Political coverage from Sam Coates on Times Online.
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The vast majority of MPs - 146 of the 172 - who voted to keep the second home allowance, which allows MPs to buy items on the "John Lewis list", were Labour, including 33 ministers. The list in full is:
Labour: Nick Ainger (Carmarthen West & Pembrokeshire South), Graham Allen (Nottingham North), David Anderson (Blaydon), Janet Anderson (Rossendale & Darwen), Ian Austin (Dudley North), Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West), Gordon Banks (Ochil & Perthshire South), Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Margaret Beckett (Derby South), Clive Betts (Sheffield Attercliffe), Liz Blackman (Erewash), Roberta Blackman-Woods (Durham, City of), Bob Blizzard (Waveney), David Borrow (Ribble South (South Ribble)), Nick Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East & Wallsend), Richard Burden (Birmingham Northfield), Colin Burgon (Elmet), Andy Burnham (Leigh), Stephen Byers (Tyneside North), Alan Campbell (Tynemouth), Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), Ben Chapman (Wirral South), David Chaytor (Bury North), Tom Clarke (Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill), David Clelland (Tyne Bridge), Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley), Ann Coffey (Stockport), Harry Cohen (Leyton & Wanstead), Michael Connarty (Linlithgow & Falkirk East), Rosie Cooper (Lancashire West), Ann Cryer (Keighley), John Cummings (Easington), Jim Cunningham (Coventry South), Tony Cunningham (Workington), Wayne David (Caerphilly), Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West), Janet Dean (Burton), Frank Dobson (Holborn & St Pancras), Brian Donohoe (Ayrshire Central), Jim Dowd (Lewisham West), Angela Eagle (Wallasey), Maria Eagle (Liverpool Garston), Jeff Ennis (Barnsley East & Mexborough), Bill Etherington (Sunderland North), Caroline Flint (Don Valley), Paul Flynn (Newport West), Michael Foster (Worcester), Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings & Rye), Mike Gapes (Ilford South), Dr Ian Gibson (Norwich North), Linda Gilroy (Plymouth Sutton), Nia Griffith (Llanelli), Andrew Gwynne (Denton & Reddish), Mike Hall (Weaver Vale), David Hamilton (Midlothian), Dai Havard (Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney), Stephen Hesford (Wirral West), Sharon Hodgson (Gateshead East & Washington West), Jimmy Hood (Lanark & Hamilton East), George Howarth (Knowsley North & Sefton East), Beverley Hughes (Stretford & Urmston), Joan Humble (Blackpool North & Fleetwood), Dr Brian Iddon (Bolton South East), Eric Illsley (Barnsley Central), Adam Ingram (East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow), Brian Jenkins (Tamworth), Diana Johnson (Hull North), Kevan Jones (Durham North), Martyn Jones (Clwyd South), Tessa Jowell (Dulwich & West Norwood), Eric Joyce (Falkirk), Alan Keen (Feltham & Heston), David Kidney (Stafford), Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool Walton), Bob Laxton (Derby North), Tom Levitt (High Peak), Ivan Lewis (Bury South), Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central), Ian Lucas (Wrexham), Tommy McAvoy (Rutherglen & Hamilton West), Stephen McCabe (Birmingham Hall Green), Christine McCafferty (Calder Valley), Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East), Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Portsmouth North), Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham & Morden), James McGovern (Dundee West), Anne McGuire (Stirling), Shona McIsaac (Cleethorpes), Rosemary McKenna (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East), Tony McNulty (Harrow East), Denis MacShane (Rotherham), Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham Perry Barr), Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West), Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South), Alan Meale (Mansfield), Gillian Merron (Lincoln), Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port & Neston), Madeleine Moon (Bridgend), Jessica Morden (Newport East), Elliot Morley (Scunthorpe), George Mudie (Leeds East), Denis Murphy (Wansbeck), Paul Murphy (Torfaen), Mike O’Brien (Warwickshire North), Eddie O’Hara (Knowsley South), Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock), James Plaskitt (Warwick & Leamington), Bridget Prentice (Lewisham East), Gordon Prentice (Pendle), Gwyn Prosser (Dover), Ken Purchase (Wolverhampton North East), Nick Raynsford (Greenwich & Woolwich), John Robertson (Glasgow North West), Terry Rooney (Bradford North), Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd), Christine Russell (Chester, City of), Alison Seabeck (Plymouth Devonport), Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield), Jimmy Sheridan (Paisley & Renfrewshire North), Angela C Smith (Sheffield Hillsborough), Angela E Smith (Basildon), Jacqui Smith (Redditch), Anne Snelgrove (Swindon South), John Spellar (Warley), Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes South West), Gavin Strang (Edinburgh East), Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston), Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South), Mark Tami (Alyn & Deeside), Gareth Thomas (Harrow West), Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury), Don Touhig (Islwyn), Derek Twigg (Halton), Kitty Ussher (Burnley), Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Lynda Waltho (Stourbridge), Claire Ward (Watford), Tom Watson (West Bromwich East), Dave Watts (St Helens North), Phil Wilson (Sedgefield), Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central), Shaun Woodward (St Helens South), Phil Woolas (Oldham East & Saddleworth), David Wright (Telford), Iain Wright (Hartlepool), Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne & Sheppey)
Conservative: David Amess (Southend West), James Arbuthnot (Hampshire North East), Henry Bellingham (Norfolk North West), Brian Binley (Northampton South), Sir John Butterfill (Bournemouth West), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), John Greenway (Ryedale), Gerald Howarth (Aldershot), Bernard Jenkin (Essex North), Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove), Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest), Anne McIntosh (Vale of York), Andrew Mackay (Bracknell), Andrew Rosindell (Romford), Hugo Swire (Devon East), Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth & Horncastle), Angela Watkinson (Upminster), Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone & The Weald), David Wilshire (Spelthorne), Lady Ann Winterton (Congleton), Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield)
Independent: Dai Davies (Blaenau Gwent), Robert Wareing (Liverpool West Derby).
