“The Prime Minister, 48, said during a general election campaign TV chat that he would not carry on beyond 2020. But a handful of MPs have already approached his Parliamentary aide urging the PM to reconsider on the back of a surprise Tory majority and booming economy. One said: “I hope him going is a long time in the future. He’s head and shoulders above anyone else.” The revelation will pile pressure on Mr Cameron to name a date for his departure to avoid a Blair/Brown-style power struggle. George Osborne, Boris Johnson and Theresa May are all eyeing the leadership.” – Sun on Sunday (£)
“David Cameron is poised to give peerages to a string of Conservative advisers as early as this week. Philippa Stroud, a former aide to Iain Duncan Smith; Simone Finn, an adviser to Francis Maude on Whitehall efficiency; and the Prime Minister’s longstanding gatekeeper Kate Fall are all tipped to be given seats in the House of Lords in the long-awaited dissolution honours list. The appointments will fuel criticism that Mr Cameron is packing the upper house with Tory cronies after figures revealed that he has handed out peerages at a faster rate than any other prime minister.” – Independent on Sunday
“The Kids Company charity has been a tragedy waiting to happen for years. Supported by Prime Ministers seemingly dazzled by the charm of its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, encouraged by a neglectful Charity Commission, and egged on by the adulation of the recipients of their banknotes, its fate was almost preordained. There is little doubt about Batmanghelidjh’s good intentions. That is part of her charm – that same charm that seduced David Cameron into providing enormous funds to her charity. Over the past few weeks this newspaper has exposed serious shortcomings with this charity. But the catastrophic financial haemorrhage that eventually destroyed Kids Company highlighted not just a weakness in Batmanghelidjh’s management, but a fatal flaw at the heart of Cameron’s beloved Big Society project.” – Mail on Sunday
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Kids Company shows why Freedom of Information should apply to anyone taking taxpayers’ money
“Home Secretary Theresa May was last night urged to stop police chiefs’ ‘lynch mob justice’ in the wake of child abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath. She faced calls to curb the ‘vigilante-style’ behaviour amid claims from the former Prime Minister’s friends that the allegations will prove to baseless. Ex-Tory MP Brian Binley also claimed the flood of police inquiries into Sir Edward was part of the wider problem of naming suspects and ‘plastering’ their names over the media before charges are made.” – Mail on Sunday
“Ministers do not want other sites held up by eco-warriors’ pressure. They claim getting Britain’s 40-year shale gas reserves flowing will create 64,000 jobs, herald £30 billion investment, cut fuel bills, carbon emissions and a growing reliance on gas imports. Energy minister Andrea Leadsom said: “Getting fracking under way safely is a key priority. We are exploring ways to really kick-start the industry.” She claimed sites can be built with minimal impact on environment and community. She went on: “I believe we can make the most of shale gas as we move away from coal.”” – Sun on Sunday
“Ministers are set to announce the first ‘new’ grammar school in 50 years, reviving the decades-old row over the role of academic selection in the State system. Sources have told The Mail on Sunday that a Whitehall battle over whether to give the green light to the school in Sevenoaks, Kent, has finally been resolved after Government lawyers dropped their opposition. If Education Secretary Nicky Morgan now approves the school, it will be hailed as a victory for Tory traditionalists who argue that the comprehensive system has made it harder for bright children from poor families to attend top universities and claim the best jobs.” – Mail on Sunday
“I still remember that feeling of trepidation walking back into school, a few weeks after finishing my exams, to pick up that brown envelope. Finding out whether I had made the grades for my first choice university course or whether I needed to rethink my future was terrifying. But, as I have learnt since, grades aren’t the only things employers are looking for — work experience and practical skills are equally as important. In my first few months as Employment Minister, scores of young people told me they can’t get a job without work experience, but they can’t get work experience without a job.” – Sun on Sunday
