from Harriet, done to make her attack on Dave look non-partisan. And shameful timing given the work GB is doing in Nigeria. — Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) July 8, 2014 The Standard reports that Harman will say at an event tonight: 'And imagine the consternation in my office when we discovered that my involvement in the London G20 summit was inclusion at the No10 dinner for the G20 leaders' wives.' Presumably she is talking about this dinner, which included the spouses and 'leading women' such as Naomi Campbell and Baroness Grey-Thompson.

Isabel Hardman

The Home Office acts busy, hoping to avoid a ‘tide of public anger’

From our UK edition

Theresa May updated the Cabinet this morning on the inquiry she has launched into how public bodies have dealt with allegations of child abuse. The name of the inquiry panel chair and the terms of reference haven't yet been announced, but when the Prime Minister's official spokesman was asked when they might emerge, he said 'I would expect an announcement on the chair of the panel soon'. Asked to define 'soon', the spokesman said 'pretty soon', which suggests that we will get more answers either before the Home Office Permanent Secretary Mark Sedwill sits down at 3.15pm to give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, or that these announcements will form part of his evidence.

Isabel Hardman

Universal Credit ‘hasn’t been signed off’ – what does that mean?

From our UK edition

Is Universal Credit progressing as well as it should? Yesterday Sir Bob Kerslake, who is not consistently helpful to political colleagues, dropped a bit of a bombshell during a Public Accounts Committee hearing. Discussing the Treasury and the business case for Universal Credit: 'We shouldn't beat about the bush: it hasn't been signed off.' Labour got very excited about this, with Chris Bryant pointing out that last week Esther McVey told Rachel Reeves in a parliamentary answer that 'the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has approved the UC Strategic Outline Business Case plans for the remainder of this Parliament'. The DWP argues that this is wrong, and that the Treasury has 'approved all funding to date'.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May announces independent inquiry into child abuse allegations

From our UK edition

Theresa May has just given as comprehensive a response as possible to the allegations of child abuse in the Commons. Insisting the government will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the allegations, the Home Secretary told MPs that there will an independent inquiry panel, along the lines of the Hillsborough inquiry, which will examine not just how the Home Office dealt with allegations, but also how the police and prosecutors dealt with information handed to them. As a non-statutory inquiry, it will be able to begin its work sooner and will be at a lower risk of prejudicing criminal investigations because it will begin with a review of documentary evidence. May also said that the government will convert this to a full public inquiry if necessary.

Isabel Hardman

Labour is falling in love with localism – but is it ignoring the individual?

From our UK edition

Today's New Deal for England announcement by Labour doesn't just underline how much of the political action is in the regions at the moment, but how the party is coming to terms with some of the mistakes that it made when it was last in government. The significant devolution of power and spending to local government announced today by the Local Government Innovation Taskforce is a clever way for Ed Balls to save money, but it's also a recognition across the party that a centralised state did not delve the sort of results it should have done in the party's 13 years of power, and so something must change. It was initially a conviction of a few key party thinkers that was resisted vigorously by equally key colleagues, but is now the prevailing philosophy.