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

Bob and Bollinger banking

This is the memo from Bob Diamond, released yesterday, on which many of this afternoon's questions at the Treasury Select Committee will hinge. It records a conversation with Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker, and is worth reproducing in full here: Further to our last call, Mr Tucker reiterated that he had received calls from a number of senior figures within Whitehall to question why Barclays was always towards the top end of the Libor pricing. His response was 'you have to pay what you pay'. I asked if he could relay the reality, that not all banks were providing quotes at the levels that represented real transactions, his response was 'oh that would be worse.

Isabel Hardman

Bob’s long afternoon at the crease

This afternoon's rather lengthy Treasury Select Committee hearing with Bob Diamond suggests that Ed Miliband might be on to something with his calls for a judge-led inquiry. We were two hours into the session when John Thurso remarked: 'If you were an English cricketer, I suspect your name would be Geoffrey Boycott… You've been occupying the crease for two-and-a-half hours and I'm not sure we're a great deal further forward.' If Boycott were watching, he'd remark that his mother could have batted away the majority of the questions thrown to Diamond with a stick of rhubarb. This committee meeting provided the former Barclays chief executive with a pretty flat pitch.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron hints at Coalition split on EU review

Yesterday the Prime Minister made a point of showing his backbench how very willing he was to listen to their concerns about the European Union. Today, as he gave evidence to the Liaison Committee, David Cameron made a point of suggesting his Liberal Democrat coalition partners are a little less willing when it comes to reviewing the EU's powers.  Asked when he would launch the balance of competencies review, which will examine the impact of EU law on Britain, the Prime Minister said: 'I hope that we will be able to start the process before the summer, but we need to seek full agreement before we launch it.'  He added: 'Some preliminary work has been done but there does need to be proper coalition agreement before full work goes ahead.

Isabel Hardman

Diamond does not last forever

Bob Diamond's resignation with immediate effect as chief executive of Barclays gives plenty of people in Westminster the scalp they were looking for. Labour had called for Diamond to go after the Libor scandal surfaced. The Lib Dems had called for Diamond to resign, with Vince Cable threatening to use as a last resort his powers to disqualify directors. In fact the Lib Dems have been so focused on getting Diamond out that I understand they have been intentionally avoiding the brewing row between Labour and Tories about the parliamentary inquiry, headed by Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie. Diamond's resignation statement to the stock exchange was not exactly dripping with apology and remorse.

Isabel Hardman

Clegg: I feel lobotomised in government

Nick Clegg gave a rather sombre speech to the CentreForum summer reception last night. Addressing the guests from a pulpit in the vaulted cloisters of Westminster Abbey, as the rain poured down outside, the Deputy Prime Minister admitted he felt 'lobotomised' in government. It was actually a clumsy attempt to praise the work of the Lib Dem-aligned think tank in helping the party retain its brain by dreaming up new policies when the constraints of Coalition might otherwise prevent it, but it did not go down well with those listening. Andrew Neil tweeted that Lord Steel, who he was standing next to at the event, had rolled his eyes at Clegg's turn of phrase. Clegg also used some of his speech to attack the eurosceptic beast that his Coalition partners are currently feeding.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

A fresh deal and a fresh settlement

Pressure has been building all weekend for the Prime Minister to give some form of concession to his eurosceptic backbenchers in his statement on the outcome of the Brussels summit. James blogged shortly before David Cameron stood up in the Commons that Tory MPs were being reassured that they were going to like what they would hear him, which a pro-European MP suspected would be 'feeding a beast with an insatiable appetite'. This is the meat the Prime Minister threw to the eurosceptics: 'Far from ruling out a referendum for the future, as a fresh deal in Europe becomes clear, we should consider how best to get the fresh consent of the British people.

Isabel Hardman

More remorse and apology from Diamond?

