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

Nick Clegg: There is not a cigarette paper between me and the PM on EU budget

The morning after the government's defeat on the EU budget, Nick Clegg has offered his own advice on the British negotiating position. The Deputy Prime Minister gave a speech to Chatham House in which he said that pushing for a real-terms cut in the budget - which is what 307 MPs including 53 Conservative rebels voted for last night - is 'unrealistic'. Clegg framed his attack on this negotiating position by focusing on Labour rather than Tory MPs. He said: 'Yet it was Labour who agreed to the last long-term EU budget settlement, which saw a major jump in EU spending and lost part of the UK’s rebate in exchange for virtually no real EU spending reforms.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Don’t blame the whips for the EU budget revolt: the problem is higher up

What is striking about this evening's revolt on the EU budget is that it was organised at lightning speed by the rebel camp. Mark Reckless and Mark Pritchard only tabled their amendment on Monday morning, whereas the rebellion of the 81 over the backbench motion for an EU referendum took weeks of careful planning. This time round, in just three days, the shadow whipping operation managed to stir up 53 MPs prepared to troop through the 'yes' lobby in favour of the call for a real-terms cut. The whips themselves are already saying that they know the blame will land on Sir George Young's head when they believe it wasn't his fault. And even those who were the most enthusiastic signatories the Reckless/Pritchard amendment disagree that the whips should take the flak.

Isabel Hardman

EU budget: Focus on Labour’s chutzpah

The opening exchanges of the Commons debate on the EU budget were, on the whole, rather good for the Prime Minister. They involved Greg Clark making a concerted attack on Labour's 'opportunist' decision to call for a real-terms cut and to support Mark Reckless' amendment calling for just that. Without irony, Chris Leslie then told the Chamber that Clark was being 'partisan' in his speech. This put Clark and the backbenchers sitting behind him on the defensive. The debate became about Labour rather than the government's own stance on the issue. Loyal MPs including Nadhim Zahawi pressed Leslie on whether he himself would back a veto at the budget summit if European leaders failed to agree a freeze or a cut. Clark asked him directly whether he would do so.

Isabel Hardman

Government expects to lose EU budget vote

While the rebel whips are still rounding up Tory MPs to vote against the government on the EU budget motion, which starts in the Commons shortly, a senior government source tells me that they now expect to lose the vote. David Cameron's line at Prime Minister's Questions that 'at best we would like it cut, at worst frozen, and I'm quite prepared to use the veto if we don't get a deal that's good for Britain' may not have taken the sting out of the rebellion itself, but it might be easier for the government to now argue that losing a vote on an amendment which calls for a cut is less embarrassing when the Prime Minister himself says he would prefer a cut himself. The real damage may well be to the whips, who appear to have been completely wrong-footed by this amendment.

Isabel Hardman

Tensions grow over government green policy

While the major tensions at today's Prime Minister's Questions were around the Tory party and Europe, another split within the government - this time between the two coalition parties - was visible too. Ed Miliband used his second set of questions to attack the Prime Minister on the Heseltine review, which he linked to John Hayes' comments about wind farms to the Mail and the Telegraph. Hayes had told journalists that 'enough is enough' on wind farms, adding that 'I can't single-handedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land'.

Isabel Hardman

Lord Heseltine blasts government’s growth strategy

Appointing Lord Heseltine to lead a review of the government's growth plan was a risky decision as not only was he always going to say exactly what he thought, but he was also going to say it from his own particular interventionist stance. It was originally a Steve Hilton idea, and the PM's guru must be enjoying reading what Heseltine has to say from the comfortable distance of a sabbatical in California. The report, No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth, is as honest as ministers might have expected, pointing out that business believe that 'the UK does not have a strategy for growth and wealth creation', criticising an 'inertia' over airport policy, and warning that 'continuing as now is not an acceptable option. The world will not stand still - and nor must we'.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

EU budget: MPs warned revolt ‘could undermine coalition’

It was inevitable that the new team of whips was going to be rather unsettled by tomorrow's vote on the EU budget: it's the first challenge the team has had to face. But what is surprising is quite how serious their palpitations are. I understand from a number of Conservative MPs that one of the key threats isn't you-won't-get-a-promotion-in-this-government, or we'll-reveal-the-truth-about-your-mistress, but that a big rebellion tomorrow will threaten the very stability of the coalition government. When I was first told this, I found it slightly incredible: this is a non-binding vote where the popular amendment calls for the Prime Minister to go further than he has promised in negotiations, rather than directly contradicting his stance.

Isabel Hardman

Tory whips in a flap over EU budget rebellion deploy Rees-Mogg

At this morning's Cabinet meeting, ministers discussed tomorrow's debate on the EU budget, which is shaping up to be a big row. MPs I have spoken to who have either signed or are considering putting their names to the amendment calling for a real-terms cut in the budget have found their whips to be in quite a flap about the issue. Even though it might be convenient for the Prime Minister to use a vote in parliament calling for a cut as a weapon at the budget summit itself, the party leadership is clearly sufficiently nervous to have pushed for a rival amendment from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Peter Bone.

Isabel Hardman

Battle of the Chancellors: We don’t need a Plan B

Nearly a third of the audience at last night's Spectator Battle of the Chancellors debate arrived not knowing whether George Osborne's plan was working or whether a plan B was in order. It was all to play for, and the six speakers attacked the task with quite some gusto. Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling kicked off the debate by looking back to his own time in the Treasury, telling the audience that this was a crisis of the banking system by using an alarming anecdote of a conversation with a senior banker in the midst of the 2008 crisis. 'He said, "I just want to give you some confidence, some reassurance: my board met last night and we agreed from now on we will only take risks we understand.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Tony Blair’s ‘Grand Bargain’ for Europe: elect a President

Tony Blair gave a speech today in which he proposed a 'Grand Bargain' to revive the European Union. One of the proposals in this grand bargain is - and Blair is clearly speaking entirely without self-interest - that there be an elected president of the European Commission or European Council. The former Prime Minister told the Council for the Future of Europe in Berlin: 'Let me make a few quick reflections. A Europe-wide election for the Presidency of the Commission or Council is the most direct way to involve the public. An election for a big post held by one person - this people can understand. The problem with the European Parliament is that though clearly democratically elected, my experience is people don't feel close to their MEPs.