Voted in both lobbies (votes discounted) Labour’s Barbara Follett (Stevenage) and Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester South) and Ukip’s Bob Spink (Castle Point).
Fizzing anger continues about yesterday's expenses vote. Tory sources have named the Labour MP they claim swore at David Cameron. They allege Anne McGuire the MP for Stirling and a DWP minister, saying he was a "f***** toff". She utterly denies this, insisting she would never say such a thing like that. What happened in the heat of the moment remains a little unclear: though it's high risk for the Tories to go round naming names as they were last night.
PS herogram for the Liberal Democrats. Not a single one voted to block the expenses reforms
Half an hour ago, MPs had their first meeting with the Members' Estimate committee over expenses. It went badly for Team Speaker. Around 40 MPs were there, and they have unravelled the fine print of their proposals. As I said in the principles of their case may be OK. But the fine print is making many people unhappy. The people who want this thrown out, say:
1. The external audits of MPs expenses will cost £1,500 a day and take three days. They are designed to interrogate staff over whether they represent taxpayer value for money, even though the MP, rather than Parliament, is their legal employer.
2. If an MPs main home is designated as London, and they 'overnight' in their constituency, why should'nt they claim the £30 a day. How will they "prove" they are working.
3. If they keep the current system - including the ability to by furniture and so on - MPs will restrain themselves from serious abuse because every single receipt will appear on the net.
The Speaker's committee weren't exactly radical, but the proposals would, overall, have reduced the amount claimed and stopped them from buying furniture. But now this proposal is looking doomed, with one member telling The Times a few moments ago: "We're going to get beaten, the payroll vote are not here." The people putting down amendments also believe they have won.
It could be a painful evening for Parliament.
It's crunch day over MPs' salary and expenses, not that honourable members really want you to know it.
On salary, MPs will be voting around 3.15pm on whether to accept a more generous (linked to public sector average earnings, 3.5 per cent, plus £1,950 catch-up over three years) or less generous package (no one-off raise, annual rise linked to less generous senior civil service approx 2.5 per cent). Gordon Brown, all government payroll and all Tory frontbenchers will have to vote for the latter. It's unclear whether there will be enough other MPs to overturn the government's will.
But the vote to watch is the 5.45pm one on expenses - because it'll tell you so much about whether MPs get the public anger over the subject or not. Following the Conway scandal, the Speaker and his Members Estimate Committee launched a six month review of the system. Despite being derided while it was underway, the package they came up has widely been regarded as pretty fair without being overly generous. No more furnishings of the sort seen on the John Lewis list, no refurbishing your house, everything must have receipts.
Under these plans, newer MPs with large mortgage interest payments will receive roughly the same amount of money, but long serving MPs - who have paid off their mortgage - will get a lot less because they are no longer able to buy new TVs.
But a group of Labour MPs are deeply unhappy. Don Touhig, Helen Jones, Dawn Butler, Jim Sheridan, Ann Cryer and Kevan Jones have put down an amendment throwing all of the above changes and keep the current system which has caused so much scandal. Labour MPs are being in heated discussion the tearoom to back their proposals, and there are apparently signs the 1922 committee representing Tory MPs are shifting too.
If they succeed, it would send a clear signal that MPs are not able to modernise themselves, and all hell could break loose. They are likely be subject to an external inquiry on expenses, possibly by Sir John Lyon, the results of which will be even more painful.
You can bet Keith Vaz is loving !-gate. At Gordon Brown's meeting before select committee chairs this morning, Vaz asked Mr Brown: “You only got your legislation through by nine votes. Is it the case that you authorised or offered any backbench Member of Parliament a peerage or a knighthood or honour, or even the Governorship of Bermuda in order to vote for your legislation?” A showman to the end
Labour are searching for an idea, any idea, to get them out of their current malaise and they are becoming as extreme as they are desperate. The latest advance from Slough MP Fiona McTaggart was to suggest having a referendum on Europe which would take place three months before a general election. Not, you understand, because the battle needs to be fought but to try and expose divisions in the Tories.
A blissful few days free from Westminster politicians in Glastonbury. But there was no shortage of political activism over the weekend in Worthy Farm in Somerset. Politics without the politicians - campaigning charities, unions running the beer tents, plenty of eco-yurts, recycling activism, general save-the-worldness - seems as fashionable as it ever was. It only becomes toxic when the same views expressed come from the mouth of an MP.
As far as I could see, only one Westminster organisation trying to make the leap and connect high and low politics - Cameron's favourite think tank, Policy Exchange, was there with director Anthony Browne hosting an event with Green MEP Caroline Lucas. It would probably do most of the Westminster village a lot of good to spend the weekend there once a year.
So one year on from Gordon joining Downing Street the Champagne was rolled out -- though not for him.
Last night was a drinks do in the Downing Street garden to say farewell to Fiona Gordon, the Gord's political secretary.
Amid the usual speeches and bonhomie Spencer Livermore made a reappearance from the advertising badlands. But many felt the big news of the night was the promotion of Joe Irvin as the new political secretary
Irvin is a former director of public affairs at BAA and a director of the Freedom to Fly pro-aviation lobby group -- and one time special adviser to John Prescott. But it's the appointment may have disappointed some: it means that Jonathan Ashworth - Fiona Gordon's deputy who was the Number 10 secondee to the disastrous Crewe & Nantwich by-election - has been passed over for the job twice.
Today the equalities bill has been published, and whatever else you might think, the scale of Harriet Harman's ambition is striking. She wants every private company that does business with government - 30 per cent - to reveal the the scale of the difference in pay between male and female employees before they get any contracts. It's hard to see this working in practice, and I'd be interested to see if it survives the Parliamentary process.
