“David Cameron is to announce tough action on immigration that will halve the amount of time foreigners can claim benefits in the UK. The Coalition will introduce laws to ensure that European Union migrants can only claim out-of-work benefits for three months, Mr Cameron says in an article for The Telegraph. The Prime Minister also pledges to stop more than 500,000 British jobs being advertised across the EU and announces tough new curbs on colleges offering visas to ‘bogus’ students” – Daily Telegraph
“A Conservative MP will step down at the next election, a week after he admitted receiving a police caution for an assault on his former partner in March. David Ruffley, the MP for Bury St Edmunds…said: “Although I have apologised for a very regrettable incident last March and both my former partner and I considered the matter closed, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that a protracted media debate on my private life, whatever the motivation or however misinformed, would not serve the wider interests of the Conservative cause in East Anglia” – Daily Telegraph
>Today: ToryDiary – Once the Dean’s letter was published, Ruffley’s resignation was inevitable
“David Cameron’s decision to exclude the leader of the House of Lords from playing a full role in the Cabinet ‘breaks the mould of British history’, according to a former Speaker of the House of Commons. Baroness Boothroyd, who as Betty Boothroyd was the Commons’ Speaker from 1992 to 2000, said that the demotion of Baroness Stowell of Beeston ‘strikes at the very roots of our bicameral Parliament’. The Leader of the Lords has traditionally been a Cabinet-level post with a Secretary of State’s salary” – Daily Telegraph
“In an article ‘Esther’s Sit-in’ in the Sun on Sunday, we stated that Esther McVey MP refused to leave Downing Street until her demands for a new job were met, said farewell to her staff the previous day and spent £585 on a Vivienne Westwood dress to wear for the reshuffle. … In fact, Ms McVey accepted the job offered to her without disagreement and, while she spoke to staff ahead of the reshuffle, did not say goodbye. Her Whistles dress was seven years old and did not cost £585. We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to Ms McVey” – from Saturday’s edition of The Sun
>Today: ToryDiary – The Sun apologises to Esther McVey
“Lord Coe will not become the next chairman of the BBC Trust, despite being the Government’s preferred candidate. The former Olympics boss has decided to withdraw…so that he can bid to become president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) next year…Lord Coe, speaking to the Mail’s Sports Agenda column, said: ‘I did allow my name to go forward to give myself time to properly analyse whether I had enough time to do the job to the best of my abilities. On reflection, I haven’t” – Daily Mail
“Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is a ‘thug’ and a ‘liar’, one of Britain’s most senior ambassadors has said, as the EU prepares today to approve tough new sanctions against Moscow. Sir Peter Westmacott said the West’s increasingly firm response to Russia was beginning to have an impact on the Kremlin. The British ambassador to the United States said Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine was starting to look like ‘the wrong call’” – Daily Telegraph
“More NHS hospitals and youth services should be taken out of public hands and owned by the people who run them as mutuals, Francis Maude, the cabinet office minister, has said. The senior Conservative MP told the Guardian that he was ‘more and more convinced’ this was ‘the way of the future’ for a greater proportion of public services – suggesting the only exceptions from possible spin-offs should be front-line police and the armed forces” – Guardian
“Ministers and officials have been working on a policy that could bring major changes to England’s student loan system, BBC Newsnight has learned…At its core, the big idea is that universities should take on some of the risk that their own students repay less of their student debt than expected…The officials said the idea was championed by David Willetts, the former universities minister” – BBC
“Fracking could decide the next election, it was claimed today with more than three-quarters of the Tories’ top target seats been opened up for oil and gas exploration.Energy minister Matthew Hancock struggled on live radio this morning to name a single village which would welcome fracking on their doorstep. As Greenpeace claimed dozens of marginal seats were at risk, Tory MPs called for more financial compensation for areas which could be chosen as drilling sites” – Daily Mail
“Lloyds Banking Group has been criticised for ‘highly reprehensible’ behaviour by the Bank of England after it became the first lender to be fined for rigging rates to cut the cost of a financial crisis rescue scheme, effectively costing the taxpayer millions of pounds…In a letter to Lloyds, Mark Carney, BoE governor wrote: ‘Such manipulation is highly reprehensible, clearly unlawful and may amount to criminal conduct on the part of the individuals involved’” – Financial Times
>Yesterday: Joseph Henson – We need more competition in banking, but not more banks
“Ed Miliband’s ‘totally dysfunctional’ leadership…comes under extraordinary attack from former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride. In an updated version of his sensational tell-all memoirs, Mr McBride warns Labour has ‘no clear idea’ of who it is trying to appeal to and a ‘great, steaming pile of fudge’ instead of key policies…Mr McBride concludes: ‘Labour currently has no clear idea who its target audience is, no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for the party, no policies which will persuade them, and is being run in a totally dysfunctional way’” – Daily Mail
>Today:
Garvan Walshe – Ed Miliband’s Chavvy constitutional vandalism
>Yesterday:
Lord Ashcroft – Labour’s lead narrows in this week’s Ashcroft National Poll
Nadhim Zahawi MP – Same old Labour, still in denial about the economy