Politics

There was a rare moment of unity between the Tory awkward squad and the Whips at PMQs today. The awkward squad relished brandishing copies of a Liberal Democrat leaflet promising an In/Out referendum. CCHQ, for its part, has been keen to give this leaflet more attention. Clegg tried to dismiss it, but did he declare that a referendum on the EU is now a matter of ‘when not if’. A while back, Tory ministers used to feel rather guilty when their backbenchers took pop after pop at Clegg. But today the Tories on the front bench did not look at all displeased today when five Tory backbench questions attacked the deputy Prime

It simply isn’t correct to claim that the Conservative Party is at odds over a possible vote on legislation paving the way for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. The Prime Minister has adopted a relaxed attitude to both the upcoming amendment to the Queen’s Speech and the Draft EU Referendum Bill – encouraging a free vote for backbenchers and ministerial parliamentary aides. He is entirely right to be relaxed. The Conservative Party in Parliament is united in their belief that the British electorate deserves an In/Out referendum on the EU. The vote on Wednesday looks to encourage the enshrinement of a referendum in law, and guarantee

Believe it or not, while voters might be unimpressed by the ferrets fighting in a sack over Tory Europe strategy, what will interest them far more is the possibility that they may have been paying over the odds for their petrol for a decade. Yesterday’s raids on BP, Shell, Platts and Statoil suggest that finally the allegations of whistleblowers that oil prices were being kept artificially high, reported on this blog, are being taken seriously by the European Commission. Britain is struggling under a cost of living crisis, and MPs will want to make their outrage about the possibility of price fixing as clear as they possibly can to their

Jonathan Stephens, permanent secretary at the Culture, Media and Sport department, has today announced he is moving on, after a cross-Whitehall effort to shift him, I have learned. Stephens, who James reported at the weekend was looking ripe for a move, announced his departure in an internal email to staff this afternoon. I understand he is moving to a behind-the-scenes role in another part of Whitehall. He was one of the last hangers-on from the Blair government, along with Sir Nicholas Macpherson at the Treasury, having worked at DCMS since 2006. His departure means DCMS can appoint a permanent secretary who those involved in Whitehall reform hope will help shoulder

The Tory MPs who are unhappy with Number 10’s offer of a draft EU referendum bill have been making the most noise this morning, but there have been some interesting shifts in position from some hardline eurosceptics in the past few hours. Douglas Carswell, who is about as independently-minded as you can get, has come out all guns blazing in favour of the Prime Minister’s plan. He writes on his blog: ‘For several years, I have been agitating for the Prime Minister to offer an In / Out referendum. He’s now offering one. Cameron deserves much more credit for being the first Prime Minister in a generation to offer us

The Tia Sharp case is yet another harrowing untermensch saga. The man accused of the little girl’s murder, Stuart Hazell, has now changed his plea to guilty. Of course, it is impossible not to feel anguish for Tia’s parents. Just as it is impossible to comprehend their agony. Whatever the ins and outs, and whatever point I make below. Tia’s dad has expressed a wish that Hazell should serve a long time in prison and then be hanged. Fair enough, I suppose. I would probably think the same if it was my kid. Tia’s mum, Natalie, meanwhile has castigated Hazell: ‘I gave the ultimate trust to Stuart.’  By which she

President Obama took care this afternoon when asked about an EU referendum to give as nuanced an answer as possible. He emphasised repeatedly that this was a matter for the British people. He also affirmed Cameron’s ‘basic point that you probably want to see if you can fix what’s broken in a very important relationship’. Tory eurosceptics might be a little less impressed by this endorsement of Cameron’s strategy, but what they will be really unhappy with is the impression Obama gave that he believes an exit from Europe would be a sign that Britain is becoming more isolationist. The President said: ‘We have a special relationship with the United

Nigel Farage says his party is in talks with a number of Conservative associations about a joint endorsement with UKIP. He told the Daily Politics today that ‘there is no doubt that there are Tory associations, and one Labour that I know of, who are saying “look, the law was changed two years ago, there is a provision now, that one candidate can have the endorsement of two political parties, i.e. two logos on the ballot paper”‘. Farage added that ‘there are associations out there that I believe want this’. Freshly returned to the Tory benches, Nadine Dorries made the case for this in yesterday’s Sun on Sunday. She wrote:

Last winter, the surest way to get a Lib Dem to ring you back was to mention the words ‘boundary changes’. Better still to write a piece criticising the party’s decision to scupper the reforms as a revenge for the collapse of Lords reform, and no matter whether it was late at night or early on a Saturday morning when all normal people are still hiding under their duvets or sitting self-consciously in independent coffee shops, the Lib Dems would ring very quickly indeed. The same thing is happening now over the plan to relax childcare ratios. This morning I wrote as a throwaway comment that the party was blocking