Fascinating to watch the Tory response, however, as it completely exposed the gulf between modernisers and traditionalists. Despite a few quibbles here and there, Theresa May and the front bench team gave their strong backing to the proposals. This left several backbenchers "foaming", as one Labour MP shouted across the chamber.
Of the seven Tory backbenchers in the chamber, two were in favour - Paul Goodman and John Bercow and five - Philip Davies, both Wintertons, Graham Brady , Angela Watkinson, were, in Bercow's words, the Taleban tendency. Ann Winterton, who hasn't had the strongest of backing from Tory high command recently, saying "I'm completely at odds with my own party because I’ve never believed in
positive discrimination" while Philip Davies called it the "most politically correct bill ever from the most politically correct minister."
The Labour left were highly disciplined ahead of the 1997 general election. The right managed to keep shtum for the Tories during last September's conference. So warning lights should be whirring over the division between the Tory front and back benches.
PR Week are reporting - and Number 10 are confirming - that Beth Russell, Gordon Brown's speech writer, is leaving. She was always planning to return to the Treasury. Now a letter has gone out across Whitehall to look for someone prepared for "a high profile and demanding post involving daily contact with the Prime Minister"
Her role was to "manage the process and policy content of speeches", making it a contender for worst job in Whitehall, since of course, El Gord insists on doing this himself. The extent of his involvement in everything is evident from the spidery felt tip marks scrawled over every paper he clutches.
In March, this passage from PR Week caused something of a meltdown Currently Brown's chief speech writer is former Treasury civil servant Beth Russell, although the PM has increasingly been relying on his close friend Colin Currie - a doctor by trade - to draft his speeches. Currie is currently working alongside Russell on a part-time basis.
Downing Street insiders indicated that Carter had expressed concern about this set-up. One senior source said: ‘It has been acknowledged that the Government's messages are too cluttered and that Gordon needs to show a bit more personality, rather than stilted language that he tends to use when he makes these speeches.'
Downing Street still seems a fairly unhappy place at the moment. Three of the longest serving members of the press office are leaving, and there are persistent signs that daggers are still drawn at the top of Team Brown. There are plenty of rumours about what Stephen Carter is doing and saying, but since his word appears to be taken in vain by others, getting the full picture is extremely difficult.
Have the Tories missed the opportunity of their own over removing the Mugabe knighthood?
"Sir" Robert Mugabe's honour has always been an embarrassment to the Tories as it was conferred during Sir John Major's premeirship.
David Cameron's office has had discreet conversation with Sir John's about whether it could be removed. Sir John is believed to have responded that because the knighthood was in the gift of the Queen - apparently the award did not come before Number 10 back in 1994 - it should be for the Government of the day to advise her to take it away.
Mr Cameron dropped the matter.
Tory sources made plain last night that Sir John was pleased the honour had been rescinded. And to be fair to the Tories until this week Labour minsiters seemed loath to do anything for fear of giving the dictator a propaganda point.
Perhaps you could be a hairdresser? He likes hairdressers. Be a character in Alastair Campbell's new novel
Our first sports celebration dinner coincided with the publication of edited extracts from Alastair Campbell’s diaries, The Blair Years, and our biggest moneyspinner last year, was a copy signed by the author as well as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Sir Alex Ferguson.
Now Alastair has turned his hand to fiction and his first novel, All In The Mind, will be published in November. This lot offers you the chance to be a (small) character in the novel. You will also be able to join Alastair for lunch to discuss which character you could be, or whether you want to wait to take a place in a future novel.
A year ago, on the steps of Downing Street, Gordon Brown announced he would follow his school motto, "I will try my utmost". In this evening's speech on social mobility, just e-mailed by Downing Street, he says it is "I will strive my utmost".
Just a slip, surely.
Update: grammarbore points out: Different translations of the same Latin motto: Usque conabor
Looking forward to seeing Total Politics in magazine form, but the website is promising. This, from the opening issue interview with the Prime Minister, particularly resonated, after a weekend of trying to prise a direct answer or two in Jeddah. Total Politics: Indiana Jones or James Bond?
PM: Indiana Jones: Indiana Jones- but I still quite like James Bond
There were many surreal moments in the 20 hour round trip to Jeddah (carbon emissions probably in excess of 100 tonnes) - not least the absurdly short time spent there.
Of the five hours we spent on the ground, 1 hour was travelling to and from the airport, 45 minutes was trying to get accredited for the oil conference (impossible in advance, obviously) and 30 minutes spent going through security twice to get into - and then out again - of a hotel somewhere near the conference where Downing Street deposited us to freshen up - only to realise on arrival there wasn't time and making us leave again. We're still waiting to see if they charge the $100 deposit for our no-show.
So in all honesty, I wouldn't say that - beyond Gordon's contributions - I completely got beneath the skin of the emergency oil conference hosted by the Saudi King this weekend (although I commend the report by colleague Robin Pagnamenta who did.)
This probably suited Downing Street, given the polite but sceptical reaction to Gordon's 'New Deal' for OPEC countries - encouraging the 13 oil producing countries like, say, Iran to invest in alternative energy worldwide like, say, a British nuclear power plant. Only as we were leaving did people start to ask how his plan for windfarms, solar power and nuclear power stations would help the 7 million a year additional petrol powered cars in India.
But the most surreal moment of all came when Downing Street came to brief us on a British poverty and social mobility speech that Gordon's giving today in the middle of the oil conference press centre. It is just about possible to provide a benevolent explanation, that by handing out a second story to travelling hacks Number 10 were trying to give 'value for money' for those who had forked out £1,300 for a seat on the plane. It didn, however, further restricted what little time we had time to wonder round and cause mischief on oil.
