That was a close one. Miliband set two traps for the PM today. One was visible. The other, far more dangerous, was hidden until the very last moment. Miliband wants Tories to vote against a bill that will forbid serving MPs from acting as company directors. This connects sweetly with his ‘Thatcherite swine gobbling at the Westminster trough’ motif.
The Labour leader asked Cameron if he minded MPs having two jobs.
‘He has a chance to vote for change tonight.’
Cameron blithely objected that the new bill excludes directors of family businesses but not ‘paid trade union officials.’
Miliband pounced. Conceding Cameron’s point, he offered to make a ‘manuscript amendment’ to the bill and to add the words ‘paid trade union official’ to the list of prohibited occupations.
There it was. Cameron’s clause was in the bill. Miliband was ready to ink the words onto the page with his own quill.
Crikey.
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