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

Net migration wobble caused by rising EU immigration

From our UK edition

How fitting that on the day Angela Merkel pops in to London to natter about EU reform, new figures show a big increase in net migration driven by a rise in immigration from within the European Union to the UK. Net migration in the year to September 2013 rose from 154,000 the previous year to 212,000. This morning, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said that it was 'absolutely the objective' to reduce net migration to below 100,000 by 2015. But today's figures are a blow to the government's chances of doing that. The problem is that while the Home Office is doing its best to control what it can control - non-EU migration fell to 141,000 last year - what it cannot control is out of control. The chart below shows a big rise in EU migration, with numbers doubling in a year.

Isabel Hardman

MP who discussed defection with Ukip tells Coffee House: I couldn’t trust Farage

From our UK edition

The Telegraph's Chris Hope has a very interesting interview with Ukip Treasurer Stuart Wheeler in which he says seven Tory MPs had lunch with him to discuss a possible defection to the party. Wheeler says these talks took place more than a year ago, and since then the excitement about possible defections has clearly died down. Why aren't Tory MPs interested any more in defections? I've spoken in private to most of the MPs who held talks with Wheeler - and some with Nigel Farage too - and most of them say they feel there is still a good chance of their party winning in 2015, and that David Cameron's EU referendum pledge did give them hope that he was finally listening to them. This was something Farage accepted when I spoke to him earlier this month.

Isabel Hardman

Standard Life intervention in independence debate suggests business nerves about chance Scotland could vote ‘yes’

From our UK edition

The Yes campaign's response so far to the story that Standard Life would consider transferring some of its operations to England from Scotland in the event of a 'Yes' vote has been to argue that what the company wants is 'exactly what the Scottish government has proposed'. Some Nats think this is another example of bullying from 'monied elites', but so far the official campaign has wisely blamed the 'No' campaign for creating uncertainty for businesses. After weeks of arguing about bullying and 'campaign rhetoric' from Westminster politicians, perhaps the SNP realises that making the same accusation of a business for setting out contingency plans would be going overboard (but you never know).

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Gove: Lib Dems think we’re anti-apple pie, cream and custard. Clegg: We’re being grown up about Coalition

From our UK edition

The Coalition is merely cohabiting now - that much has been clear for a while. But one partner doesn't seem to acknowledge quite how unreasonable its behaviour is. The Lib Dems have been cheesing off the Tories with what have appeared to be an increasing number of increasingly heated attacks: from David Laws wading into the Ofsted row to Ed Davey attacking 'diabolical' and 'wilfully ignorant' Tories, and from even 'native' Danny Alexander making dire (but specific) threats about his dead body and taxation to Nick Clegg describing George Osborne's call for further cuts in welfare spending after 2015 as a 'monumental' mistake. But today at his monthly press conference, Clegg denied that his party was pursuing an aggressive policy of differentiation.

Isabel Hardman

Tory greens make hard-headed pitch for environmentalism

From our UK edition

Something strange is happening in the world of green Conservatism. After the PM decided to take out the 'green crap' last year, greeny Tories might have been forgiven for beating a bit of a retreat and licking their wounds. Well, if they did, they didn't take much time to do it: now they're fighting hard with a new vision for Green Toryism. Today the Conservative Environment Network re-launched with a pamphlet called Responsibility and Resilience which argues that true Conservatism is the best worldview for environmental policy. It contains quite an interesting mix of voices, from Zac Goldsmith to Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who has written an essay on natural capital.

Isabel Hardman

Low Pay Commission backs 3% rise in minimum wage

From our UK edition

So after all the to-ing and fro-ing over whether the minimum wage will get a big fat rise, the Low Pay Commission has recommended that the rate rise by 3 per cent to £6.50 an hour from October 2014. George Osborne had said that he wanted to 'see an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage', pointing out at the same time that 'if, for example, the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be £7 by 2015/16' (full quotes and audio here, if you need a reminder). If he did want it to rise to £7 by 2015/16, that would mean a much bigger rise from the LPC next time round, which is possible. This is a reminder of a problem politicians have encountered in a completely different policy area over the last few weeks: they don't have much power any more.

Isabel Hardman

What’s happened to the Balance of Competences report?