But it's hard not to be cynical about the central proposal - another super-dooper all new government announcement - £200 handouts for parents who take their kids to children's centres, which duly got written up. Not because it's not worthy, but because when I got home exhausted at 11pm and turned flicked on BBC Parliament (it's a sad life) they were re-running a select committee from June 9 in which Ed Balls was talking about this scheme. Ed Balls: May I take you down that road by referring to the pilots that we announced at the time of the Budget? For example, one thing that we are looking at is a child development grant, which would be extra support for mothers on the lowest incomes with children aged, say, two, if they are coming to children's centres, and if their children are getting their vaccinations-if they are doing the kind of things that we are trying to encourage more mothers to do with their children. There is a direct route through the child development grant to try to match resources to that kind of activity, which can often be good at laying the foundations for children to be successful in later life.
As I drifted off to sleep, I felt slightly cheated and wished I'd ignored the briefing.
Nobody likes a cynic. So here we stand, with the most open of minds, in the rain outside the grill gates between us and the Royal Suite at Heathrow, waiting for the Prime Minister so we can go to the Jeddah Hilton in Saudi (Heathrow Hilton less than half a mile from here) for a conference on oil prices where Gordon will be the only foreign head of state.
Over the next 18 hours we will be spending 13 hours travelling so he can make a 10 minute speech - the bulk of which was released to the Sunday newspapers - which will allow Gordo to tell people he is 'doing something' about oil prices. We haven't even arrived and the Algerians have already issued the draft communique. Gordo's press briefing will apparently be before the conference has even started. And they've just shaved fours hours off the trip
And Downing Street has kindly warned journalists they must not under any circumstances bring, er, smuggle anything dodgy in our luggage which could cause reputational embarrassment.
As if.
In an interview tonight with the Culture Secretary by the Blairite Progress magazine, saying David Davis should pick up the tab for the by-election which he forced today. But this call has rather got lost in the turmoil being caused by this section from his speech: But in the culture secretary’s book, there seems to be only one thing worse than Davis’ ‘posturing’ and ‘flouncing’ and that’s those who have fallen for it: ‘To people who get seduced by Tory talk of how liberal they are, I find something very curious in the man who was, and still is I believe, an exponent of capital punishment having late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls with Shami Chakrabarti.’
To DD and Jeremy Hunt, this is nothing short of a smear. Government clearly worried since they've put out a corrective "It was a light-hearted comment ... nothing more should be read into it" comment. "They're playing the man not the ball again, big mistake" says a Tory source. How big will this go?
On the day inflation hits 3.3 per cent making, interest rate rises immediately become more likely, building societies withdraw yet more mortgage deaks and unemployment rose at the highest rate in two years, Gordon has reached into history to repeat an old crowd-pleasing trick.
He told Cabinet this morning that government ministers would be forced to accept a pay freeze for 2008/09, echoing his trick in 1997 which sent Cherie Blair mad.
At the same time, the government has announced it does not agree with plans for MPs pay to rise by £650 a year and then uprated in future in line with the more generous Public Sector Average Earnings Index. MPs will now have to decide whether they follow the government's lead and adopt the hair shirt approach, or vote through an increase.
The vote is soon - July 3 - so there is not much time to get a rebellion going, but judging from conversations over the last month many MPs will be incandescent over what they see as serial under-payment over recent years. Senior MPs on the House of Commons Commission recommended a salary rise from £61,820 now to about £75,000 after the next general election, expected in 2010. This could prove to be smart politics from Gordon.
Zero chance, then, of the Tories supporting the government's party funding proposals. Jack Straw has left wiggle room over the introduction of party spending limits between Parliament and a cap on individual donations.
But he has come down in favour of the reintroduction of "triggering" - introducing strict limits on what candidates can spend from the moment they are chosen. Sources close to Straw suggest that the total limit will be set at £12,000 - which could make the printing of "newspapers" promoting candidates, glossy leaflets and other campaign material all but impossible.
This is, of course, to curb the target seats campaign of Lord Ashcroft, Labour MP's favourite bogey man, and will please the troops on the backbenches. But whether it will get through the Lords - who are likely to amend if it's seen as partisan - is yet to be seen.
And no obvious support yet from the Liberal Democrats, who describe triggering as "ineffectual" because parties will find ways of spending money before formal selections, as happened when the rule was in place before 2001.
 Perhaps George Bush should forget a weighty historical tome justifying the war in Iraq, and concentrate after he leaves office on a guide book to Europe. Her Majesty offers "great hospitality" at Windsor Castle he told the press conference, while German asparagus is "fabulous" and the French President's bride is well worth a look at. "I can see why you married her".
But for those anticipated today's statement from Brown would be anodyne were wrong. Those announcements came tumbling out of GB. More troops to Afghanistan, tougher sanctions for Iran and even offering Ireland a "period of reflection". Best line went to Brown: "You cannot trade troop numbers between [Iraq and Afghanistan]" he said. But while Bush brought less substance to the table - ad libbing a statement - he still showed Gordon a thing or two about the art of folksy communication. In one fresh take on the Iraq war, he said: "Perhaps it's just white Methodist guys who can do self-governance - but I don't think so"
and promoting "multilaterlism to deal with tyrants"
When Bush leaned over to touch his arm in the middle of the press conference, Gordon flinched. But with the Bush-Brown meeting overrunning by 30 mintues, today again underlines the remarkable transformation in the Brown-Bush relationship since their first Camp David meeting last Summer.
As Brown and Cameron and governments around Europe try to come to terms with the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, they will all be thanking Jose Manuel Barroso for his "helpful" response: "I believe the treaty is alive"
... he just told reporters. That'll inflame 'em...
Labour's ruling National Executive was told yesterday that the party's finances were not as bad as reports in the media had suggested. You may dismiss this as spin, but since the 33 NEC members are responsible for the party's debts, there is a legal obligation on the party machine telling them the truth.
