“Pressure mounted on George Osborne on Wednesday to ease back on the pace of austerity when an international organisation that has consistently supported the chancellor’s overall fiscal plan joined those warning that the size of the state was being slashed too fast. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based think-tank, urged Mr Osborne to smooth the path of cuts to avoid putting the recovery in peril” – Financial Times
“Iain Duncan Smith has signalled that he will fight David Cameron over his plans to cut child benefit to save £12 billion from the benefits bill. The Work and Pensions Secretary has not given up on his plans to slash child benefit, despite the Prime Minister publicly slapping him earlier this week. One ally said that Mr Duncan Smith – who has to make the savings in this financial year and 2016/17 – felt the battle to cut the child benefit was ‘never over till it is over’” – Daily Telegraph
“David Cameron is facing a growing Cabinet split over MPs’ pay rises…The Prime Minister was on Wednesday criticised for taking a £7,000 pay rise, pushing his salary to almost £150,000, following a decision by the pay watchdog to give MPs a ten per cent pay rise…Mr Cameron’s decision leaves him in opposition with his ministers as Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, said that the pay increase ‘is not the right thing to do’ and indicated she will donate it to charity” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday:
“The new Business Secretary Sajid Javid is second favourite among Tory activists behind Boris Johnson to become the party’s next leader. Although Mr Javid has only been an MP for five years, he was named by 17 per cent of members as their preferred choice to succeed David Cameron…Paul Goodman, editor of ConservativeHome, said: ‘The Business Secretary’s promotion, clear-cut style, right-wing views and absence of unforced errors are winning him admirers’” – Independent
>Yesterday:
“The Crown Office has been heavily criticised for its prosecution of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson after the case against him dramatically collapsed. Coulson was yesterday cleared of perjury over allegedly lying about his knowledge of phone hacking at the trial of former MSP Tommy Sheridan in 2010. Judge Lord Burns upheld a defence motion that the former tabloid editor and Downing Street communications chief had no case to answer” – Scotsman
“The number of Romanians given the right to work in Britain soared by more than 200 per cent to over 150,000 people in the year after curbs on them entering the job market were lifted. Official government figures also show that the number of Bulgarian migrants who gained the same right to work after the transitional controls imposed under an EU treaty ended jumped by more than 120 per cent” – The Times (£)
“Greece has threatened to default on its debts if the eurozone and International Monetary Fund try to impose austerity measures in return for loans the country needs if it is to avoid bankruptcy in the coming days. Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, was summoned to Brussels last night to be told that his proposals, delivered on Monday and intended to lead to the unlocking of €7.2 billion in aid, had been rejected” – The Times (£)
“We live in a topsy-turvy world when those who want Britain to govern itself are portrayed as the fundamentalists. The middle way is apparently a renegotiated relationship with Brussels and Strasbourg. But I’m not interested in better terms with our European masters; I want Britain to be a free nation again — as free as America, Japan, Australia and other great nations. Is that so unreasonable?” – Tim Montgomerie, The Times (£)
>Today:
“Charles Kennedy’s ex-wife Sarah and their son Donald sat in an upstairs gallery to hear the Commons memorialise the late Lib Dem leader. The boy, ten years old and spit of the sire, smiled with shy pride when he heard his name uttered by David Cameron. Donald, all chorister cheeks and handsome ginger hair parted neatly, leaned into his mother and she on him, clutching him as she heard MPs pay lengthy tribute” – Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
“On 23 September 2014, Ed Miliband prepared to take the stage at the Labour party conference in Manchester to deliver the most important speech of his career. But instead of rehearsing the speech he had memorised, he was being forced to concentrate on a new opening section, endorsing the proposal David Cameron had made that morning to join the US bombing of Isis in Iraq…In fact, Miliband had simply forgotten the brief passage about the deficit…” – Patrick Wintour, The long read, Guardian
>Yesterday:
“The SNP is threatening a major escalation in its battle over a Commons front bench after branding Labour’s refusal to hand over the seats ‘absolutely pathetic’. It is understood the leadership is willing to order MPs to get into Parliament at 7am and block Labour appointments on Commons committees if the row is not resolved. ‘If they want to play silly games, we’ll play silly games’, a senior figure told this newspaper after admitting to being ‘f***ing furious’ with Labour’s attitude” – Daily Telegraph
“Furious MPs have branded Caffe Nero bosses ‘spineless’ after the company gave in to threats by animal rights activists. It agreed to protesters’ demands for a boycott of milk from badger cull areas…Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for north-east Somerset, accused Caffe Nero’s bosses of being ‘spineless’. He said: ‘Does Caffe Nero really want us to allow this disease to spread? … they must lift the ban sooner rather than later’” – Daily Mail
“Chuck Blazer, the former Fifa official turned government witness, took bribes over a period of almost 20 years to sway the selection of two World Cups and five regional tournaments, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday. The partly redacted 40-page transcript of Mr Blazer’s guilty plea before a US judge in 2013 was released after news organisations petitioned the court to make it public” – Financial Times