As Iain Dale pointed out earlier, one of the more mystifying aspects of PMQs was Brown’s claim that his MPs would have a free vote on expenses measures, despite strong reports to the contrary. To clear things up, Number Ten has since revealed that the vote has been abandoned. It remains to be seen what this means for the full publication of MPs expenses, but it’s got to be regarded as a positive development – the measures that Brown was trying to force through were anything but transparent.
The big winner from all this should be the Tories. Not only has Brown been forced into an embarrassing climbdown, but there remains plenty of room to charge him over his support for the original proposal. Although the situation seems less urgent now, it’s still well worth Team Cameron resurrecting the “new politics” theme, as I blogged about this morning.
P.S. More from Iain here.
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