Conservative party

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Lynton Crosby: I didn’t discuss plain packaging with the PM

After weeks of the Prime Minister and his team dancing on a semantic pinhead over whether they discussed plain cigarette packaging with, or were lobbied by, Lynton Crosby, the man himself has made a rare public intervention. The Press Association reports him denying that he had ‘any conversation or discussion with or lobbied the Prime Minister’ on plain packaging. Crosby added: ‘What the Prime Minister said should be enough for any ordinary person.’ But it wasn’t really, because David Cameron did rather lose his cool on the Marr Show at the weekend, telling Andrew Marr that his insistence that Crosby had ‘not intervened’ was ‘the only answer you’re getting’. While

Thursday

Rory Sutherland

Don’t abolish The Knowledge!

Now that most taxi drivers use satnavs, should ‘the Knowledge’ be abolished? Shouldn’t we ditch the requirement that all London black cab drivers spend several years acquiring an insanely detailed knowledge of London before obtaining a badge? In cabbie folklore, the model for the Knowledge was first suggested by Prince Albert. True or not, there is something German about the notion that every tradesman should have a qualification. And the test is teutonically stringent: more than 70 per cent of applicants fail or drop out. It demands that the prospective driver memorise 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks within six miles of -Charing Cross. Now, useful as it once was, many people

Steerpike Steerpike

Philip Blond for Mayor of London?

While David Cameron, assisted by a trio of pyjama-clad children and the Chancellor, was entertaining the ladies and gentleman of Her Majesty’s Loyal Press Corps in No. 10, right-wing elements of the Conservative Party were carousing by the river in Chelsea. IDS, Welsh Secretary David Jones and venerable right-wingers Sir Gerald Howarth and Graham Brady joined former Tory head of press Nick Wood and his cohort from Media Intelligence Partners for a rabble-rouse. Unlike the Downing Street soiree in the Rose Garden, this was not a champagne free-zone. Ûber-wonk Philip Blond was overheard discussing his plans to run for Mayor of London. And as the evening wore on, Blond began to try

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s filibuster on the EU referendum bill cheers Tory hearts

As a rule, public bill committees aren’t really the kind of thing even the most insular Westminster bubble inhabitant buys popcorn to watch. But last night, James Wharton’s private member’s bill found itself the subject of midnight drama in the committee room. Labour MPs decided to filibuster on a series of troublemaking amendments, with the whips calling a late night cooling down break in an attempt to move the proceedings on. Even though Wharton and Tory colleagues on the bill committee may be rather dozy this afternoon, the late night drama, eventually resolved at 12.30, does allow them to make a political point out of what is normally a very

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

The Lynton Crosby question Number 10 can’t quite answer

It’s difficult to find a Tory MP who doesn’t think Lynton Crosby is making their party more aggressive and impressive. The Wizard of Oz has been a good thing. Most MPs think his tough-talking vision for how the party can fight Ukip and Labour rather than fighting one another has made a huge difference. Crosby was hired to advise the party on strategy (as well as swear at people), but the one thing that makes a few MPs want to swear back is the possibility he has had some undue influence over the government’s public health policy, which has zig-zagged one way and then another. As James said earlier, this

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour could be jumping the gun with early EU mischief-making

If you’ve felt your heart beating a little faster than usual, and a strange sense of excitement creeping all over you, it’s because #letbritaindecide fever is back in Parliament. Yes, folks, the fun returns, and this time for the committee stage of the bill, from 2pm today. I’ve already reported Mike Gapes’ amusing amendments to the legislation which are designed to cause trouble. He has put a few more down of a similarly mischevious ilk, changing the question about Britain’s membership of the EU to a question about whether Britain should join the Schengen Agreement, or the euro. But Labour’s frontbench has also tabled some changes to provoke a row.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle delay leaves Tories dwelling on many reasons to be cheerful

