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.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s race to persuade voters and colleagues to back his plan

George Osborne has managed, so far, to manage the run-up to the Autumn Statement far better than he did the Budget. There have been no cat fights across the pages of the newspapers, and the briefing over the past few days has been disciplined. After being told about the £5bn of Whitehall spending cuts to fund 'shovel-ready' projects including new schools and investment in skills, science and transport yesterday, one hack jokingly asked whether 'this means that tomorrow's statement is going to be horrendous' given the news so far had been relatively positive.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Airports review is doomed to gather dust, British Airways chief warns MPs

The government's airports review will simply end up on a shelf, and major airlines will still be operating from a two-runway airport at Heathrow in 2050. That was the stark warning delivered by the chief executive of British Airways' parent company IAG Willie Walsh this afternoon as he gave evidence to the Transport Select Committee. Walsh told the MPs on the committee: 'I think the decision of the government to establish the Davies commission has been seen by some as a step in the right direction.

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Senior Lib Dems push for changes to secret courts bill

Senior Lib Dem MPs are deeply concerned about the government's plans for secret courts, and will urge the government to accept changes made to the legislation in the House of Lords, I understand. The Justice and Security Bill will have its second reading in the House of Commons in the next few weeks, fresh from a series of embarrassing defeats on the secret courts measures in the House of Lords. Ken Clarke has said that some of the amendments brought in the upper chamber will need modifying at the very least. But the Liberal Democrat grassroots have been lobbying their parliamentarians to drop the Bill entirely ever since their conference voted on a motion calling for just that in September.

Isabel Hardman

Autumn Statement: Michael Gove becomes the poster boy for Whitehall cuts

George Osborne briefed the Cabinet this morning on tomorrow's Autumn Statement, giving ministers some good news and some bad news. The good news is that he is launching £5 billion of extra capital spending spread over three years as part of the fiscally neutral package tomorrow. That package will fund new schools, science and transport schemes, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said this morning. He told journalists: 'The Chancellor and the Chief Secretary have told Cabinet that they will announce at Autumn Statement over £5bn of capital investment to invest in the economy and equip Britain for the global race.

Isabel Hardman

Osborne to back fracking and 30 new gas power stations

Coalition tensions over energy won't relax with George Osborne's gas strategy, which he will launch alongside the Autumn Statement tomorrow. The Financial Times reports that the Chancellor's strategy will approve as many as 30 gas-fired power stations and - in a move that will delight those in his own party - a regulatory regime for shale gas exploitation. Fraser extolled the virtues of shale gas in his Telegraph column in September, describing it as 'the greatest single opportunity' facing the government, with the potential to transform energy supply. But Energy Secretary Ed Davey is less enthusiastic, arguing in May that Tory support for shale gas exploitation - known as fracking - was a means of undermining renewable energy generation.

Isabel Hardman

Cut housing benefit for under-25s? Yes, but be careful, say Tory members

George Osborne might have failed to get his housing benefit cut for the under-25s past the Lib Dems in time for the Autumn Statement, but, as James reported in his Mail on Sunday column this week, the Tories will be keen to put it in their 2015 manifesto, partly to show voters what a majority Conservative government could achieve without the shackles of coalition. I understand the party has been consulting members on its welfare policy in the past few weeks, and unsurprisingly, the response has been enormous. In fact, the policy forum hasn't seen such interest from members since it asked them what they wanted to see in terms of local transport policy (apparently this really aerated those surveyed last winter).

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May upsets the Lib Dems and David Davis in one fell swoop

Theresa May has upset quite a few people from across the political spectrum with her comments in the Sun today about the Communications Data Bill. The Home Secretary told the newspaper: 'The people who say they're against this bill need to look victims of serious crime, terrorism and child sex offences in the eye and tell them why they're not prepared to give police the powers they need to protect the public. Anybody who is against this bill is putting politics before people's lives.' This irritated David Davis sufficiently for the Tory backbencher to raise May's comments as a point of order in the House of Commons this afternoon.

