David cameron

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs or St Paul’s protest?

The Hair Shirt walked abroad at PMQs today. Those attending the Square Mile sleepover finally forced their agenda into the political mainstream. The question is, what is their agenda? A protest that doesn’t define its programme allows others to define it for them. And today both party leaders tried to harness the anti-capitalist spirit for their own political ends. Ed Miliband claimed to be scandalised by a recent, and arguable, surge of 49 per cent in directors’ pay. He demanded that the PM take action. Cameron seemed equally appalled at the news that fat cats have been getting fatter during the recession. But he wasn’t taking any sermons from Labour.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron versus Balls

The real clash at PMQs today was between Ed Balls’ heckling and David Cameron’s temper. Balls was in a particularly chirpy mood. He started off his impression of an Australian slip fielder as soon as the Prime Minister arrived at the despatch box. The flat lining gesture made an early appearance, along with his signals telling Cameron to calm down.   But the moment when Balls seemed to really get under Cameron’s skin was when he pointed at the overwhelmingly male Treasury bench as Cameron talked about the importance of getting more women on boards. Two questions later, Cameron responded to a Balls’ heckle by saying that ‘the shadow Chancellor

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Greek land mines that Cameron must avoid

When the topic of Greece comes up at PMQs, David Cameron will need to avoid stepping on three land mines. The first task is not to say anything about what is going on in Athens, or Rome for that matter, that will exacerbate market anxieties. The second is a diplomatic challenge, to avoid anything that would sour Britain’s pitch ahead of the G20. The third, and perhaps most difficult one, is to keep his own backbenchers on side.   An ever growing number of Tories doubt that a 17 member Euro and fiscal union is in Britain’s, or Europe’s, interests. Already, some Tory backbenchers are talking about going to Greece,

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

The Great Repatriation Question

And the word of the weekend is ‘repatriate’. Not only do we have yet another poll showing that the British public, when asked, would prefer to tug powers back from Brussels, but there’s also this eyecatching story in the Daily Telegraph. No.10, we’re told, is pushing Whitehall departments to determine just exactly where Europe’s influence could be counteracted. There is also a backbench group of Tory MPs providing covering ideas.  So why hasn’t this been happening before now, particularly given how frustrated those around David Cameron have become with the constant torrent of EU directives? Part of the answer is that the events of the past week have made all

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Daylight scrapping time

Aha, the Spectator’s cover story is gathering pace. If you were tuned into The BBC’s Daily Politics just now, then you will have enjoyed a preview of the terrific scrap this time-shifting proposal could provoke. They had on both Rebecca Harris MP, who is pushing for us to move to Central European Time (CET), and Peter Hitchens, who revealed in his article for us that the government is minded to back the idea (as well as describing Harris as “one of those homogenised, UHT female Tory MPs”). The pair were, of course, mediated by Andrew Neil. We shall try to secure video of the discussion, if possible. But, in the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Europe’s new battlefield

The long flight from Australia should give David Cameron plenty time to think about Europe, and how it just won’t go away. He didn’t want this battle — not now, not ever. But in the Daily Telegraph today, the first in what will be a weekly column, I lay out the battlefield that awaits him on his return. First, this bailout is not the end. A trillion Euros needs to come from somewhere, and today the Chinese are being tapped up — God knows what we’ll agree to in return. But that doesn’t address what is, as Mervyn King has said, a solvency issue rather than a liquidity issue. And

Thursday

James Forsyth

Cameron’s Euro-migraine

The picture of Nicolas Sarkozy not even turning around to shake David Cameron’s hand rather neatly sums up the Prime Minister’s problems right now. The danger for him is that the 17 Eurozone countries start writing a new set of rules and riding roughshod over the interests of those countries that are outside. This would be bad enough at anytime but with the Conservative party on the warpath over Europe it is a clear and present danger to the Prime Minister. As one ally of the Prime Minister said to me today the PM’s predicament is made even harder by the fact that many of the 10 countries outside the

Jonathan Jones

Labour aren’t capitalising on the government’s woes

Ipsos MORI’s latest monthly political monitor is just out, and it doesn’t bring much good news for either the government or the opposition. 63 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied with the government and 54 dissatisfied with David Cameron — both the highest proportions since the election. On the public’s number one issue — the economy — just 36 per cent say the government’s done a good job. And even wose, a whopping 77 per cent say they’ve done a bad job of keeping unemployment down — hardly surprising considering unemployment has risen by 100,000 since the election. But while all this presents a great opportunity for Labour, other numbers show how

Peter Hoskin

The government’s European tribulations continue

It has been a fraught and ill-tempered week in Westminster. And — whether it is the rumour that Tory backbencher Andrea Leadsom told George Osborne to “f**k off”, or David Cameron’s dismissal of Ed Miliband as a “complete mug” — most of it has had Europe at its root.  So it is, too, with the latest news of government strife. Iain Duncan Smith, it’s reported, had a ferocious row with the Tory chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin, over the EU referendum . Apparently, he warned that, “If you ever put me in this position again, that’s it”. As it happens, there is more on IDS’s disgruntlement in Charles Moore’s column for