From our UK edition

What's the problem with that Balance of Competences report on Freedom of Movement that still hasn't been published? Nick Clegg gave his monthly press conference today, and was asked whether he had a problem with the report, which is believed to have been delayed because it painted too positive a picture of immigration. Clegg said: 'They by and large depict a situation where we get a lot more from this pooling of decision-making in the EU than we somehow lose. My simple rule of thumb is that the exercise has got to be depoliticised, it's got to be objective, it's got to be based on facts, and not just on assertions and that would apply to that report much as any other.' What could he possibly mean?

Isabel Hardman

Welfare cap will change the way cuts are made

From our UK edition

The Sun's report that pensioner benefits will be included in the overall cap on welfare spending highlights an interesting shift that this policy will cause. George Osborne will set out the detail of the cap on Annually Managed Expenditure in the budget in a few weeks' time. It will put pressure on all Work and Pensions Secretaries to keep future welfare spending under the limit, meaning there will be internal pressure within the department for cuts, rather than the battle for savings between the DWP and the Treasury that we've grown used to. Instead of the Chancellor bearing down on DWP with a package of cuts, the DWP will be working constantly on finding cuts that stop it reaching that AME cap.

Isabel Hardman

The Workers’ Party?

From our UK edition

Much hilarity among those of a leftish persuasion in Westminster that the Conservatives might dare call themselves the Workers' Party, as Grant Shapps enthusiastically did yesterday. Mind you, when Shapps gave his speech making this claim alongside Sir John Major yesterday, journalists were excluded, so he might not have said it at all. But assuming he did, there's no reason why the Conservatives should provoke any more hilarity than any other Westminster party when they make this claim. There are, though, two warnings that if not heeded, could make this new tag seem as hilarious to voters as previous attempts at rebranding. The first comes from David Skelton, whose campaign Renewal is pushing for the Tories to do more to appeal to working class voters.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Harriet Harman’s messy war with the Mail

From our UK edition

Go to war with the Daily Mail at your peril: Ed Miliband did it over its 'the man who hated Britain' column and now perhaps the Labour party is seeing the revenge for that with the paper's ongoing insistence that Harriet Harman apologise for the National Council for Civil Liberties' links to the Paedophile Information Exchange in the 1970s. Harman, though, is going to war with the Mail again, and her supporters in the press are arguing that the paper is on thin moral ground here. Harman's messy handling of the story has kept it going as much as anything else. She gave a forceful interview to Newsnight yesterday in which she insisted that she had nothing to apologise for, then 12 hours later suggested that the links between NCCL and PIE were 'regrettable'.

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs dismiss minority govt hints as lacking ‘solid logic’

From our UK edition

While Number 10 is pouring cold water on suggestions that the Prime Minister might rule out a second coalition in the 2015 manifesto, his MPs have given it a rather icy reception. If the hints about him preferring a minority government to governing with the Lib Dems were supposed to reassure those on the Right that he does love them more than he loves Nick Clegg, they seem to have backfired rather. Instead, Conservative MPs I've spoken to today are annoyed for a variety of reasons. The first is that backbenchers feel any plan to rule out a coalition in the manifesto is counterproductive. It's worth noting that Number 10 sources are insisting that 'our manifesto is about policy' rather than giving any suggestion that there would be a commitment on minority government in the document.

Isabel Hardman

How helpful can Angela Merkel be?

From our UK edition

Angela Merkel is, as James explains in this week's magazine, central to David Cameron's hopes of getting anything meaty at all from his renegotiation and reform of the European Union. Her address to Parliament later this week will be scrutinised for every hint that she might support one reform or another - and for her enthusiasm for supporting Cameron in his quest. So it would be helpful if Merkel said some encouraging things in her speech. But can the Prime Minister suggest anything that would be particularly helpful for the German Chancellor to say?

