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.
Boris Johnson is on the look-out for a ring-leader in parliament for his push against the expansion of Heathrow, I understand. His people have been calling around sympathetic backbench MPs trying to persuade one of them to head up the campaign in the Commons. On first glance, Zac Goldsmith might have been an obvious choice,
In many ways, today showed this current Parliament and the Prime Minister at their best. David Cameron hadn’t brought Flashman with him to Prime Minister’s Questions today in any case, but for his statement on the Hillsborough tragedy, he adopted a solemn and respectful tone. The whole chamber was still, save for sharp intakes of
Michael Gove faced a tough grilling from MPs on the Education Select Committee this morning about the row over GCSE English results. But the Education Secretary gave as good as he got, launching a fierce attack on the Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews for putting children in Wales at what he said was a disadvantage
George Osborne is in for a really rocky autumn to follow the dismal summer he’s just survived as chancellor. The Times and the Guardian are both reporting this morning that the Chancellor is set to drop his key fiscal target of having public sector net debt as a proportion of GDP falling by 2015 as
Nick Clegg is currently eating a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream called ‘Appley Ever After’ with gay marriage campaigners celebrating the government’s consultation on introducing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Things didn’t go all that appley for the Deputy Prime Minister earlier today, though, when the Cabinet Office sent out what he later claimed was
It was not the ideal first outing for a new minister at a committee approving new legislation. Justice Minister Helen Grant arrived at the committee considering two compensation schemes last night to discover Conservative backbenchers in uproar. None of the MPs had been able to get their hands on the explanatory notes for the legislation,
Treasury questions is one of the more entertaining spectacles on offer in the Commons. There’s the standard banter between George Osborne and Ed Balls – today we saw the Chancellor dub his opposite number ‘the member for Unite west’, with Ed Balls noting in his reply that at least he’d only been heckled by a
It’s been a funny 24 hours, hasn’t it? The UK has had good news from the tennis and good news on the economy. Unusual, particularly in the latter’s case, where the news may appear better than it actually is. Figures from the Office for National Statistics released today show the UK’s trade deficit narrowed to
Any hope that Labour might hold that the latest revelations about Ofqual might prompt a re-mark of the GCSE English papers is almost certain to be disappointed. Even though Welsh exam papers are being re-graded, I understand that the same is not going to happen in England. A source close to education secretary Michael Gove
MPs are due to debate the government’s plans for universal credit in the House of Commons this afternoon. The Opposition Day motion questions whether ministers have ‘failed to properly account for numerous basic details of how the scheme will work’, and calls for them to address ‘deep flaws’ in the project. So where is the
Vince Cable’s speech on the government’s industrial strategy today is expected to signal the end of a ‘laissez-faire’ approach to business. But the Business Secretary appeared un peu trop détendu himself when describing plans for a state-backed business bank on the Today programme. ‘This is, as I say, something we’re discussing within government at the
If any members of the education select committee were wondering if they would have enough questions for their witnesses today, last night’s scoop from the Times Educational Supplement might give them a few pointers. Leaked letters seen by the newspaper show exams regulator Ofqual pressured the Edexcel exam board to raise the grade boundaries on
Allowing Iain Duncan Smith to dig his heels in at the Work and Pensions department in last week’s reshuffle sent out two messages. The first was that the Prime Minister is not as authoritative as he should be: telling someone that you’d rather they moved to one department, but that it’s ok for them to
Brendan Barber’s last speech as General Secretary to the annual TUC Congress in Brighton made a salient point about what politicians can learn about the private sector from the G4S debacle. Ministers may well dismiss the majority of Barber’s comments about cuts and labour market reform without poring through the transcript, but there was one
Boris Johnson has already denied that the work he is carrying out on airport capacity in London is a rival commission to the one set up by the Government and led by Sir Howard Davies. ‘I was a bit flummoxed by that,’ he told LBC this morning. ‘What we’re doing is we are going ahead
The coalition’s leaders like to stick to the line that the partnership is professional and business-like when they describe how policy is made. Newly-appointed business minister Michael Fallon struck a slightly different note this morning, though, when he appeared on the Today programme. He said: ‘I think everybody has been frustrated: nobody likes being in
Anna Soubry has given a wonderfully colourful interview to The Times today about her new job as Health Minister. The Conservative MP jumps through the usual hoops of having to talk about how she loves wearing high heels but doesn’t enjoy baking cupcakes, but she also makes a number of striking comments about health policy.
Roger Bootle is managing director of Capital Economics, and winner of the Wolfson Economics Prize. As the government launches another attempt at boosting UK growth, the economist, who describes himself as a ‘rare right-wing Keynesian’ shares his thoughts on ministers’ economic prowess with Coffee House readers. Do you think the government will be able to
Sometimes, when a minister is sacked, he or she goes to ground for a little while, licking their wounds and avoiding journalists keen for a comforting chat about their new backbench life. Not so Paul Burstow, who can barely have cleared his desk in the Health Department before launching an attack in the Evening Standard
Nothing is certain at a Liberal Democrat conference other than plenty of discussion of benefits and taxes. The left-leaning wing of the party – the Social Liberal Forum – has released a series of potential amendments and emergency motions for the party’s autumn conference. The list is an interesting indication of what the grassroots (the SLF