David Cameron has decided to delay his mini-reshuffle until the autumn. He had been planning to have it this week, and as we reported last week, rumours were circulating about who was vulnerable. But it is sensible to delay. The party is in a serene mood currently. Sacking good ministers and failing to promote equally good backbenchers again will cause strife, and the party management machine will struggle to keep tabs on the really hurt members over the summer. Better to send everyone back to their constituencies in a good mood that will rouse the grassroots a little, rather than brooding about what they perceive to be poor treatment. There

Steerpike Steerpike

Soggy Tories decamp to the National Liberal Club

This may be a question to which the answer is no, but have you heard of the Tory Reform Group? The TRG is a marginal Conservative club these days because it is generally regarded as being less than sound, if not outright soggy, on the issues. Indeed, there was some embarrassment earlier in this parliament when Ed Miliband tried to use the TRG’s thinking to shape his NHS policy. The TRG numbers Ken Clarke, Lord Patten, Lord Heseltine and David Curry among its illustrious alumni. Goodness knows what these august men and their heirs have planned for Mr Cameron (or his successor) during the EU referendum, should it ever materialise.

Monday

James Forsyth

Conservatives ramp up the pressure on Andy Burnham

One of the striking things about politics at the moment is how the Tories are behaving like an opposition, campaigning against Labour with even more intensity than they managed in 2009. The Tories intend to use the Keogh report, out tomorrow, to — in the words of one Number 10 insider — give Labour ‘both barrels’ over the NHS. As one Tory minister puts it, ‘Labour’s argument about Mid-Staffs is that it is one isolated, bad case. Keogh disproves that.’ As part of this, the Tories are going after Andy Burnham. The Tory leadership is convinced that Ed Miliband will move Burnham in the reshuffle, there’s a reason why people

Douglas Carswell

iDemocracy and a new model party

The Conservative party is a bit like HMV, the bankrupt music business. For years, just like HMV, we were market leaders. We won 44 per cent of the vote in 1979, 42 per cent in 1983 and 44 per cent again in 1987. But like the old music retailer, we have been losing touch with our customer base.  HMV sold music the wrong way, via a costly chain of shop outlets. We, too, have been retailing politics the wrong way. We last won a Parliamentary majority over 20 years ago. When we gained office after the 2010 election, we did so having got 36 percent of the vote. A pinnacle of

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Benefit cap’s polling success paves way for tough 2015 promises

The government’s £26,000 benefit cap is one of the most popular policies pollsters have ever come across. No wonder, then, that CCHQ is putting this infographic about to underline the political power of this emblematic policy as it is rolled out nationwide today. Of course, it’s not entirely true that Labour supports limitless benefits, as the party is considering some kind of regional benefit cap, with more money paid to recipients in London to reflect the higher cost of living. But Liam Byrne and Ed Miliband’s decision to lead the party into voting against the cap in the end makes it very easy for the Conservatives to slap Labour with

Sunday

James Forsyth

New Tory group ‘Renewal’ calls for union members to be allowed to donate their affiliation fee to any party

The Conservative party hasn’t won a parliamentary majority for more than twenty years. If it is to start doing so again, then it will have to need to expand its pool of potential voters. Renewal, run by former Policy Exchange deputy director David Skelton, is a new Tory ginger group trying to focus the party’s attention on this problem. It launches tomorrow and, I suspect, that at least one of its idea will immediately catch the eye of the Tory leadership. It is proposing that the law should be changed so that not only should union members have to opt in to affiliate to a political party but they should

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Sarah Wollaston: Tories are ‘pandering to election strategists’ on plain packaging

Sarah Wollaston is angry. Again. This time it’s about plain packaging on cigarettes. She told the World at One that the decision to stall introducing plain packaging was ‘pandering to election strategists’ and that this was a ‘very sad day for public health’. You can listen to the full interview below:- Now, this is obviously deeply annoying for the Tory leadership as it hardly helps them tackle the narrative that they’re always caving into their friends in big business. Even more annoying, perhaps, for Anna Soubry, who unlike Wollaston had to back the decision in the Commons this morning even though she personally supports plain packaging. In response to an