It's hard to believe that executives at Barclays had much confidence that the resignation of Marcus Agius as the bank's chair would place a stopper on the Libor scandal. Ed Miliband drove those doubts home this morning when, appearing on Daybreak, the Labour leader reiterated calls for Bob Diamond to resign. He said: 'I don't think that he can carry Barclays forward, Bob Diamond, because he was there, he was actually in charge of the part of Barclays where some of these scandals took place years back and we will obviously hear what he has to say at the Select Committee on Wednesday but I really don't believe that the leadership and restoring trust in Britain's banking can be done by Bob Diamond.

Isabel Hardman

Ministerial aides push Cameron on EU

David Cameron's attempt to placate backbenchers clamouring for an EU referendum by writing a piece in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph has not gone down particularly well. Backbenchers are more than mildly irked that the Prime Minister focused mainly on the problems with an in/out referendum, when the letter co-ordinated by John Baron (which you can read here) did not call for that. They are also disappointed that the Prime Minister suggested that the time for a referendum was not now, as their demand had been for legislation in this Parliament which would provide for a referendum in the next. One MP told me the response was a 'smokescreen'.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Be careful what you wish for, Bercow plotters

Tory MPs are plotting to oust Speaker Bercow, the Sun on Sunday reports today. They are apparently furious that Bercow allowed Chris Bryant to brand Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt a 'liar' in his party's opposition day debate calling for a full investigation into Hunt's conduct. The Speaker refused to censure Bryant because he argued the unparliamentary language mirrored the wording of Labour's motion for the debate. This attempted coup is another sign of the fierce loyalty that backbenchers feel for the Culture Secretary. You insult Hunt, and you insult the party: the Lib Dems learned that after they allowed their MPs to abstain on that motion and lost any goodwill from the Tory backbench on Lords reform.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Angela’s anguish on ESM vote

This all feels rather miserably familiar. Eurozone leaders come to a dawn agreement about resolving the crisis. Markets react positively. The leaders appear on podiums to congratulate one another and themselves on reaching said dawn agreement. By lunchtime, something rather awkward has happened. Angela Merkel, perhaps inspired by George Osborne, had done a U-turn in agreeing to use eurozone bailout funds to support Italy and Spain, but did she have the authority to do so?

Isabel Hardman

Italy and Spain put Merkel in the corner

It took them 13 hours, but eurozone leaders have finally agreed to use bailout funds to recapitalise banks directly. The deal, which was reached at 4am (David Cameron had gone to bed at 1am because this is a eurozone, not EU matter), involved Germany giving in to the demands of Italy and Spain. You can read the statement from the euro area leaders here, but essentially what it says is that the refinancing will not take place until a single banking supervisor is set up, to be run by the European Central Bank. This was originally going to be a long-term project, but leaders have now set a deadline of the end of this year for everything to be up and running.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

The EU campaign that won’t go away

Just when the whips were sighing with relief that Europe has been pushed down the agenda by Lords reform, a rather awkward letter from over 100 Tory MPs flops on to the Prime Minister's doormat. ConHome has the scoop this morning that John Baron has brought together a large group of MPs  who are calling for legislation to be written that ensures there will be a referendum in the next Parliament on the issue. When I spoke to Baron earlier, he told me that four more have joined, although he has agreed with colleagues that the full list of names will be known only to him and the Prime Minister.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Davey takes aim at the winter fuel payment

On Monday, David Cameron reiterated his opposition to scrapping the winter fuel payment as a universal benefit. During his speech on welfare, the Prime Minister said: 'There is also a debate about some of the extra benefits that pensioners can receive - and whether they should be means-tested. On this I want to be very clear: two years ago I made a promise to the elderly of this country and I am keeping it.' Even though means-testing winter fuel payments might be off the table, I understand that work is still going on within Whitehall to alter the benefit. This time it's not in the Work and Pensions department, which has overall responsibility for administering the benefit, but in the Energy and Climate Change department.

