Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
At their autumn conference, the Tories managed to get the last word in on the cost of living debate by explaining that you can’t just talk about living standards while not having a proper plan for the economy. This was all very well and good and the party leadership was confident that this was an
It’s funny that the pizzas that ministers, advisers and lobbyists munched as they thrashed out a deal on press regulation in March have become a symbol of all that was wrong with those late-night negotiations. Today when Maria Miller decided to distance herself from the talks in Ed Miliband’s office, a source close to the
Poor old Ed Balls. He’s been making predictions of doom that now appear to have gone too far and too fast. The latest blow to the Shadow Chancellor is that the IMF, which he went through a period of definitely liking a lot when its lieutenants started suggesting that austerity was ‘playing with fire’, has upgraded its
Diane Abbott’s exit from the Labour frontbench has come later than the former Shadow Public Health Minister imagined. She had planned to resign over the Syria vote, only to find, rather to her dismay, that her party leadership had taken the position she supported in the end. Behind the scenes, the briefing is that she
If the strange mood of Tory unity over Europe is giving you the heebie-jeebies, then have a look at high-speed rail. When disunity boils over, which it is likely to do later this autumn, it will cause the party real problems. Unless, of course, Adam Afriyie decides to launch some kind of coup on HS2,
Adam Afriyie’s sleepless nights are over. His amendments to the European Union (Referendum) Bill are now down and waiting hopefully for signatures. The MP claimed at the weekend that he had cross-party support for his call for an early referendum, but currently only two names – Afriyie’s and Keith Vaz – feature on the paper.
Labour types are pretty grumpy that yesterday’s far-reaching reshuffle of their ranks is being billed as another ‘lurch to the left’. The reality is a little more complex: the party hasn’t lurched to the left so much as lurched towards being honest about what it believes. This was what Ed Miliband did in Brighton two
The details of the government reshuffle are currently being hammered out at the 8.30 Downing Street meeting. But as MPs and ministers nervously wait for the call from the Number 10 switchboard, Ed Miliband will be plotting his own changes to his top team for later this week. And as key Shadow Cabinet members such
As the reshuffle heaves in to view, plenty of names are in the frame for promotion, both on the backbenches and junior ministerial ranks. Some of those names include members of the Number 10 policy board, chosen for that role because they were all deemed to be talented individuals. This means they are also considered
In the past few minutes, Deputy Chief Whip John Randall and Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith have quit the government ahead of an expected reshuffle this week. James outlined some of the movers and shakers in his column today, and we will bring you full details of the departures and moves as they come, although
Adam Afriyie has certainly chosen an odd time to sow discord in Tory ranks over Europe. The party is so happy that it appeared oddly sedated at its conference last week. Even normally grumpy MPs are chuffed with the way Lynton Crosby and Grant Shapps are sharpening the Conservative message. And the PM has, in
When Tom Watson left the Labour frontbench, he was fulsome in praise (in the correct sense of the phrase) for his leader. But since then, he’s not exactly been trying that hard to keep Ed Miliband in a state of zen-like calm. He told the Marr Show this morning that he would support Adam Afriyie’s
James Wharton, the Tory MP leading the EU referendum bill through the House of Commons, has become something of a minor celebrity in the party, with admiring young things approaching him at the Conservative conference last week as though he were a minister of Ken Clarke’s standing, not a backbencher. His performance with the legislation
Simon Burns isn’t the only Tory MP who fancies a crack at the Deputy Speakership, even if, as James has blogged, he might be the preferred Number 10 candidate. Other names include Nadine Dorries and Eleanor Laing. But I’ve just spoken to Brian Binley, who says that he has pretty much made up his mind
When David Cameron first addressed Parliament on the Francis Report, he told MPs that he didn’t want to seek scapegoats. Some of his MPs were disappointed that the Tory leadership wasn’t going after Andy Burnham or Sir David Nicholson. Well, the latter has left, and the former is looking vulnerable in a forthcoming Labour reshuffle,
One of the problems with localism is that it sounds very grand and clever in opposition, and then turns out to be a nightmare to implement in reality. A minister recently remarked to me rather grumpily recently that ‘all the good people left local government because Labour starved them of responsibility’, and a lack of
It’s hardly a surprise that Ed Miliband has called for another inquiry following the row about the Daily Mail’s treatment of his father. The Labour leader is always calling for one inquiry or another. But normally these inquiries are led by someone outside the organisation that Miliband is taking issue with: his latest call is
David Cameron’s speech to Tory conference yesterday was supposed to be policy-free so that the media would pick up his list of achievements because it had no other choice. The problem with this, though, was that the papers found a policy in the speech anyway, and if they did splash on the speech, they chose
1. Labour set the agenda for this conference. Ed Miliband might be preoccupied by his row with the Daily Mail about his father, but he can take heart that his shift to the left in Brighton last week had a huge influence over this Conservative party conference. This wasn’t just the cost of living agenda,
Although David Cameron’s speech was deliberately light on policy, it did contain one hint about a manifesto commitment for the 2015 general election. The Prime Minister told the conference that ‘we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the