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.
Just when the whips were sighing with relief that Europe has been pushed down the agenda by Lords reform, a rather awkward letter from over 100 Tory MPs flops on to the Prime Minister’s doormat. ConHome has the scoop this morning that John Baron has brought together a large group of MPs who are calling
On Monday, David Cameron reiterated his opposition to scrapping the winter fuel payment as a universal benefit. During his speech on welfare, the Prime Minister said: ‘There is also a debate about some of the extra benefits that pensioners can receive – and whether they should be means-tested. On this I want to be very
Ed Miliband is going to have to start paying Nadine Dorries a salary if the Conservative MP provides him with any more quotes to fling across the chamber at Prime Minister’s Questions. Today the Labour leader was able to draw from the deep well of Dorries’ twitter feed when he faced David Cameron. Earlier in
George Osborne’s U-turn today on fuel duty seems both canny and confusing. It comes just 48 hours after a denial from Transport Secretary Justine Greening that the Government would scrap the 3p rise in August, but appears to be warding off the threat of a backbench rebellion in the Commons next week on a motion
The concessions that David Cameron has reportedly offered the Conservative backbench on Lords reform are really not sufficient to keep them out of the no lobbies. Switching from a salary to a daily attendance allowance, which would keep peers’ earnings below £60,000 in most cases, is hardly going to set the benches alight. The reason
This morning’s borrowing figures from the Office for National Statistics are a blow for George Osborne, showing public sector borrowing up £2.7bn on the same time last year. The stats show the government borrowed £17.9bn in May, while the 2011-12 deficit is now £127.6bn, up £3.2bn. Labour have seized on the figures, saying it’s the
This morning at our Schools Revolution conference, Michael Gove came under sustained attack from academies architect Lord Adonis and Neil O’Brien from Policy Exchange, who pointed to a slowing-down in the number of primary sponsored academies being set up. O’Brien pointed out that the majority – around 80% – of academies set up under Gove
Why has David Cameron chosen to launch what is effectively a 2015 manifesto pledge on welfare today? The Prime Minister’s speech, which he has just finished giving, had quite interesting timing: we still, after all, have just under three years before the next general election. Cameron has already dropped hints about how much further the
Labour’s Opposition day debate tomorrow on Gove-levels might not reveal as much as the party hopes about where Liberal Democrat MPs stand on the Education Secretary’s planned reforms. True, you won’t see a Lib Dem lift so much as a finger in outright support of what Nick Clegg dubbed ‘a two-tier system’ created by scrapping