They were apparently told that several of the debts with the lenders had been rescheduled - Gulam Noon may even have converted his into a donation. There are no signs that the Co-op or Unity Trust Bank - who offer overdraft facilities to be reviewed at the end of the month - will do anything other than approve another year's lending. A source at the Co-op bank said they would treat Labour 'like any other customer (!!!), adding even more hilariously we would sit down with them and look at solutions to help alleviate the problem".
Furthermore the Unions - in particular Unite, the party's biggest donor - insist that despite harsh rhetoric of recent days it will never allow the unions to go bust. However today's Tribune reveal the basic outline of what the unions want ahead of the Warwick II negotiations. These are: New rules to protect the jobs of workers whose companies are bought out by private equity firms, on the lines of John Heppel’s unsuccessful private members’ bill earlier this year. The TUC and unions maintain that buyouts such as Saga’s takeover of the AA last year lead inevitably to redundancies;
Mandatory company audits to ensure equal pay between men and women, a policy supported at last year’s Labour Party Conference and by Harriet Harman before she became Labour deputy leader;
Reform of laws governing industrial action, including a provision enabling unions to ballot their members by phone or e-mail, and provision for secondary industrial action by workers in the same company. A union official said that if a company closed one factory and other closures were mooted, workers in other factories should be able to strike;
An extension of the role of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority into the construction industry in order to prevent exploitation of workers on building sites, a move supported by construction union UCATT but resisted by the Government;
A greater commitment by the Government to procuring more goods and services from Britain without breaking European Union competition law. A union official said: “Somehow the French and the Germans can use procurement to the benefit of their own workforce but Britain doesn’t seem to be good at that”;
Reform of the minimum wage. In a rare instance of disagreement, some unions are keen to see an end to the current age-based banding and fixed annual increases, while others want the Low Pay Commission to continue advising on the wage.
 David Davis, shadow home secretary, has shocked Westminster by quitting as an MP to force a by-election in Haltemprice and Howden. Having failed to stop the government extend detention without charge to 42 days - a stance which some Tories were occasionally uncomfortable with - he will fight to defend Britain's civil liberties in Howden and Haltemprice, which means "noble endeavour". Cue string orchestra.
This has been long in the planning - as early as last week Davis was refusing to confirm his movements after the vote to TV producers. But Cameron only found out last night -- as did Clegg who will not field a Lib Dem opponent even though they would only need a 6 per cent swing to take it
It raises a huge number of questions in the interim with answers as they emerge 1. Did David Cameron agree to it? Does he support him? Did he try and stop it? There is top level irritation about this. Just now, Cameron has stressed this was a "personal" decision without the backing of the party or shadow Cabinet. Given that, it seems likely Cameron tried to change his mind.
2. When was this decided: is it true Nick Clegg was told before David Cameron? No, it seems. He told Cameron straight after the vote, and Clegg later the same evening.
3. When will it be? No firm decision: July 10 current favourite
4. Will there be a backlash from constituents, particularly over the cost of a by-election?
5. Would the Tories repeal 42 days detention without trial if they get into power?
6. Will he get the Shadow Home Secretary job back? Looks unlikely - Cameron said he must have a 'permanent' team and Davis isn't expecting to come back.
7. Why was he surrounded by his former leadership team: Greg Knight?
8. Who will be Shadow Home Secretary in the interim? Dominic Grieve, currently shadow attorney general
9. Is there any chance he could lose, particularly if UKIP fight? Highly unlikely
10. Will this expose any splits in the wider party over 42 days (we'll be watching conservativehome.com who supported 42 days)
11. Will Labour put up a candidate or deny him a certain level of publicity by refusing to put up a candidate? Labour are considering not standing, and could instead tacitly back an independent candidate
12. Will David Cameron visit him on the campaign trail? He says yes
13. Will the Tory by-election machine [the Lord Ashcroft one] help DD? No, he will not centrally funded but raise money himself
14. How many members of the Shadow Cabinet support him privately? How many will publicly support him?
15. What tactics will Davis use during the camapign, aided by press supremo Nick Wood who handles the media for many on the right
Gordon Brown is on his feet at his Downing Street press conference talking about Fuel, Food & Family Finances'. So to more important matters.
In April Gordon was mercilessly mocked went to the US in a plane from Titan airways. It was branded by hacks as a "flying tangerine" and a "James and the Giant peach regional touring theatre aircraft".
Yesterday it took Wayne Rooney from Liverpool airport to Genoa. Suddenly it is a "luxury private plane .... from one of Europe's most prestigious charter airways." ChavAir lives on.
Hopefully it will be back in time for Mr Brown's summer world tour: Paris on Thursday, Brussels, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Relief for Gordon Brown: victory by 9. This brings him temporary respite, as he had staked much of his personal reputation on it. But perhaps the biggest story of tonight will be the cost of buying victory. We are still trying to develop a list of who was offered what.
It was victory by 9. And the 9 Democratic Unionists voted against it. There were cries of "shame" in the chamber directed at them Currently both the government and the DUP deny a 'deal' was done over water rates, so the suggestions of a £225 million offer was made are still only rumours. But everyone will be watching Northern Irelands announcements soon.
But at the moment our best intelligence:
Fact (will happen)
Compensation: The Home Secretary is developing a compensation scheme, possibly £3,000 a day - Mohammed Sarwar
Britain will not oppose sanctions to Cuba at EU foreign ministers meeting - Colin Burgen and Ian Gibson
Flattering phone calls from Gordon - Labour MPs Austin Mitchell, Harry Cohen
Rumour (may happen)
£225 million from water rates can stay in Northern Ireland, rather than be siphoned off by the Treasury - All 9 DUP votes
Seat on the Intelligence and Security committee - All 9 DUP votes
Private Members Bill for Plural Plaque - Michael Clapham
Fiction (wrong)
Compensation scheme for miners’ knees - Yorkshire MPs in former mining seats
Offer of knighthood for "Sir" Keith Vaz
Calls to make the measures subject to judicial review - Some Labour MPs
Keeping the excitement alive a little longer, Labour at the highest levels are calling reports that they will win Tory spin and are insisting that the DUP's support is not in the bag. Meetings going on now.
