7.30pm ToryDiary: Tory lead 7% in first ICM poll of the Parliament
6.30pm BREAKING NEWS: ToryDiary update: Ministers will NOT be entitled to take party in the 1922 Committee election
6pm ToryDiary: Boris pays his first visit to David Cameron in Downing Street
5.30pm ThinkTankCentral: Think tanks give generally positive verdict on the Coalition's first cuts
4.30pm Jonathan Isaby on CentreRight: Whose idea was it to scrap the ministerial cars?
3.30pm Local Government: Conservatives take over West Somerset Council
3.15pm LeftWatch: Lords Mandelson and Adonis "quit" Labour's shadow cabinet
3pm WATCH: Boris unveils 'Nelson's ship in a bottle' for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth
1.30pm WATCH: George Osborne unveils immediate plans for cutting £6.25 billion of wasteful public spending
12.45pm Parliament: A new MP writes a scathing open letter to the Chief Executive of IPSA: "Unless there is change, you will become as discredited as the Fees Office very rapidly"
11am ToryDiary: Osborne and Laws take the first steps on the path to deficit reduction
ToryDiary: Senior Tory backbenchers seek clarification over voting rights in 1922 Committee election
Tobias Ellwood MP on Platform: Is the end in sight for the euro?
LeftWatch: Oona King bids to be Labour's 2012 London mayoral candidate (and what about Diane Abbott?)
Mark Wallace in Local Government: We need directly elected police commissioners
WATCH:
George Osborne to announce £6.2 billion of cuts at 10am
"In the first major economic statement from the coalition Government, the Chancellor will announce a new era of austerity for state employees and public bodies. Whitehall officials and other bureaucrats will be among the first to feel the effects of the cuts, with the end of perks such as first class air and rail travel to save £10million. A civil service recruitment freeze will be imposed, with the probable loss of more than 3,000 jobs. Wasteful and inefficient public sector projects will also be targeted, with more than half a billion pounds cut from spending on quangos and a reduction of up to £1billion in the budget for consultants and advertising." – Daily Telegraph
"The proposed cuts will be set out in an emergency package which Mr Osborne and his Liberal Democrat deputy, David Laws, will publish today. They have calculated that banning recruitment of new civil servants will save £163m a year, on top of £513m worth of cuts to be found by abolishing or reducing government quangos." – The Independent
"Vince Cable’s Business Department will bear the brunt of £6 billion in cuts outlined today as the coalition makes its first moves on the deficit." – The Times
"Trade union leaders are gearing up for a fight with the coalition government about its plans to cut public spending by £6bn and pave the way for more academy schools and the part-privatisation of Royal Mail." – FT
Royal Mail workers threaten to strike over post office sell-off – Daily Mail
Child Trust Funds to be scrapped – The Sun
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Where will the axe fall for the £6 billion in cuts being announced?