Charles Moore Charles Moore

We know Andrew Mitchell was framed. Now, give him his old job back

Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign as the Tory Chief Whip last autumn because he called policemen at the Downing Street gates ‘plebs’. Then it turned out, as I suggested at the time, that he had not done so. It emerged that there was a conspiracy — quite how deep has not yet been made public — by police and accomplices to attribute to Mr Mitchell words which he did not speak. People pretending to be by-standing members of the public said how shocked they were by Mr Mitchell’s remarks, and then it turned out that no bystanders had been within earshot of whatever it was that Mr Mitchell had said.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle gossip points to ‘innocents’ and women

There’s just a week left of the Parliamentary term to go before MPs go back to their constituencies to mull that awkward pay rise over the summer. But one thing that’s keeping Tory MPs from relaxing is the possibility of a ministerial reshuffle next week. The word from reliable sources is that it will take place next Thursday with a sign-off meeting this Monday. This is a minister-of-state-level reshuffle. The names of supposedly vulnerable ministers are circulating. They include housing minister Mark Prisk, energy minister Greg Barker, universities minister David Willetts, and employment minister Mark Hoban. They’re known as the ‘innocents’: ministers who are all thought to be doing a

Thursday

Matthew Parris

Why partisan columnists (like me) are doomed

An email exchange with a Conservative-leaning friend this week left me feeling sheepish. But if shameful my behaviour be, I’m not alone in the shame. I thought it worth sharing the conversation. We were corresponding about Ed Miliband’s stand-off with the Unite trade union. In a message to my friend, I remarked: ‘It’s reaching the point where (paradoxically) EM’s tendency to take the line of least resistance may actually push him into confronting Unite.’ And that’s true: worms turn and it’s not always good politics to corner people. But it is the next part of the message that I’m hard-put to defend. If Miliband wimps out, I said, then ‘I

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Can Theresa May avoid a Tory row on the European Arrest Warrant?

Walk down a corridor in the Palace of Westminster today and you’ll likely be taken aside by a Tory backbencher who wants to vent their frustration about Britain opting back into the European Arrest Warrant. At the moment, the mood is of concern rather than rebellion — a reflection of the fact that Tory MPs are in a fairly positive frame of mind after a good couple of political weeks for the party. But what should alarm Downing Street is that it isn’t just the usual Eurosceptic crowd expressing concern. Indeed, some of those who are most concerned are those who David Cameron has relied on recently to defend his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour MP makes amusing attempt to wreck Tory EU referendum bill

The Conservatives are a happy bunch at the moment. But for how much longer? They might be riding on the crest of a wave after the second reading of James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill for an EU referendum. But already forces are at work to disrupt the happy harmony. Labour MP Mike Gapes has this week tabled a rather amusing series of amendments to the legislation which are almost certainly an attempt to sow division in the Tory ranks. They call for: – A referendum on the terms of Britain’s membership of the EU rather than just on whether Britain should be a member. – A referendum on a date

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Miliband’s challenge is an opportunity for the Tories to reach out to union members

The warm reception to Ed Miliband’s speech yesterday was so eerily positive that it could never have lasted. Today we get the first taste of the real battle to come, with the GMB warning that they’d be ‘lucky if 10% of our current affiliation levels say yes, they want to be members of the Labour party’ and that as a result the union could disaffiliate from the party. This is a challenge for Ed Miliband to show that he is determined to force these changes, even if it means calling a party-wide ballot to overrule the union bosses But this is also an opportunity for the Conservatives. If the unions

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: How the Tories plan to attack Ukip

Last week Lynton Crosby and David Cameron briefed Conservative MPs on the threat posed by Ukip. Their timing was impeccable: today’s YouGov poll showing 19 per cent of Conservative members would seriously consider voting for Nigel Farage’s party could have sent Tory MPs into orbit, but instead they have been reassured that the party has a proper plan to deal with the enemies to the right, rather than the messy ‘fruitcake’ strategy of the past few years. I am told by a number of MPs who were present that Crosby talked generally about what attracts people to Ukip, rather than the specific problem of next year’s European elections. This was