Isabel Hardman

Aide to Europe minister calls for Parliament to beef up its engagement with EU

Another day, another paper by a Tory MP about Britain's relationship with Europe. Except the latest paper, by Tobias Ellwood for think tank Open Europe, is actually not so much about what's wrong with Europe, but about what's wrong with how our Parliament in Westminster deals with the whole issue. Ellwood, who is PPS to Europe Minister David Lidington, doesn't believe Westminster politicians are actually very good at engaging with European Union policymaking, preferring instead a 'complain-but-don't-change' approach. He paints a discomfiting picture of the way MPs relate to Brussels, describing an alienation which leads to 'little appetite amongst MPs to understand fully how the EU actually works - and how to use Parliamentary power to change it or its policies'.

Isabel Hardman

Pressure on the editors as Labour threatens own Leveson bill

One of the foundations on which David Cameron based his decision to reject statutory underpinning of press regulation was that editors would set up a new system based on Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations which would prove far tougher than the Press Complaints Commission. The failure of the industry to reach consensus on a new body - and this is a real risk given the refusal of some publications to join the PCC - would pull the rug from under the Prime Minister's feet as he fights critics pushing for statute. Cameron is also facing claims that he is bowing to bullies in the press, and it is for these two reasons that the Prime Minister will be applying great pressure on editors as they meet Culture Secretary Maria Miller this week.

Isabel Hardman

MPs criticise ‘voluntary’ tax arrangements for Starbucks and other big companies

Danny Alexander might be glad that a PR panic before the Public Accounts Committee published its report into HMRC and the ability of multinational companies to avoid paying their share of corporation tax means he could be able to visit a Starbucks again in the near future. But his remarks on Radio 4 this morning show what a mess our tax system has got into. As PAC chair Margaret Hodge observed on Radio 5Live, there is now 'a danger that corporation tax is becoming a voluntary tax', and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's remarks did little to diminish that impression.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg is changing the way the government works

Say what you will about Nick Clegg's decision to take a different stance from the Prime Minister on Leveson, but the Deputy Prime Minister has this week effected another big change to the way Westminster government works. He has sent party members an email today explaining why he felt it was necessary to make a separate statement to David Cameron in the Commons on Thursday. The Lib Dem leader writes: As you may have picked up, the Prime Minister and I disagreed; there is not yet an agreed 'government line'. That's in part why we had to make separate statements - a major departure from Parliamentary protocol, apparently. I'm often non-plussed by the arcane rules of the House of Commons, most of which make no sense to ordinary human beings.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Tory MP attacks Cameron for allowing party to become ’emaciated’

Brian Binley is fond of giving journalists new ideas for illustrations featuring David Cameron's head superimposed onto a new and unusual get-up: his 'chambermaid' allusion caused quite a stir back in August. Today he's written another one of his angry blog posts, which takes his criticism of the Prime Minister on a little further. Today the Prime Minister is a caretaker, apparently, and one who isn't taking great care of his party. Binley describes the Conservative party as being 'in a very sorry state', and launches an attack on Cameron for setting his face against his own party.

Isabel Hardman

Labour source tells Coffee House: govt could deliberately overcomplicate Leveson bill

Labour sources are not happy with the Prime Minister's decision to draft legislation for statutory underpinning of press regulation. I've just spoken to one party source, who told me the worry is not that the legislation is being put together quickly, but that the government will draw up a bill that deliberately complicates the issue and undermines Lord Justice Leveson's call for regulation backed by statute. The source says: 'The issue with the draft bill is not the speed: we want speed. The issue is that there is a possibility that what they are going to do is overcomplicate and deliberately overload this draft in a bid to stop them doing the right thing. They have betrayed the victims, they should be looking at how to go forward on this.