Isabel Hardman

The test of Ed Miliband’s One Nation brand

Labour has been pushing its One Nation branding campaign with quite some gusto in the past few days. Stephen Twigg announced at the weekend that 'One Nation Childcare' could include co-operative nurseries, and today Ed Miliband has given a speech on what One Nation means for mental health services, with the party launching a mental health taskforce. As well as trying to drop in as many mentions of the phrase as he could into his speech to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Miliband continued to make direct links with One Nation's founder, Disraeli. He said: 'But just as Disraeli was right back in the nineteenth century that we could not build One Nation unless we addressed public health, so it is true today we cannot build One Nation unless we all speak out about mental health.

Isabel Hardman

What today’s Trident announcement is really about

When Nick Harvey was sacked in September's reshuffle, leaving the Ministry of Defence without a Liberal Democrat minister, anti-nuclear campaigners and the SNP claimed the move put the future of the review into alternatives to the current Trident nuclear deterrent in doubt. To underline the review's security, the party announced at the start of its autumn conference two weeks later that Danny Alexander would lead it instead. But though the review may be continuing, it appears rather insecure in one crucial respect, which is whether anyone will actually pay it the blindest bit of attention. Today Philip Hammond announced a further £350 million of funding for the design of a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines.

Isabel Hardman

Cameron outfoxed from right and left on EU budget

David Cameron now appears to have been outfoxed by his own backbench and the Labour party on the European budget. A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed this morning that while the opposition and a group of rebellious MPs will campaign for a real-terms cut in the multi-annual budget, the Prime Minister remains committed to negotiating for a real-terms freeze. The spokeswoman said: 'His position is a real terms freeze: there has not been a real terms freeze in the multi-annual budget in recent years. That's what we are committed to negotiating for.' As I blogged earlier today, moves are afoot within the Conservative party to push for a real-terms cut, and there is now no backbench motion supporting the Prime Minister.

Isabel Hardman

EU budget: Cameron’s leadership under pressure

David Cameron is already irritating European leaders with his refusal to support any real-terms increases in the multi annual EU Budget, but this week, the Prime Minister is going to come under pressure to go even further and force a real-terms cut. This morning, he has Ed Balls and Douglas Alexander breathing down his neck, with a piece in the Times arguing that a cut is 'difficult but achievable with the right leadership and the right approach from the UK'. In his own party, Liam Fox says it is 'obscene' to 'even increase for inflation the inflated wages of the eurocrats' and is arguing in a speech today that weaker members of the eurozone should leave the currency at the same time.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

The childcare battleground

The coalition wants to remove blockages to people returning to work, and one of the most complex problems is the cost of childcare. The Observer covers a report due out this week by the Resolution Foundation, which claims that it is barely worthwhile for a second earner in a family to work full-time because of the high cost of childcare. But though ministers from both parties agree that the costs of nursery care and childminders are a problem for parents who want to start work, or increase their working hours - and have set up a commission on childcare to investigate this issue - the solution may not be one that the coalition finds easy to agree on.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Ken Clarke’s 2015 campaign slogan

It was not a huge surprise when Ken Clarke rowed back this afternoon on his comments to the Telegraph about tax breaks for married couples. The minister without portfolio was hardly going to get through the first interview he has given since the reshuffle without saying something he would later have to 'clarify'. But he made another interesting observation to the newspaper about the Tories' 2015 strategy. He said: 'If we are back to strong growth by the next election, we probably won’t need to campaign. If at the next election, the economy is in strong normal growth, George Osborne will be given the Companion of Honour or something and we will all get safe back.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Is the government being inconsistent on teacher training?

To be fair to Kevin Brennan, he seems to have updated his attack line on Michael Gove since his 'don't-call-teachers-names' press release that Labour sent out overnight. The party's shadow education minister is now attacking the Education Secretary for inconsistency, arguing that his announcement today on improving teacher training contradicts the decision to allow academies and free schools to employ unqualified teachers. He has just told BBC News: 'But what's rather strange about what the Government is doing is at the same time it's saying there should be more rigour in the testing of teachers as they go in to the profession, it's saying more and more schools can hire teachers that are unqualified.

Isabel Hardman

Rising energy bills add to pressure on government

EDF's announcement that it is raising gas and electricity bills by nearly 11 per cent will increase pressure on the government in two ways. The first is that these sorts of hikes in the cost of living mean that while ministers have been cheered by recent pleasing statistics on growth, jobs and inflation, voters might not feel as though things are going so well for them. If their own experience of the economy is one where their rent, shopping bills and energy bills are soaring while their wages are frozen, then they may not feel quite as sympathetic to the government as official statistics suggest they should.

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove to toughen up teacher training

Michael Gove is announcing tougher tests for trainee teachers today, with calculators banned from maths assessments, and the pass mark in tests for English and Maths being raised to the equivalent of GCSE grade B (which still doesn't sound that taxing), along with a new test in verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning. The Education Secretary says the changes 'will mean that parents can be confident that we have the best teachers coming into our classrooms. Above all, it will help ensure we raise standards in our schools and close the attainment gap between the rich and poor'. It's part of the government's drive to demonstrate that it is, in David Cameron's words, spreading privilege.