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.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Miller and Macleod ‘flag up’ row that could have flagged

Maria Miller's PPS Mary Macleod seems to have been trying to emulate what Jeremy Hunt's former aide Rob Wilson (now PPS to the Chancellor) did for his boss as Culture Secretary in trying to round up support for the minister. The problem is that while Wilson operated below the radar, with his work only surfacing when he got a bit over-enthusiastic and asked them to tweet nice things about Hunt as Health Secretary when his real troubles were long gone, Macleod was rather less subtle and her text messages soliciting support and alleging a witch hunt ended up on Guido's blog quicker than a 32 second Miller apology. The really silly element in MacLeod's message and her subsequent media appearances is that she is accusing the media of a 'witch hunt' over 'Levesen'.

Isabel Hardman

Immigration Bill row looms closer to Commons

The Commons is in legislative limbo at the moment, waiting for the Queen's Speech, which has just been delayed another day to 4 June. But one thing that could well keep MPs rather well occupied before then is the Immigration Bill, which suffered a defeat in the House of Lords last night - as predicted on Coffee House. The defeat was on Lord Pannick's amendment which proposes setting up a committee of MPs and peers to consider whether plans to render foreign-born terror suspects 'stateless' should go ahead. Peers clearly did think it reasonable, as they backed it 242 votes to 180. The Bill will have its third reading on 6 May, before returning to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments. This is where it gets fun.

Isabel Hardman

Curious lack of support for Miller in Cabinet

Senior 1922 Committee members are quite surprised by the suggestion that tomorrow's end-of-term meeting with the Prime Minister represents the deadline for the Maria Miller problem to be resolved. But while you won't find a Tory backbencher who thinks the impact on the public of this story is negligible - one tells me that 'whatever happens now, we are losers' - there's an interesting attitude among Miller's own Cabinet colleagues. They had long suspected that she was vulnerable in any forthcoming reshuffle anyway, with one describing her as 'a bit quiet' in meetings and another suspecting that she was 'damaged goods' after Leveson and with the media after her anyway.

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson: Maria Miller is being hounded

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’

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

The twists and turns of the Miller tale

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

Why has Labour’s response to Maria Miller taken so long – and why has Cameron’s been so weak?

The response of both parties to the Maria Miller row has been very strange. Labour has waited until today to make a comment, with Chi Onwurah saying in the last half an hour that David Cameron's 'weakness and double standards on the issue of Maria Miller's expenses are totally unacceptable and completely out of touch'. Labour is warning that 'we must have the very highest standards in public office' and 'there can be no going back to the bad old days of expenses'. But why did it take 24 hours to come up with that response? As for the Prime Minister, why did the man who made political capital out of the expenses scandal in 2009 by responding so forcefully to it give his 'warm' support to Maria Miller this week? Why not insist on contrition in the Commons?

Isabel Hardman

Books and the justice establishment

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

Isabel Hardman

The other awkward May elections and why they matter

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.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem manifesto horsetrading begins

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.

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: What the Labour manifesto really said about Royal Mail

Today at Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron accused Ed Miliband of ignoring his own party's manifesto on the Royal Mail. He said: 'He said just then, Mr Speaker, it's a sale nobody wanted. It's in his manifesto! It was a commitment of the last government!' listen to ‘PMQs: Muppets and dunces’ on Audioboo So what does the Labour 2010 manifesto actually say? Here's the section on the Royal Mail: 'The universal postal service delivered by the Royal Mail connects and binds us together as a country. We are firmly committed to the 28 million homes and businesses across the country receiving mail six days a week, with the promise that one price goes everywhere. The Royal Mail and its staff are taking welcome and needed steps to modernise work practices.

Isabel Hardman

Nick vs Nigel: Clegg gets a little help from Farage’s mate Vlad

Nick Clegg 'lost' last week's LBC debate with Nigel Farage, not for want of trying to sound reasonable or appear at ease and polished, but because there are simply fewer voters who are prepared to give someone from the establishment a hearing, or agree with him on Europe. The Lib Dem leader does plan to use fewer stat attacks and more emotion tonight when the two men meet again. But he also has a bit of help from Farage himself, who is either revealing a strong conviction about Vladimir Putin that he had hitherto kept buried or is stubbornly digging himself a hole over his comments about the EU and Ukraine. How Farage deals with an inevitable attack from Clegg on his comments about Putin will tell us a fair bit about what the Ukip leader is really like.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Len McCluskey: Unite could start donating to other parties

Len McCluskey spoke to the press gallery lunch on April Fools' Day. It would have been more fitting had the Unite leader not been such an impressive, witty, and thorough speaker. And much of what he said wasn't very jokey at all: Ed Miliband, I suspect, will not be chuckling away as McCluskey's remarks are relayed to him. The Unite leader told the Press Gallery that there could be a situation where his union votes to change its rules so that it can donate to political parties other than Labour. Labour, he told the listening hacks, is 'at a crossroads' and he fears for its future if the party loses in 2015: 'Only if we change our rules, within Unite's rules, we are affiliated to the Labour party. We cannot give any financial support to any other political party.

Isabel Hardman

People’s front against HS2 to unite

Watch out for an increase in hostilities from anti-HS2 campaigners in the next few weeks. One of the more concerted backbench campaigners against the new route is planning to strengthen the cause by bringing together all the groups that are against HS2 under one umbrella. Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP who has a track record of causing serious problems for the government on issues such as Syria, tells me that he and Cheryl Gillan are setting up the group in May 'so we can speak as one voice'. Bridgen hopes the campaign will include organisations who have set their faces against high speed rail such as the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and the Woodland Trust, describing the current campaign as a 'bit like the People's Front of Judea'.