8pm Local Government: One local council by-election result from yesterday
4.30pm Jeremy Hunt MP on CentreRight: The BBC can learn from politicians’ mistakes
3.15pm Seats and Candidates: Dr David Bull steps down as candidate for Brighton Pavilion to head up sexual health policy review
2.30pm Reform's Patrick Nolan on CentreRight: How to successfully restore fiscal credibility
2.00pm Local Government: John Denham gives Tory Ealing "Best Achieving Council" award
12.30pm ToryDiary: "Something of a relief" to leave Tory benches says John Bercow
Noon Latest on CentreRight:
10.30am Seats and Candidates: First poll in Norwich North points to a Tory gain
9.30am Tim Montgomerie on CentreRight: The BBC enjoys private sector pay AND public sector security
ToryDiary: Has the time come for all members of the Shadow Cabinet to give up their outside interests?
Nicky Morgan on Platform: The real hunger for investment in the NHS, Mr Brown, can be found on hospital meal trays
Local Government: Canterbury Council cleared of anti-gay charge
Cameron orders Conservative MPs to repay another £125,000
"More Conservative MPs are expected to stand down at the general election after 41 of them were ordered to repay a further £125,000 in excessive claims for parliamentary expenses. The payback, ordered by a panel set up by David Cameron, brings to £255,000 the total amount of expenses returned to the Commons authorities by Conservative MPs… It means that 90 Tories, almost half the party's 193 MPs, have made repayments or stopped claiming. The scrutiny panel has now investigated the payments made to 188 of them." – Independent
"David Cameron is facing a growing backlash from shadow ministers and backbench MPs angered at the way that half the parliamentary party have been forced by the leadership to pay back expenses… "The leadership has treated MPs in a very high-handed manner," one senior Tory said. "David Cameron has basically gone round in the last few weeks and told MPs that their political careers are over if they do not pay up." MPs spoke up – in private for fear of action by the Tory whips – as Cameron announced the findings of an internal scrutiny panel which examined the expenses of Conservative MPs highlighted by the Daily Telegraph." – Guardian
High-profile Tories not paying back expenses before Commons review
"A former aide to David Cameron and one of the highest-profile victims of the expenses scandal has won the right for his case to be decided by an independent House of Commons review. Andrew MacKay and two other Conservative MPs, Brian Binley and Anne Main, have withheld any repayments until after an official investigation, despite the party’s efforts to resolve the issues with an internal “scrutiny panel”." – Times
Nine senior Tories decide they can get by without MPs' expenses – Telegraph
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: List of expenses repayments by Conservative MPs published
> WATCH: David Cameron explains why Tory MPs are paying back a further £125,000 they claimed in expenses
Michael Gove welcomes Labour U-Turn on national schools strategies
"The government is to abandon the most significant education reform of the New Labour era in order to end the centralised control of schools and grant headteachers more powers, the Guardian has learned. In a totemic break from the Blair years, next week's education white paper will signal the end of Labour's national strategies for schools, which includes oversight of the literacy and numeracy hours in primaries… Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary, said: "If Ed Balls is going to scrap the national strategies in their current form, we will support him. They cost a fortune and do not drive up standards. We want to give teachers more responsibility." – Guardian
David Cameron vows to end Labour's Big Brother state
"David Cameron will repeal a raft of laws that have eroded civil liberties under plans for the first days of a Conservative government. The Tory leader yesterday warned Labour has created a 'control state' with sweeping powers to intrude into people's private lives." – Daily Mail
"As David Cameron observed yesterday in an important speech, information is power. In our modern era, there is a good deal of information; but most of it – and the power – is in the hands of the state… He correctly recognises that this Labour administration's most pernicious legacy will be a governing machine that not only spends and wastes vast amounts of our money but also seeks to control us in as many ways as it can." – Telegraph editorial
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: David Cameron underlines the Conservative commitment to rebalance power of the individual over the state
Eric Pickles supports Chloe Smith in Norwich North as Lib Dem campaign gets nasty…