Change of mind. After Brown's solid performance in the Commons, and talking to a few more people around Westminster, it's clear both the government and the Tories expect Brown to shave it. Hoon still needs the DUP, which isn't in the bag, but Labour Central don't look like they are staring down the barrel of the gun.
So unsurprisingly we're picking up signs of Tory discomfort. In a fascinating move, ConservativeHome, who represent the active grassroots, have come out against the Tory position, arguing "a mature political party, interested in public safety, shouldn't lightly dismiss the arguments [in favour] of such a senior anti-terrorist specialist and a senior police chief".
ConservativeHome are calling the Tories immature. Ouch.
Brown used this in the Commons, and highlighted the Tories may, at the end of the day, have ended up on the wrong side of this debate. Cameron said that Brown was aiming low. I'm sure he's gone lower, quoting the personal website of Brown's new members of his staff, for instance.
And David Davis - who led the decision to force the Tories into this position - is getting the blame. "Thanks David, that's great" said one, after DD pronounced the government would win on the radio this morning.
Update: A couple of comments assume I have a link with Conservative Home ... I don't. There are two people called Sam Coates in Westminster, and the other one works on the website. See here
Caroline Spelman is waiting for a ruling by the Standards and Privileges committee over payments from expenses to her nanny.
Meanwhile, Tory MEPs over in Brussels have just seen the arrival David Cameron's enforcer, Hugh Thomas, to run the rule over them after the party’s leader and chief whip in Brussels lost their jobs in the fallout from an expenses scandal.
Apart from an unfortunate coincidence of timing, there's been no corssover in the two stories: until now. Turns out that Caroline Spelman's husband Mark is a candidate to be a Tory MEP. He's on the list for the West Midlands, albeit pretty far down at number 5. Yet another reason the grass roots will be delighted with this scandal.
Surely it wont harm his chances if some of the people above him on the list got into difficulties following Thomas's arrival. Perhaps over expenses. But we're quite sure that thought will never have occured to him.
Forget the waterboard. Next to Jacqui Smith's knee in her ministerial car is Terror Teddy, which will haunt the dreams of 42 day rebels Frank Dobson, John Grogan and David Winnick for weeks to come if the fail to come into line tomorrow.
When PR Week claimed a fortnight ago that the Prime Minister had been "cold calling" members of the public at 6am, Downing Street confirmed the broad thrust of the story - but insisted that under no circumstances was this taking place at 6am.
Now they believe they may have stumbled across the origins of the 6am claim - with Downing Street insiders fearing they are at the centre of a 'dirty tricks' operation. This follows complaints from members of the public who thought they Gordon Brown had called them out of the blue.
Last Wednesday, one businessman in Dorset reported receiving a phone call from someone purporting to be Gordon Brown's secretary asking if he would like to speak to the Prime Minister.
He then heard what he described as a recorded message from a voice sounding like Gordon Brown's. When the 'secretary' asked whether he wanted to ask a question,the businessman asked about fuel costs. There was then the sound of another recording being played, with the 'Prime Minister' talking in familiar language about the impact of 'globalisation' and 'emerging markets'. The 'secretary' then brought the call to an end.
The businessman was left baffled by the automated responses and the impersonal nature of the call, and complained in writing to Downing Street. Officials at Number 10 contacted him immediately to tell him he had been hoaxed. A Downing Street source said: "It is not the first report we've had of a hoax call, but it is the most sophisticated."
"If it was just a prank, you'd expect there would be something funny about it or the caller would reveal themselves at the end. This seems to be a bit more sinister. These kind of dirty tricks have been going on in American politics since the days of Richard Nixon, so it would be nothing new."
Since the revelation, the number of e-mails and letters received by Downing Street has risen sharply, with many individuals asking the Prime Minister to call them personally.
In the course of the Watergate investigation into the activities of Richard Nixon's 1968 re-election campaign, it emerged that Nixon's campaign team had been regularly calling voters at 3am with automated messages claiming to be from the Democratic candidate, George McGovern, seeking their support.
It's bad news for Nick Clegg. As Three Line Whip reveals, Jon Oates, the party's director of policy and communications, is returning to the world of lobbying, and (re-)joining Bell Pottinger. Jon has been a steadying influence on the party through difficult times, and is widely recognised as one of the most talented and friendly people in the party. Although he is sorry to go without fighting an election (he was a Ming appointment) he couldn't hang on until 2010. His loss will be felt.
He isn't the only one. Euan Roddin, his twenty-something speechwriter, is also going. He arrived in the leader's office in the dying days of the Ming era - when things were already going wrong - but made a perceptible difference to the speeches which were quite good, particularly towards the end.
Clegg is currently protected by consistent poll ratings, but the loss of these two figures so early on is a headache.
 The Conservative's post-Crewe strategy document, as seen by members of the Tory Shadow Cabinet.
It's mostly a "lot done, lot left to do" message with an underlying assumption people do not think they are a government in waiting yet.
Interestingly, school reform has jumped into the big three Tory issues, alongside welfare reform and strengthening families - showing a confidence in Michael Gove.
But lots not mentioned: nothing on the environment or on taxes, but making clear they want to be "as bold as Mrs Thatcher".
Authorship is unknown, so click on it and read for yourself. Suggestions welcome.
