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.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Harriet Harman and Maria Miller both claim victory in Leveson talks

Who has won in the late-night Leveson talks? Both Harriet Harman and Maria Miller seem to think their own party's Royal Charter has come out tops. And one says they've secured statutory underpinning, while the other says there isn't any underpinning. And again, one says the deal is done, while the other says the parties are 'close' to a deal. This is what Harman had to say on the Today programme: 'There is an amendment going forward into the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which says that where a Charter says in that Charter it can't be dissolved or amended without a two-thirds majority in both Houses then that should have the force of law.' She added: 'The framework is set up in a Royal Charter, not by statute but in a Royal Charter.

Isabel Hardman

Late night Leveson talks bring parties close to deal

So it looks as though a deal has been struck on Leveson after late night talks. Oliver Letwin, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman were holed up in Miliband's office until 2.30 this morning, and Labour is now confident that it is close not just to an agreement on press regulation, but an agreement on its own proposals for a Royal Charter, rather than the government's draft. As Coffee House reported on Friday, David Cameron was facing a rebellion of around 20 Tory MPs and a defeat in the House of Commons on his Conservative amendment which introduced the Royal Charter. That threat appears to have concentrated the mind rather.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Hunt continues his quest to make the Tories the party of the NHS

Jeremy Hunt used his address to the Conservative Spring Forum this afternoon as the next step in his quest to make the Conservatives the party of the NHS, not Labour. His speech was in some ways quite formulaic: it started with good news about health care in this country, then praise for the 'extraordinary' staff working in the NHS. But then it moved on to his duty 'to be honest about the failures' of the health service too. He said: 'If you care about something you don’t try to sweep problems under the carpet – you expose them, sort them out and make things better. And by criticising us when we do that, Labour show extraordinary complacency about the treatment suffered by some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

HS2 ruling: both sides claim victory

The useful thing about most court rulings in judicial review cases is that both sides can take from it whatever they want and make it into a victory. We had that last month with the work experience judgement, which was apparently both a victory for those who thought the government's scheme was 'slave labour' and for those ministers who thought it was brilliant. And today's HS2 ruling in the High Court had the same effect. The government actually won nine out of the 10 points challenged by campaigners, so Transport Minister Simon Burns could call this a 'green light' to getting high speed rail underway. But according to former Cabinet minister Cheryl Gillan, that 10th point was in fact 'the most serious of all', and shows ministers have been 'cocky'. So what has happened?

Isabel Hardman

20 Tories could rebel on Royal Charter plan

Conservative MPs who have previously supported statutory underpinning of press regulation are meeting on Monday morning to discuss how they will vote. There is a list of 75 Tories who have backed the idea, but I understand that if an agreement isn't reached on Monday between the main parties, there are around 20 MPs who would be minded to vote against the Conservative three-line whip and support Labour's amendments. The Conservative part of the government has just published its Royal Charter, and Labour and the Lib Dems are also tabling more amendments today. Once all the information is available, pro-statute Tory MPs will make up their mind on whether to back their own party, or the others.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Mid-Staffs scandal: The Tories must beware focusing solely on Andy Burnham

MPs were debating accountability in the NHS following the Mid-Staffs scandal today, and as part of that, the argument about who - if anyone - should be held responsible continues to rumble on. Charlotte Leslie and many of her Tory colleagues want to see Sir David Nicholson gone (and The Telegraph's Robert Winnett reports that senior government figures are considering a route by which he can exit). But the focus of Jeremy Hunt and other Conservatives is on Andy Burnham instead. Today Hunt said: '[Nicholson] does bear some responsibility. He said himself 'we lost our focus', he has apologised and has been held to account by this House and others. But I don't believe that he bears total responsibility, or indeed personal responsibility for what happened.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron brings Leveson debate to a head over bill hijack fears

Those involved in the Leveson talks from the Labour and Lib Dem side say they had no idea the Prime Minister was going to pull the plug on the cross-party discussions this morning until a conference call shortly before David Cameron's hastily-arranged press conference. An angry Lib Dem source tells me: 'It was completely out of the blue to be honest. Over the last few days the talks have been making gal progress and we were moving towards a deal. We thought a solution was possible. There were other things we war pushing for, such as some form of statutory underpinning to protect the Royal Charter from future political interference.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Nick Boles to get roasting from No 10 over ‘rotten campaign’ comments

Nick Boles is getting a roasting in Number 10 tonight for his comments in The Times about the Eastleigh by-election, I understand. There was considerable disquiet about the interview, in which the Planning Minister said his party had run a 'truly rotten campaign' and failed to convey the modernisation message. "Where was the hope? It was as if modernisation had never happened. We screwed it up. We didn't even screw up in a new way. We screwed it up in an old way that we have been doing for a decade. It's so frustrating." This was apparently Boles doing his own thing rather than a decision from the top that someone needed to go out to the media and be clear that no-one blamed Maria Hutchings for the Conservatives coming third in the by-election.

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: David Cameron flails as Tory backbench stays glum

Today's Prime Minister's Questions was not a good one for David Cameron, but it could have been a great deal worse. With a U-turn on minimum pricing on the cards and open dissent in the Cabinet and on the backbenches, the PM arrived knowing he'd have his back up against the wall, even though Ed Miliband has struggled to make effective attacks on big issues in the last few weeks. The Labour leader had some good jokes, too. His opening line - 'in the light of his U-turn on alcohol pricing, can the PM tell us, is there anything he could organise in a brewery?' - was particularly good, and set the tone for the rest of the exchanges.