"The fight to be the next Norwich North MP turned nasty last night as the Green Party candidate was branded an “extremist” by the Liberal Democrats – hours after the same party vowed to “keep the election clean”… Away from all the fuss, Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles was in Norfolk with Miss Smith, spending time with activists in Broadland. He said: “This is a straight fight between Labour and the Conservatives. Voters here have a unique chance to send Gordon Brown a message about expenses and debt and vote for Chloe as their strong local champion.” – Eastern Daily Press
…and the Party Chairman pours scorn on Labour candidates' honesty pledge
"Gordon Brown launched a bizarre attempt to gain credit for cleaning up politics by forcing Labour election candidates to sign a pledge to tell the truth… Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles said: ‘Is this Gordon Brown’s big idea for a re-launch? It’s typical of New Labour to try and dupe the public and dress this up as some kind of radical announcement. It is, of course, vital that people in public life maintain the highest standards. But Gordon Brown must wake up and realise this should be a duty and not a virtue'." – Daily Mail
79% of the public want spending cuts
"More than three quarters of Britons believe that public spending should be cut over the next few years, an opinion poll for today's Daily Telegraph has found. The disclosure undermines Gordon Brown's insistence that spending will continue rising despite Britain facing a multi-billion pound black-hole in the country's public finances… The YouGov/Daily Telegraph opinion poll found the Conservatives now have a 13-percentage point lead over Labour. The Conservatives are on 38 per cent, Labour is on 25 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 18 per cent." – Daily Telegraph
> Last night's ToryDiary: Tories at 38% in YouGov/ Telegraph survey
Jeremy Hunt: Publication of BBC expenses does not go far enough
"The BBC promised to reveal further information about how much it spends on top-name presenters after it released details yesterday of over £360,000 of expense claims made by 13 members of its board…The shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said: "The BBC has made a decent start but this does not go nearly far enough. Politicians have learned the hard way that there is no point being half-hearted when it comes to disclosing how public money is spent. We need full transparency so that licence fee payers know what their money goes on." – Guardian
Speaker Bercow hauls a minister to the Despatch Box
"The new Speaker took on the government for the first time yesterday. Gordon Brown had hoped to sneak out a written statement on cybercrime and security. The Tories objected, and John Bercow had a minister hauled into the house to explain what was going on. A small triumph, perhaps, but a sign of things to come." – Guardian
Government defeated in Commons over grand committee meeting in Nottingham – Telegraph
The Tories' new European allies are a "motley crew"
"Not fascists, but not obvious soul mates either: that is a fair summary of the politicians invited on June 22nd to join Britain’s Conservatives in a new grouping in the European Parliament. Most are nationalists or social conservatives whose views hardly chime with the moderate messages pushed by David Cameron at home." – The Economist
Scottish Conservatives step back from Calman Commission findings
"The first signs of discord among Unionist parties in Scotland over the Calman Commission report into extending Holyrood’s powers surfaced yesterday. They appeared after Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, appeared to distance herself from any move to accelerate the implementation of Calman’s widely praised proposals to give extended financial and other powers to Holyrood." – Times
Patrick Mercer MP: The Army can't soldier on without more men
"How can a responsible Ministry of Defence even contemplate the idea of cutting infantry battalions?…Further reductions would make our Army weaker than at any time since the Crimean War. The MoD may not wish “to reason why”, but it must remember that our soldiers have both “to do and die”. – Patrick Mercer MP writing in The Times
Steve Richards: It's time people knew how their money was being spent
"Whoever wins the next election should open the whole process up and debate public spending priorities more openly. Tony Blair gave near daily press conferences in the build-up to the war in Iraq, and we are about to have another inquiry into what happened. Yet decisions about how money is spent are taken without much debate." – Steve Richards in The Independent
Gordon Brown tells The Times: "I am getting on with the job" – Times
If you thought BBC bosses were profligate, take a look at Boris's taxi bill – Matthew Taylor in The Guardian
Johann Hari: Tory policy to promote marriage "would actually unwittingly harm children" – Johann Hari in The Independent
UK to outline emission cut plans – BBC
David Cameron opens home for autistic adults – Daily Express
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