Isabel Hardman

Minority government hint is boost for backbenchers – if they believe it

From our UK edition

That David Cameron is reportedly considering committing to minority government above coalition is a strong message to his backbenchers that he's not preparing to hop back into bed with Nick Clegg and co in 2015. They have been growing a little feverish about the idea, and ministers have made it known in the party that they would vote against a coalition in any secret ballot on a new deal (provided, of course, that there is a secret ballot). This is good for party relations in the straightforward sense that Cameron is signalling to his backbenchers that he doesn't like the Lib Dems as much as they suspect he does, but also because he is to a certain extent signalling that he is prepared to do business with his own MPs, even though that will not be a walk in the park.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s ‘unremittingly positive’ case for the Union

From our UK edition

David Cameron says he wants the case that he makes for the Union and against Scottish independence to be 'unremittingly positive'. Is it? In an interview with BBC News, the Prime Minister said: 'That’s my whole argument, which is go back to the big picture, and I think this family of nations is better off together. Not just is better off in the United Kingdom, but we in the rest of the United Kingdom think we’re better off with Scotland that we want you to stay. That argument is one that is unremittingly positive about the success of this family of nations and how we should keep this family together.

Isabel Hardman

William Hague: Ukraine is not about a strategic competition between East and West and we must engage with Russia

From our UK edition

Russia has been presented as one of the bad guys in the coverage of the turmoil in Ukraine. But today, Sir Menzies Campbell told the Commons that the one thing that linked the three countries mentioned in William Hague's urgent statement on Ukraine, Syria and Iran was that 'progress, however limited, was made as a result of engagement with Russia'. Hague's reply made clear that bad guy or not, the UK needs to continue engaging with Russia: 'This is a very important point and again this is why the Prime Minister spoke to President Putin on Friday, why I have spoken to Foreign Minister Lavrov today, and agreed to speak again in the near future.

Isabel Hardman

MPs push ministers on regional benefit cap – as Tories mull putting it in manifesto

From our UK edition

One of the regular duties of a Work and Pensions minister is to defend his or her programme of reform against criticisms from all sides about how it is administered. At today's Work and Pensions questions in the Commons, Mike Penning didn't try all that hard, though, to defend Atos Healthcare and its contract to carry out the Work Capability Assessment. Instead, he described the situation as a 'mess' and blamed the last Labour government for the contract.

Isabel Hardman

Salmond attacks credibility of ‘No’ campaign threats

From our UK edition

There's not much the Cabinet can do about accusations by the SNP that today's visit to Aberdeen is a typical Westminster attempt to bully Scots by flying up to make yet another tranche of negative announcements about the consequences of independence, focusing this time on North Sea oil. If Cabinet ministers didn't make this trip, they would be accused of being feart. On balance, it's better to engage than cower, even if today's offensive by Ed Davey and others hardly helps the impression that the 'No' campaign is wholly negative.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Tory call to rebrand National Insurance is politically smart

From our UK edition

The government's legislative programme is pretty light at present. But the Bill that is going to spark the most interest this week is destined to go nowhere at all. It's a Ten Minute Rule Bill, introduced by Tory MP Ben Gummer this Tuesday, and calls for National Insurance to be renamed the 'Earnings Tax'. What's in a name? Well, there are two good reasons why this Bill which won't go anywhere (Ten Minute Rule motions are simply used as a way of making a point and drawing attention to an issue) has, as I understand it, already gained a great deal of attention and sympathy at the highest levels of government. The first is the reason that Gummer cites for introducing the motion in the first place: transparency.

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband: Children behave better than MPs at PMQs

From our UK edition

A rite of passage for any Opposition leader these days is to promise to make politics more decent and connected to people's lives. One recent Opposition leader said this, for example: 'And we need to change, and we will change, the way we behave. I'm fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster, the name calling, backbiting, point scoring, finger pointing.' David Cameron, who said this in his leadership acceptance speech in 2005, now has a team of MPs who help heckle Labour in the Commons during Prime Minister's Questions. This was mainly in response to Labour being much better at heckling, with Ed Balls gesticulating and sledging away on the front bench, and Michael Dugher and Sadiq Khan doing similar dirty work on the steps on the Labour side of the house.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Would ending unpopular benefits test contract really solve the problem?

From our UK edition

What will happen to the much-maligned contractor that carries out the government's work capability assessments which determine whether a sick or disabled person is fit for work or needs long-term disability benefit? Atos Healthcare is reported to be seeking an early end to its contract with the Work and Pensions department, which certainly won't dismay ministers who have been privately unhappy with the company's performance for a while. Although DWP isn't commenting beyond the statement below, it now looks as though it won't be difficult to end the contract mutually. 'Atos were appointed the sole provider for delivering Work Capability Assessments by the previous government in 2008.