Isabel Hardman

Expected U-turn on minimum alcohol pricing is victory for May and relief for Osborne

The government's expected U-turn on a minimum price for alcohol avoids a Cabinet revolt which would have included Home Secretary Theresa May. It's good timing for May as she enjoys the spotlight on her apparent jostling for a future leadership bid as it shows that she enjoys power at the top of the Tory machine, and will again make her a rallying figure for libertarian Conservatives. But the U-turn is also, in the long-term, good for the Chancellor, too. George Osborne is under pressure to deliver a cost of living budget, and raising the minimum unit price would do the opposite, even for squeezed shoppers who drink responsibly. The last thing the Conservatives want to appear to be doing is punishing the responsible majority by making life even more expensive for them.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Tory campaign on foreign criminals attracts huge support

Dominic Raab's proposal to stop jailed foreign criminals avoiding deportation on the grounds of a right to family life turns out to be very popular indeed among MPs. It's got 104 supporters currently, including 91 Conservative MPs, and will be debated as an amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill tomorrow when the legislation reaches its report stage in the House of Commons. The amendment would mean that foreign criminals can only avoid deportation if they risk being killed or tortured on their return, and is intended as a stop-gap ahead of any Tory plans to repeal the Human Rights Act or exit the European Convention on Human Rights.

Isabel Hardman

The Tory leadership needs to make MPs feel valued, not stop them tweeting

Lynton Crosby is holding his election strategy meeting (first revealed on Coffee House) with Tory MPs at 5.30 this afternoon. One of the things he'll bring up, as reported by Benedict Brogan this morning, is that MPs need to be a little less unruly on Twitter. Obviously that's not their biggest worry, as there's also the problem of MPs coalescing around different future leadership contenders, who are all thinking ahead to what will happen after the 2015 leadership election. I understand from friends of Adam Afriyie that their campaign has managed to stop seven or eight letters asking for a leadership contest to oust David Cameron going to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady.

Isabel Hardman

How the Coalition neutered Ed Balls’ mansion tax vote

The mansion tax - sorry, 'tax fairness' - debate is still rumbling on in the Commons, and Labour are trying to score as many political points as possible on the matter, as expected. Actually, the party's idea to table the Opposition Day vote on this policy was a good piece of political game-playing when they announced it. But equally impressive has been the Coalition's response to it. The Liberal Democrats were extremely nervous about talking about how they would vote before the Eastleigh by-election. One aide told me at the time: 'We can't have Labour putting about on leaflets that we are opposing our own policy: we don't want a broken promises problem.

Isabel Hardman

MPs get last chance to push Osborne on Budget

It's the last Treasury questions before the Budget today, and MPs will have a final chance to push the Chancellor on what it is that they want from the Budget. There are those who are instinctively loyal to the Tory leadership and want a Budget that comes and goes without fireworks or failures. 'Just steady as she goes, please,' one loyalist says. Within that group are MPs who are desperate for a cost of living Budget. Then there are those MPs who are not loyal, and who, even if they don't admit it, would quite like a messy Budget that shows George Osborne up. A wider group of backbenchers includes those who are nervous that Osborne isn't quite the strategic genius he's often sold as.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Tory pressure for EU referendum bill grows

David Cameron and Lynton Crosby are holding a meeting with Conservative MPs this week to discuss 2015 strategy, I understand. The party held a similar meeting with Andrew Cooper in January. One of the major topics that is likely to come up from the floor is whether the party should be trying to get legislation on an EU referendum into parliament at some point. There is of course already an opportunity for the party to do this, as there is a backbench bill already before parliament proposing just that. It's from John Baron, who was the first Tory to break ranks and criticise David Cameron's EU referendum pledge, writing on Coffee House that without legislation, the party would suffer at the hands of voters not quite ready to trust politicians on Europe.

Isabel Hardman

Cable and Fox tug at the Coalition’s centre

The leaders of both coalition parties are seeing ministerial colleagues and backbenchers trying to push them further way from the centre at present. Nick Clegg has Vince Cable continuing to push for what Ed Miliband might call 'good borrowing', telling the Today programme that he'd borrow to improve the economy, rather than to keep an inefficient economic model going.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Coalition negotiations on childcare tax break near conclusion

Jo Swinson's speech to the Lib Dem spring conference highlighted her again as a confident performer who has higher to rise in the party. I was at a fringe session last night where, though scheduled to speak first, she insisted on going last so she could answer the other panellists' concerns on changes to employment law. One of the areas she touched on today was helping women to break glass ceilings in their professions. 'When Nick invited me to join the government as a minister in the department for business, I immediately asked "Do I get shared parental leave?"' she said. There was a slightly awkward pause, before she added: 'Don't worry Duncan!' adding that she meant taking the legislation through parliament.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem candidate resigns over secret courts

Lib Dem members have just voted overwhelmingly in favour of an emergency motion on secret courts which repeated calls for the party's parliamentarians to delete the second half of the Justice and Security Bill. During the debate, the leading campaigner against secret courts, Jo Shaw, who has spoken to Coffee House a number of times about activists' opposition to the legislation, resigned as a Liberal Democrat on stage. Shaw stood in the 2010 general election, and is a barrister by trade. She had tried repeatedly to meet Nick Clegg to express members' concerns about the Bill, but it was only recently that she was granted that meeting. Yesterday she was deeply unimpressed with Clegg's description of some of the anti-secret courts arguments as 'hyperbolic'.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Clegg plays tough guy in shouty Q&A with Lib Dem activists

Nick Clegg has just battled his way through a rather more grumpy than usual question-and-answer session at the Lib Dem spring conference. Normally, these sessions are an opportunity for the party to let off steam - they're obviously far more robust than the sort of thing you'll see in the House of Commons as they involve party members complaining about things that worry them, rather than telling Clegg how pleased they are with the Coalition's record. And normally Clegg performs well: Q&A sessions are his strength. But this was a more robust session than usual, with considerably more steam: activists weren't just anxious and keen to grill their leader, they were grumpy.