Gordon Brown has been criticised for his Prescottian performance at this week's PMQs, where once again his idiosyncrasies meant he scored low on style and technical ability. But surely the real significance of this week's performance lay in his stubborn positioning over vehicle excise duty: making clear he wouldn't be backing down.
"Don't you know these reforms are going to save 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 and increase the number of clean cars", he told MPs, tying himself to the changes and making it much harder to resile in future.
Now this puts him in direct contravention with Jack Straw and John Hutton, both of whom gave the strongest hints possible last week (within hours of one another) that the government is actually prepared to move on the issue. "Wait and see", Hutton said knowingly.
Turns out that Gordon was furious - white hot anger - with the remarks by Straw and Hutton last week. They were not authorised by Downing Street and the Prime Minister was none to impressed with what he saw as "freelancing". Tuesday's Cabinet was quite grumpy too.
So what we saw at PMQs was Gordon firmly reasserting his authority - the big fist - over these two senior colleagues in a public manner and making his position clear.
Just the kind of morale boost everyone at the top of government needs at the moment.
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Talking of idiosyncratic, apologies that postings have been sporadic lately. This will continue until Monday, after which Red Box will be back with a vengeance
A spokesman for the Labour Party was saying earlier this evening that Labour will lose its deposit in the Henley by-election to replace Boris Johnson, which is expected on June 26.
In 2005, the Conservatives got 24,894 (53.5 per cent), Liberal Democrats 12,101 (26 per cent) and Labour 6,862 (14.7 per cent)
In 2001 the Conservatives got 46.1 per cent, Liberal Democrats 27 per cent and Labour 21.1 per cent.
In order to hang on to the £500 deposit, Labour must receive over five per cent of votes cast. Assume turnout remains broadly the same as in the 2005 general election (as broadly happened in Crewe) putting it in Henley around 46,500. Therefore Labour would lose the deposit if they get 2,400 votes or less, the casualty of just 4,000-odd voters peeling away since 2005.
This would be symbolically dreadful for Gordon Brown. But given the kick Gordon mood at the moment, anything is possible, particularly if the Labour Party are planning a campaign as anodyne as this website suggests.
The Conservatives will undoubtedly try and claim much of the Barack Obama "change" message for themselves. But it's only fair to point out that Gordon Brown was ahead of the curve, picking him out as a future leader. In an FT article on April 20 2006, Brown's aides said: Mr Brown has taken a particularly close interest in the speeches of Barack Obama, the up-and- coming Democrat who some see as a potential first black US president.
That was pretty early by most standards...
The Times excellent new political columnist Rachel Sylvester, reveals in her first column today. Tony used to stand behind Gordon pointing at his head and twirling his finger as if to say: “this guy's mad”. Mr Blair has denied Lord Levy's claim that he thought Mr Brown could never beat David Cameron - but what, in fact, he said, I am told, is that “Gordon can't win - unless he changes”. Ever the optimist, he thought he could change - but, of course, the reality is that at the age of 57 few people do.
About a year before Mr Brown moved into No10, a senior civil servant, who has worked closely with him, told me: “Gordon will hate being Prime Minister, it's everything he loathes: making quick decisions, going on daytime TV, sucking up to foreigners.”
Apparently Chris Grayling, rather than Eric Pickles, will be masterminding the Tory campaign in Henley, which could be announced as early as tomorrow.
Pickles, fresh from two giant victories on local election night and then Crewe, has his eye on Winchester campaign if Lib Dem Mark Oaten stands down, as discussed here last week. This would be a much more challenging potential steal than Henley.
This Early Day Motion, which has been signed by Liberal Democrat transparency campaigner Norman Baker, amongst others, seems all very laudable. That this House notes the strong public cynicism about the influence of corporate lobbyists on British politics; further notes that individuals and organisations engaging in lobbying activities are able to do so effectively hidden from public scrutiny; remains concerned that lobbyists are not subject to similar levels of scrutiny to that which political parties and politicians have been subject since 2000; believes that greater transparency over the activities of lobbyists and their relations with hon. Members is needed to help restore trust in hon. Members and Parliament; and therefore calls for a mandatory register of individuals and organisations that are involved in lobbying hon. Members and civil servants and the introduction of an enforceable code of ethics for lobbying activities to ensure their transparency.
Except.... it makes an e-mail that lobbying firms received from Carol Caruana, the Lib Dems advertising and sponsorship guru last week, all the more hilarious. It read: “One of the key debates at the Liberal Democrat conference this September will be on transport policy. Norman Baker MP and the party's transport team are keen to discuss these proposals with leading companies in this sector and will be holding a small, private dinner at Conference.
"The ticket price is £750 plus VAT and will include a two-day full registration to the conference - including the debate on the transport paper - accommodation and dinner."
As one informant put it, "I’m sure the ‘small, private dinner’ will be very open and transparent and not at all ‘hidden from public scrutiny’!"
This is transparently a good idea. The good burghers responsible for the TheyWorkForYou.com site want to provide video, as well as words, of people's contributions in the Commons.
Only hitch is this requires a lot of work, 'tagging' (manually matching) each Commons speech to the words. But they think that lots of people in the Westminster village will see this as mutually beneficial. Note to MPs, researchers, office staff, campaigners and bloggers - we know that you want to concentrate on matching up the speeches of a particular MP, or of a particular debate.
If it's any encouragement, MySociety thinks, from this, that Harriet Harman's office is against the idea. Interestingly, here's what happened when they tried to do it with the BBC.... This project was initially commissioned and funded by the BBC, who asked mySociety to create a searchable, online video archive of debates based on footage from BBC Parliament. We were thrilled to help out, because we think that it will enhance the public understanding of - and respect for - the work of Parliament. The initial goal of this project was to use the BBC’s captions to help chop up the video into different speeches. Tom Loosemore arranged for access to the BBC’s internal captions data, Etienne Pollard was commissioned to build an open source recording/transcoding/web-serving system (and then donated some of his wages back to pay for enough hard drive space for the video!), Stef Magdalinski donated a network storage array to hold the disks. However, after lots of hard work trying to get our computers to automatically slice up the video into chunks according to the BBC’s captions we concluded that this on its own wasn’t sufficiently accurate to reliably match up every speech in Hansard with the appropriate snippet in our video footage.