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Ellwood returns as PPS to the Minister for Europe

Tobias Ellwood has been appointed as PPS to the Europe Minister David Lidington. The vacancy had been created when Adam Holloway decided to resign from the job so that he could vote for the EU referendum motion. This appointment is a nifty piece of party management. Ellwood was Liam Fox’s PPS but when Fox resigned, the new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond decided, to the resentment of some Tory backbenchers, not to keep him on. Instead, Hammond chose to appoint Clare Perry, a member of the 2010 intake who had worked for George Osborne and Hammond in opposition. Some Tory MPs, and particularly those who felt passed over, saw this as evidence that

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband fails to connect

Easy-peasy at PMQs today. All Ed Miliband had to do was slice open the Coalition’s wounds on Europe and dibble his claws in the spouts of blood. But his attack had no sense of bite or surprise. And his phraseology was lumpen. He used all six questions gently stroking the issue of Europe rather than driving a nail through it.  He asked about growth. He asked about the ’22 committee. He asked about Nick Clegg’s “smash-and-grab” phrase to describe the repatriation of powers. He asked about the social chapter. He asked about everything he could think of, and it was clear he couldn’t think of the right thing to ask.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron battles it out

David Cameron came out swinging today at PMQs. Knowing that Ed Miliband would try and exploit the Tory rebellion over Europe on Monday night, Cameron went for the Labour leader. He called him a “complete mug” and mocked him as being detached from reality. At the end of the exchange, Osborne gripped Cameron’s shoulder in congratulation – a sign that the pair knew that they needed a strong performance today to calm their backbenches. The other notable aspect of PMQs was its emphasis on the new political battleground: women. The Labour MP Gloria Del Piero asked the PM why the government was more unpopular with women than men, which gave

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Has the EU debacle hurt Cameron?

Leaving aside Cameron’s relationship with his own backbenchers for now, how has yesterday’s vote affected the public’s view of him? The first proper hint comes from today’s YouGov poll (conducted on Sunday and yesterday), which asks respondents to rate the qualities of each of the party leaders. Among the public as a whole, there is no significant change in views of the Prime Minister since last month. But there is a change in what Conservatives think of him, and not in the direction Cameron would like. Now just 40 per cent of Tory voters think Cameron is honest, down from 53 per cent last a month ago. And a mere

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron needs a new management style

There seem to be three schools of thought among those close to the leadership about last night’s rebellion. One even now maintains that the issue was handled as well as it could have been and blames the rebels for all the trouble. These people don’t seem to realise that what they are saying is effectively that the Conservative parliamentary party is unmanageable. The second group says that the issue of Europe sends the Conservative party loopy. But they also concede that Number 10 got caught up in the madness too. The third lot are the ones who have grasped the significance of last night’s events. Despite being loyalists, they are

Peter Hoskin

The coalition bares its tensions over Europe

Here’s an irony: last night’s EU fandango was the fifth largest vote in favour of the government this year. And yet there is little about the situation that is favourable to the government this morning, as the story moves on from Tory splits to coalition ones.  It started with Michael Gove’s appearance on the Today Programme earlier. The Secretary of State for Education put in a much more conciliatory performance than William Hague managed yesterday; praising the “cordiality” of the Tory rebels, and reassuring them that the Tory leadership would like to see specific powers returned from Europe “in this Parliament”. As he put it: “We need to win more

Monday

James Forsyth

43 percent of Tory backbenchers vote for an EU referendum in defiance of David Cameron

The scale of tonight’s rebellion is quite remarkable, 43 percent of Tory backbenchers have defied a three line whip—and we are only 18 months into the parliament. Indeed, if you factor in the abstentions more than half of Tory backbenchers rebelled. This should be a wake-up call to David Cameron. He needs to develop a proper policy for repatriating powers from Brussels, change his style of party management, and reform the Whips office.  This rebellion will encourage the hard-line Euro-sceptics to try again and again. They will reckon, rightly, that as the parliament goes on the number of potential rebels will grow. If they can get this number of rebels

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Europe Minister’s PPS quits over referendum vote

Adam Holloway, PPS to the Europe Minister David Lidington, has just effectively quit his job by giving a speech setting out his intention to vote for the motion. That the Europe Minister’s PPS is walking over this issue is an embarrassment for the government and a sign of how strongly opinion on this issue is running. The most striking thing about William Hague’s speech was the near silence in which it was listened to on the Tory benches. When Hague mocked the motion, he didn’t draw laughs from even the most sycophantic backbenchers. Whatever happens tonight, this debate has widened divisions on the Tory side. There is a real danger

John Rentoul

Another voice: Why Cameron had no choice but to fight

Fraser performed a valuable service to the MPs currently debating a motion proposing a referendum on membership of the European Union by imagining what he thought David Cameron ought to have said: “Sure, guys, have your vote. It’s a backbench motion, so the government won’t take part and as you know I’ve booked a trip abroad next Thursday anyway so I won’t be here. But I was serious when I said those petitions are a way to ‘rebuild trust in politics’. If this reached the threshold I set — 100,000 votes — then I’m happy for this to be debated, with a free vote. If you ask me, it’s an