Isabel Hardman

Dealing with Nadine Dorries

Ed Miliband is going to have to start paying Nadine Dorries a salary if the Conservative MP provides him with any more quotes to fling across the chamber at Prime Minister's Questions. Today the Labour leader was able to draw from the deep well of Dorries' twitter feed when he faced David Cameron. Earlier in the day, she had sent these three tweets: 'I was at a dinner last night so didn't see Newsnight, however, if Osborne sent Chloe on re scrapping 3p he is a coward as well as arrogant.' 'Newsnight last night would have been a tough gig for a Minister with years of experience - Chloe is a good egg and didn't deserve that.' 'The submarine Chancellor sacrifices yet another Minister whilst he slips under the surface… again.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Osborne’s handbrake turn on fuel duty

George Osborne's U-turn today on fuel duty seems both canny and confusing. It comes just 48 hours after a denial from Transport Secretary Justine Greening that the Government would scrap the 3p rise in August, but appears to be warding off the threat of a backbench rebellion in the Commons next week on a motion submitted by Labour to the Finance Bill.  Ms Greening told the Sunday Telegraph:  So more power to the backbenchers, led by Robert Halfon, whose campaign against fuel duty increases now looks to have succeeded in part, although he might want to continue to push retailers to push costs down anyway. But it is still surprising given the rebellion from Conservative MPs was not expected to reach beyond double figures.

Isabel Hardman

Long nights of Lords reform ahead

The concessions that David Cameron has reportedly offered the Conservative backbench on Lords reform are really not sufficient to keep them out of the no lobbies. Switching from a salary to a daily attendance allowance, which would keep peers' earnings below £60,000 in most cases, is hardly going to set the benches alight. The reason for this is mainly that Tory MPs are opposing Lords reform as much for reasons of principle as they are for personal reasons. This is a deeply personal row with the Lib Dems that was a bit awkward and grumpy a month or so ago, but has turned to full-blooded revenge over the party's refusal to support Jeremy Hunt in the Commons.

Isabel Hardman

Osborne borrows his way out of a debt crisis

This morning's borrowing figures from the Office for National Statistics are a blow for George Osborne, showing public sector borrowing up £2.7bn on the same time last year. The stats show the government borrowed £17.9bn in May, while the 2011-12 deficit is now £127.6bn, up £3.2bn. Labour have seized on the figures, saying it's the 'nail in the coffin of David Cameron and George Osborne’s failed economic plan'. It's worth remembering, though, that Labour would be borrowing even more in this Parliament than the Coalition is, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimating that under Labour, borrowing would be closer to £76bn in 2016-17 than the £26bn forecast in the March Budget.

Isabel Hardman

Gove goes on attack on academies

This morning at our Schools Revolution conference, Michael Gove came under sustained attack from academies architect Lord Adonis and Neil O'Brien from Policy Exchange, who pointed to a slowing-down in the number of primary sponsored academies being set up. O'Brien pointed out that the majority - around 80% - of academies set up under Gove are actually failing schools converting to academy status rather than new schools with a sponsor. Adonis told the audience that Gove's success on academies was illusory' because of the decline in the number of sponsored academies. But I hear that Gove is going to directly address these criticisms in his speech this afternoon.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s welfare pledge to backbenchers

Why has David Cameron chosen to launch what is effectively a 2015 manifesto pledge on welfare today? The Prime Minister's speech, which he has just finished giving, had quite interesting timing: we still, after all, have just under three years before the next general election. Cameron has already dropped hints about how much further the Conservatives could go on key areas - and specifically referred to welfare - without the Liberal Democrats holding them back, but this is the first instance where he has pinpointed a particular post-2015 policy. It leaves the Liberal Democrats once again on the back foot over benefits, suggesting to a public hungry for a more conditional and less generous welfare state that the Government could go so much further without their Coalition partners.

Isabel Hardman

Low marks for Labour’s Gove debate

Labour's Opposition day debate tomorrow on Gove-levels might not reveal as much as the party hopes about where Liberal Democrat MPs stand on the Education Secretary's planned reforms. True, you won't see a Lib Dem lift so much as a finger in outright support of what Nick Clegg dubbed 'a two-tier system' created by scrapping GCSEs and replacing them with two sets of exams, but this might not be the forum for them to launch a rebellion. One key figure on the left of the party points out that 'it's not where the decision will be made', while another MP says Labour's motions are often so 'over-the-top' that they are unsupportable.