A key theme of this Tory conference will be the party running its tanks all over Labour’s lawn while the party indulges in splendid in-fighting. And George Osborne’s speech tomorrow will contain another big tank rumbling over another part of the party’s lawn. He has persuaded Lord Adonis to resign the party whip in order to become a cross bench peer and chair an independent National Infrastructure Commission.
Adonis has issued this statement:
‘Without big improvements to its transport and energy systems, Britain will grind to a halt. I am pleased to accept the Chancellor’s invitation to establish the National Infrastructure Commission as an independent body able to advise Government and Parliament on priorities.
‘Major infrastructure projects like Crossrail and building major new power stations span Governments and Parliaments. I hope it will be possible to forge a wide measure of agreement, across society and politics, on key infrastructure requirements for the next 20 to 30 years and the assessments which have underpinned them.’
The Chancellor’s aides are focusing on the policy implications of this and trying not to rise to the bait of sounding excited about the politics. But this is as close to a Blairite defection from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour as you can get: Adonis was a passionate member of the policymaking team for Ed Miliband in the last Parliament. He has clearly decided that the better game in town is the one led by the Chancellor, and he isn’t the first. Osborne has already managed to work well with Labour-run Manchester Council for a number of years, as the council realised the benefits of working across political boundaries to get what it wanted. But for Adonis to leave his party group in the Lords is a bigger step than simply talking to the Tories about ideas.
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