“Harriet Harman faced fresh turmoil over the Labour leadership election last night after a senior MP published an open letter warning that she was steering the party towards ‘catastrophe’. Graham Stringer took the unusual step as panic mounts in the party at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn sweeping to victory as a result of Left-wing militants and Tory opponents joining the party so that they can vote for him. It comes amid growing talk in the party about a new SDP-style breakaway group of MPs forming in the event of a Corbyn leadership. Mr Stringer made his call in response to a letter sent on Wednesday by acting leader Ms Harman to MPs, urging ‘vigilance’ and pleading with them to use their local knowledge to check the identity of new recruits to make sure they were not joining solely to fix the result in favour of Mr Corbyn.” – Mail on Sunday
Comment:
“Jeremy Corbyn has signalled that he could restore Labour’s historic commitment to the public ownership of industry if he succeeds in his bid to become party leader. The veteran left winger has suggested he would consider reversing Tony Blair’s decision two decades ago to scrap Clause IV of the party’s constitution which committed it to ”common ownership of the means of production”. The highly symbolic move was widely seen as a key moment in Mr Blair’s leadership, helping to convince voters that the party could be trusted again in government after the wilderness years of the 1980s.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Labour’s deputy leadership candidates say they will serve under Jeremy Corbyn if he becomes leader, despite warnings from a number of senior MPs that they would quit the Shadow Cabinet. A survey of the five MPs running for the deputy leadership reveals that, in the event of the Islington North MP winning the top job on 12 September, they will work with him to hold the party together. Some shadow ministers, including Mr Corbyn’s rival Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna, the Shadow Business Secretary, have already said they will not be part of a Corbyn shadow cabinet, while other Shadow Cabinet members have said privately that they would also quit.” – Independent on Sunday
“It is true the queue for the rally is enormous, but it is also roughly the same size as the bread queues will be, should Corbyn actually become our first far-left prime minister. And then there’s the atmosphere. Despite everything Corbyn says, everyone here seems united by disappointment rather than hope. Disappointment in Labour, in its policies, in the war, in its phalanxes of bag-carriers. Someone actually says, to a bank of cameras: “Tony Blair is a shit”. These die-hard, dyed-in-the-wool, far-left campaigners have been waiting for someone like Corbyn for years. The messiah nevertheless seems tired and slightly irritable as he leaves the venue. He has a cold and hasn’t eaten properly since breakfast.” – Sunday Times (£)
>Today: The Blairites should leave Corbyn – and join the Tories
>Yesterday: Mo Metcalf-Fisher in Comment: Whoever wins the leadership, Labour faces a crisis
“The looming question is – who can beat the inevitable post-Boris Tory nominee, Zac Goldsmith. Ms Jowell polls most strongly on these grounds but Labour must not underestimate Goldsmith. True, handsome Zac looks and sounds like his heritage as a member of a financial dynasty with some playboy habits (gambling, marrying Rothschilds and so on) to match. Yet he also had an impressive General Election, adding handsomely to his majority in Richmond (the London one), while running against the Cameron high command on the divisive topic of expanding Heathrow – plus, he has solid Green credentials, which Labour has largely shed over the past few years.” – Anne McElvoy, Mail on Sunday
>Yesterday: Cllr John Moss in Comment: Stephen Greenhalgh has the vision and ability to be a great Mayor of London
“Former Lib Dem ministers Vince Cable and Danny Alexander are to get knighthoods in the long-awaited Dissolution Honours List, it has been reported. The politicians, both of whom lost their seats at the General Election, are believed to have rejected peerages. They were nominated by former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. Cable, 72, is to take part in the national dance championships after losing the Twickenham seat he held since 1997. He has also written a new book. Alexander, 43, who was chief secretary to the Treasury, has not ruled out a return to politics. He lost his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat to the SNP in the Lib Dem electoral bloodbath in May that left the party with just eight MPs.” – Mail on Sunday
“He is politics’ arch power broker, a modern-day Machiavelli who knows how to work the system better than anyone else. So goes the caricature of Henry Kissinger, the long-serving US Secretary of State – but the description could just as well apply to George Osborne. That may explain why Chancellor, often tipped as the real power behind David Cameron’s throne, has picked a lengthy biography of Mr Kissinger to study over the summer. The revelation comes after The Telegraph approached Westminster’s biggest names to say what books they are reading on their holiday breaks.” – Sunday Telegraph