Osborne's war on speed cameras in bid to win over motorists and save taxpayer money
"New speed cameras will be dramatically blocked today under government plans to win over motorists and save the taxpayer money. Chancellor George Osborne is planning to scrap grants worth tens of millions that are handed to local councils each year to fund new speed traps, the Daily Mail has learned… If a local authority wishes to install a new camera, it is believed, it will have to publish detailed information justifying the decision and fund it from council tax." – Daily Mail
Osborne set to be handed boost with improved growth figures
"George Osborne, the Chancellor, is set to receive a pre-Budget gift tomorrow in the form of new data revealing that tghe economy has been performing better than previously thought. The Office for National Statistics is to publish its second estimate of GDP growth for the first quarter of the year, and is widely expected to raise its initial assessment." – The Independent
Lord Saatchi: Come on David Cameron, give us something to believe in
"Our new leader has the intellect, the charisma and the courage for history to judge him “a great prime minister”. To deserve the title, he will have to ignore the Conservative press officer who replied to a query about his party’s philosophy: “If you want philosophy, read Descartes”, and the Conservative candidate who agreed: “We don’t want philosophy and fluff”. – Lord Saatchi in The Times
Speaker's anger at Queen's Speech leak
"The government is facing demands to clarify how an entire draft of the Queen's speech fell into the hands of newspaper journalists in a leak, just days before it will be read, that was described as unprecedented by the office of the Speaker." – The Guardian
> Lee Rotherham on CentreRight was outraged at the leak of a draft of the Queen's Speech
> The weekend's ToryDiary: The Sunday Telegraph previews Tuesday's Queen's Speech
Liam Fox tells troops in Aghanistan they will be rewarded
"Liam Fox, the defence secretary, used his first visit to southern Afghanistan since taking office to promise troops a bonus for their efforts on the frontline. After flying into Lashkar Gah, Mr Fox was pressed by servicemen and women about the Tories' pledge to double the operational allowance for those serving in the country." – Daily Telegraph
Fox "slapped down" over Afghan policy – Daily Mail
Ministers in Taliban raid 'copter scare – Daily Mirror
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: William Hague explains the Government's policy towards Afghanistan
Ministers to press ahead with plans to cut MP numbers
"The government is pressing ahead with plans to redraw constituency boundaries across the UK and cut MP numbers. Ministers are preparing a bill that will be presented to the Commons before the summer which could see the number of MPs cut from 650 to below 600." – BBC
> Gareth Knight on Platform yesterday: Reducing the number of constituencies and equalising their size is a daunting task – but should have positive effects
Lord Rees-Mogg: Tory MPs need their safety valve more than ever
"Mr Cameron seems to have made two significant mistakes. One was the
attempt to protect the coalition by requiring a 55 per cent vote to
dissolve Parliament before five years. That is unworkable and
constitutionally objectionable. In effect, it could increase pressure
for a dissolution if the coalition suffered a serious defeat. The
second, which has caused greater offence, is the attempt to return to
the wartime practice of having ministers sit in the Conservative
backbench 1922 Committee." – Lord Rees-Mogg in The Times
Bruce Anderson: Momentum is the key for Cameron
"Leading a minority government, Mr Cameron would have made as good a fist as possible, insisting that he would act in the national interest, defying the other parties to defeat him and thus precipitate a second election. Maybe that would have worked. But at best, it would have meant prolonged uncertainty, which the markets would have hated… Mr Cameron was right to reject the risk. Like all good Tories, he has a fundamental political principle: that his country's interests and his party's interests are always identical. So he acted, decisively and dramatically. Most of the rest of the political world is still struggling to catch up." – Bruce Anderson in The Independent
The Tories and Lib Dems are fighting each other with gusto in Thirsk and Malton
"Their national leaders may still be dancing cheek to cheek, but Anne McIntosh, the former Shadow Environment Minister, and her Lib Dem rival, Howard Keal, treat each other with barely disguised contempt. Accusations fly back and forth. He urges voters to examine her expenses claims as MP for the now defunct Vale of York seat. She pauses during a tour of Helmsley on market day to challenge him to reveal the money that he and his wife claimed as members of Ryedale council." – The Times
Scottish Tories "lack leadership"
"The Conservatives in Scotland lack leadership and have become a marginalised force, a former Scottish secretary said yesterday. Lord Forsyth – who as Michael Forsyth was Scottish secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government – branded the Tories’ recent general election showing in Scotland “disastrous” and warned there was no connection between MSPs and the party’s grassroots." – The Press and Journal
> Yesterday's ToryDiary: Lord Forsyth gives a stark assessment of the state of the Scottish Conservative Party
Prescott: I'm the man to sort out Labour's finances
"They say that old soldiers never die, they just fade away – but the former deputy prime minister John Prescott is not even prepared to do that… Yesterday morning, "Prezza" formally launched his campaign to take one of the few jobs in politics that he has not already held: treasurer of the Labour Party." – The Independent
> Yesterday on LeftWatch: John Prescott signals his desire to remain on the political stage as he runs for Labour Party Treasurer
I’m special because I’m ordinary, says Andy Burnham – The Times
Clegg admits he begged Brown not to quit while he negotiated with Cameron – The Independent
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