Isabel Hardman

Government to draft legislation on Leveson recommendations

The first of many cross-party discussions on the response to the Leveson Inquiry lasted 30 minutes last night. The 'frank' meeting resulted in David Cameron agreeing to draft bill to see if the proposals in Lord Justice Leveson's report were workable. The idea is that the legislation will prove that the statutory underpinning of the new independent press regulator is unworkable, while Number 10 sources are briefing that the Prime Minister has 'not shifted one inch' on his position on the report. But agreeing to draft legislation, if only to prove those deep misgivings that Cameron retains, is a canny way of approaching the divide in Parliament over the response to the report.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Leveson report: Nick Clegg backs statutory underpinning

As trailed on Coffee House over the past few days, Nick Clegg used his own separate Commons statement to declare his support for the statutory underpinning of the new independent press regulator. He said that nothing in the debate that he had heard so far suggested to him that there was a better system of regulation than the one before MPs today. 'The long grass is the last place that this problem should end up in,' he said, adding: 'I am convinced that he has made a case for legislation.' The Deputy Prime Minister said he acknowledged that 'we now need to show how that can be done in a workable way'. But he argued that it was a 'straw man' to suggest that law is always a threat to the freedom of the press.

Isabel Hardman

Breaking: David Cameron says ‘I am not convinced statute is necessary’ for press regulation

David Cameron has just told MPs that while he accepts Lord Leveson's recommendations for a new independent press regulator, he rejects statutory underpinning of the new regulatory system. The Prime Minister said: 'I accept these principles... The onus should now be on the press.' He said he was in favour of giving the press a period of time to implement the recommendations. But to roars of disapproval from MPs on the other side of the Chamber, he said: 'I am not convinced... that statute is necessary.' He also told MPs that he accepted Leveson's recommendations on the relationship between the police and the press. The Prime Minister also took care to praise Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was cleared of wrongdoing by the Inquiry.

Isabel Hardman

Leveson report: what the judge said about Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt was one of the most controversial figures caught up in the Leveson Inquiry, with Labour calling for the then Culture Secretary to resign over contact between his office and NewsCorp lobbyist Fred Michel. But today Lord Justice Leveson's report finds 'no credible evidence of actual bias on the part of Mr Hunt', but the exchanges between the lobbyist and Mr Hunt's adviser Adam Smith gave rise to the perception of bias.

Isabel Hardman

Leveson praises the media, then slaps it with ‘not statutory’ regulation underpinned by statute

Lord Justice Leveson has just finished giving his statement to the Inquiry press conference, and told journalists that he would be 'making no further comment' about the report's contents. 'The ball is back in the politicians' court,' he said. We have 40 minutes until we find out how the politicians plan to play that ball. The judge took great pains to praise the media, saying: 'I remain firmly of the belief that the British press, I repeat, all of it, serves the country very well for the vast majority of the time. There are truly countless examples of great journalism, great investigations and great campaigns.' He was so fulsome in his praise that it sounded almost valedictory, and as the judge continued, it seemed that it was: 'But none of that means that the press is beyond challenge.

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg to give separate Leveson statement

Nick Clegg will make his own statement on Leveson in the Commons today after the Prime Minister has spoken. Party sources were saying yesterday that this would only happen if the two men disagreed on the government's response to the report. The Lib Dems want to back the rapid creation of a statutory backstop for newspaper regulation, while David Cameron does not want to back any press law, at least for now. This is probably the biggest clue we'll get as to the content of the Leveson report before the embargo lifts at 1.30pm. But it doesn't necessarily mean a big split over the outcome: the coalition cabinet committee will meet at noon to discuss the full response, and there may well be greater unity over this than initially appears.

Isabel Hardman

The big flashpoints over Leveson

Nick Clegg and David Cameron will return, with their officials, to their speed reading exercise of the hefty Leveson report this morning. The Deputy Prime Minister wasn't giving much away unsurprisingly, when he spoke to journalists a short while ago as he left his home. He said: 'In this whole process, everybody wants two things: firstly a strong, independent, raucous press who can hold people in positions of power to account. And secondly to protect ordinary people, the vulnerable, the innocent when the press overstep the mark. That's the balance we're trying to strike, and I'm sure we will.' There is still the possibility that Clegg may give a second statement in the House of Commons later today if he and the Prime Minister fail to agree on the government's response to Leveson.