Conservative party

One interesting nugget from Lord Ashcroft’s latest batch of polling is what his focus groups in two seats – Sutton and Cheam, and Elmet and Rothwell – had to say about the parties’ messages. Here’s a quick summary: Conservative: ‘Finish the job and get back on track’. Labour: ‘Vote Labour to save the NHS’, possibly adding ‘and stop the cuts’ or ‘and tax the rich’. Liberal Democrat: ‘Vote Lib Dem to balance the extremes – to split the difference’. Ukip: ‘Leave the EU and control immigration.’ Greens: ‘Vote Green to save the planet.’ Ashcroft was also struck by the cut-through achieved by the Greens’ now-defunct policy of decriminalising membership of

With the opinion polls so tight at the moment, we’re having to look for other ways to try and work out what the general election result will be. One indicator worth watching is which party is spending more time thinking about the leadership contest that would follow an election. Now, there has been plenty of speculation about this on both the Tory and Labour benches in recent times. But in the last few weeks, I’ve picked up more of it from the Labour side. One Labour frontbencher calculates that the focus of ‘half the party is on what happens next’. Last week’s Labour kerfuffle over NHS policy was driven, in large

Senior Tories yesterday protested the removal of Theresa May’s special advisers from the candidates’ list, Coffee House understands. There had been talk of mounting a ‘rescue mission’ to reinstate Nick Timothy and Stephen Parkinson after they were struck off the list before Christmas, but at a board meeting of the Conservative party yesterday, MPs representing the 1922 Committee expressed their discomfort at the way the pair had been treated. Many in the party feel it was a vindictive swipe at Timothy and Parkinson, who do not enjoy good relations with Number 10. They had hoped that the board, which is the ultimate decision-making authority in the party, might overturn the

Ukip MEP Amjad Bashir has defected to the Conservative Party this evening, following an internal party investigation. Tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph reports that Bashir, who was the party’s communities spokesman, says Ukip are a ‘party of ruthless self-interest’ as well as ‘pretty amateur’. He also says Ukip has a ‘ridiculous’ lack of policies. David Cameron has declared himself ‘absolutely delighted’. Just before news of his defection broke, Ukip released a statement announcing Bashir had been suspended pending an investigation into ‘extremely serious’ issues: ‘The UK Independence Party has a zero-tolerance policy and takes the matters at hand extremely seriously. The allegations against Mr Bashir are of a grave nature and we will

This election is going to be terribly confusing, something the latest TV debate proposals from the broadcasters highlight very nicely indeed. The debates are starting to resemble an episode of Take Me Out with the number of parties who’ll be standing behind lecterns growing – and calls for even more to join. One of the things that’s adding to the confusion is that no party appears to have the momentum, and what momentum there is has become difficult to discern in the usual ways as Parliament is emptying on a Wednesday night as MPs head off to take part in 650 by-elections. Because no one party has momentum, both main

Who are the latest contenders in the Tory leadership battle and how much support do they have? That’s the question that Tory MPs and pundits love to chew over, even though there is no contest. The latest fixation is whether George Osborne has rowed behind the Boris campaign. James looked at this yesterday, revealing that Boris might quite fancy taking over from David Cameron after an EU referendum in 2017. Of course, the funny thing is that there isn’t a leadership contest because David Cameron is currently secure as Prime Minister. And as I explain in today’s Evening Standard, he could be secure for a while longer – where Tory

For most of this parliament, Downing Street has been thoroughly paranoid about Boris Johnson and his intentions. Any attempt by the Mayor to reach out to Tory MPs was met with deep suspicion. But now, the Tory leadership is actively pushing Boris to see Tory MPs — he was even invited to join the Whips for a Whips Supper at Boisdale last week. This is all evidence of the unspoken deal between Boris and the Tory leadership. He will be loyal and campaign hard for Cameron. In exchange, it will allow him to cultivate Tory MPs; helping him to rectify his biggest weakness ahead of any Tory leadership contest. These

Downing Street was a happy place after David Cameron and Barack Obama’s joint press conference yesterday. The US President was effusive in his praise for Cameron and his seeming endorsement of Britain’s economic strategy has delighted Number 10. But, I suspect, that in terms of actually influencing how people vote, the success of pensioner bonds might be more important. Osborne announced these pensioner bonds in the last Budget and they pay 2.8 per cent interest on a one year bond and 4 per cent on a 3 year bond. They offer the over 65s a far better deal than anything available on the high street. That 110,000 pensioners have purchased

There is considerable frustration in the Tory ranks about the way the Prime Minister is handling the TV debates. Both those who think David Cameron should be doing the debates and those who think he should be doing everything in his power to avoid them are frustrated that the issue is beginning to take up the time that the Tories should be using to talk endlessly about the economy. They point out that they’ve been told not to talk about immigration or Europe – or indeed the NHS, if they fancy it – and focus relentlessly on the economy but are ending up having to contort themselves into strange positions that