Make no mistake, the unions - who are keeping Labour solvent at the moment - are determined to flex their muscles. In the last fortnight several senior union figures have talked in turn about a need, in Brendan Barber's words, for the Labour Party to "reconfigure its DNA". Last week, for instance Tony Dubbins, Labour's point man in the unions, issued this warning: If the government continues down the track of being too pro-business and not friendly enough to workers, and readopt the kind of values we want to see, I think that there's a big danger you will lose support from the unions. You won't win general elections without trade union activists.
And today Derek Simpson, the joint general secretary of Unite, is even more explicit in a conference speech and an interview with the FT. While insisting Unite does not believe in "defeating the Labour Party through lack of finance [which] leads to a Conservative Government ", he is also making clear that desperately needed donations come only in return for union-friendly policies. We’ll be using our influence as Labour’s biggest affiliate and its’ biggest financial supporter. Not by hysterical and destabilising threats of removing financial support but rather through persuasion and demonstrating that our policies are popular with traditional Labour voters.
The Labour party has around a month to find £7.45 million to pay off loans to banks and donors. The are currently negotiating a new set of policies with the party which they want Labour to commit to - Warwick II - to be completed on July 26/27.
At present elements of the shopping list appears to include:
1. Windfall tax for energy companies (floated by both Dubbins and Simpson)
2. Legislation to require companies to carry out equal pay audits, to close the gap between male and female pay
3. Higher business taxes, following research cited by unions showing "the UK’s top companies are already saving £20 billion a year on tax through allowances and concessions".
4. New rules are introduced to ensure employees in companies subject to private equity takeovers have their rights protected.
5. Forcing companies to allow more flexible time off for new families
6. An end to the ban on secondary industrial action introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government, although the government is unlikely to bow to this.
7. Compulsory provision of private pension schemes equivalent to a minimum wage for pensioners for staff of all UK companies
Is this discomforting?
Patricia Hewitt has put down the following questions: 90 Ms Patricia Hewitt (Leicester West): To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that companies offering tattoos and/or tattoo removal are regulated and inspected by (a) the Healthcare Commission and (b) the new Care Quality Commission. (207842)
91 Ms Patricia Hewitt (Leicester West): To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many complaints his Department has received from patients who had been treated in tattoo and tattoo removal facilities in the UK in (a) the last 12 months and (b) the last five years. (207843)
92 Ms Patricia Hewitt (Leicester West): To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that clinics offering tattoos and/or tattoo removals meet high standards of clinical quality and consumer protection. (207844)
Thing is, according to the Register of Members Interests (and posts past) Patricia Hewitt receives £45-50,000 from Alliance Boots, the chemist giant, and £50-55,000 from Cinven, the private equity giant that bought Bupa's hospitals off Bupa.
It may well be that the good people of Leicester West are queuing up in Ms Hewitt's constituency surgery to ask about the inspection regime of the Healthcare Commission.
Update she says it is. Patricia Hewitt writes: "The questions I tabled about tattoo treatment stem directly from the experience of one of my constituents, who has been left very badly scarred after having a tattoo removed. There is no conflict of interest whatsoever with the two companies you refer to, neither of whom has any involvement in my constituent's case"
Ben Wegg-Prosser is a former Blair adviser who saw out the end TB's days in Downing Street and is now in Russia working on an internet project. He breaks his silence in tomorrow's Spectator.
He takes as his premise the idea that Labour can win the next election if Gordon realises his time is limited ("a political ‘brand’ he is reaching the end of his shelf life") and "campaigns himself out of office" having annointed a Purnell or Burnham to carry the baton.
Fascinatingly, "campaigning out of office" is what Tony Blair - apparently - agreed to do in a plan agreed in April 2006, a blueprint apparently still sitting in the Cabinet Office (or possibly now the National Archive). Shelving personal electoral ambitions, Wegg-Prosser believes, will allow Brown to be bolder.
The Big Idea, he says, should be to explicitly shrink the state, arguing that only he has the moral and political authority to do so because he built it up in the first place. As he has discovered in recent weeks, reeling off lists of policies is not working and claiming the Tories are out of touch is no longer plausible. Instead, he needs a theme which the public will respond to. This big idea needs to tackle the only Conservative policy which appears to have any currency with voters (and indeed any rigour), namely the role of the state and what it offers. He needs to approach this issue through a New Labour prism which guarantees fairness, not special favours.
Having made the argument successfully in 1997 to correct historic levels of government underinvestment, Mr Brown now needs to update this approach. Mr Brown can plausibly assert that having overseen an expansion in government activity in the Treasury, he is best able to reshape its size with compassion. With the right argument, he would be able to claim that just as President Nixon was the only man trusted by Americans to go to China, so he is the only man to be trusted to refocus and if necessary withdraw the state. If he does not tackle this, the Tories will win this argument by default and offer a far less equitable solution.
Team Brown will see this as a hostile act designed to deepen Gordon's misery. And certainly there are several observations laced with deliberate irony no doubt designed to needle them.
(Indeed this article provides confirmation that some around Blair were urging him to promote Miliband to Foreign Secretary in a reshuffle in May 2006, to give him more of a platform for which to launch a leadership bid. Despite apparently "approving" this advice, Blair installed Margaret Beckett instead.)
But clearly there are several in the Cabinet who agree with a thesis along these lines and don't believe they can win with Gordon.
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