9.30pm ToryDiary: UKIP surges to a record 20% in an opinion poll as Cameron languishes
5pm MPsETC: Tory MEPs' Leader Richard Ashworth and ex-UKIP defector Marta Andreasen deselected
4.30pm ToryDiary: Update Lord Feldman says he didn't say it. But the Telegraph stands by its story.
4pm ToryDiary: Party Chairman Lord Feldman denies calling Party members “mad, swivel-eyed loons”
2.15pm Steve Barclay MP on Comment: The action on derelict buildings that would drive local growth
Tory Diary: If the Conservative Party is in decline, whose fault is that?
Energy Minister Greg Barker MP on Comment: How this Government is cutting energy bills
Bad news: Prime Minister’s
ally – our party activists are “mad, swivel-eyed loons”
“Tory activists are 'mad, swivel-eyed loons', according to one of David Cameron’s closest allies. The incendiary comment made at a private dinner this week is likely to plunge relations between the Prime Minister and his party to a new low. It offers a rare insight into the disregard and irritation felt by the Prime Minister’s inner circle towards Conservative Party members up and down the country. The senior figure, who has strong social connections to the Prime Minister and close links to the party machine, blamed grassroots members for the rebellion by MPs on Europe this week. Asked about Wednesday’s vote in which 116 Conservative MPs voted against the Queen’s Speech, the figure said: 'It’s fine. There’s really no problem. The MPs just have to do it because the associations tell them to, and the associations are all mad, swivel-eyed loons.' The remarks will worsen the rift between Mr Cameron and his party amid pressure from the Tory Right, who bounced the Prime Minister into publishing a draft referendum Bill on EU membership last week." The Times (£)
> Today: Tory Diary – If the Conservative Party is in decline, whose fault is that?
> Yesterday:
Better News 1) Boost for Osborne
as FTSE hits highest level since start of financial crisis
“The stock
market last night rose to its highest level since the financial crisis,
providing a timely boost for Chancellor George Osborne. The FTSE 100 index of
Britain’s biggest blue chip companies ended the day above 6,700 points for the
first time since October 2007 – the month after the run on Northern Rock. It comes after
Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King on Wednesday predicted a ‘modest but
sustained’ recovery but warned inflation will remain ‘stubbornly high’” – Daily
Mail
Better News 2) Green shoots
for the Tories?
“Wallowing in
the mid-term doldrums, bickering over Europe, lacking any sense of vision or
direction… by all the normal rules of politics, this should be a time of deep
unpopularity for the Tories. Yet remarkably, a poll this week shows the party
up two points – lagging only three behind Labour, which has slumped from 38 to
34 per cent” – Daily
Mail Comment
Downing Street rebukes Philip Hammond amid
leadership bid concern
“Philip
Hammond was rebuked by Downing Street on Friday over his criticism of gay
marriage, amid concern that the defence secretary could be positioning for a
leadership bid. A senior government official said Number 10 was ‘dismayed’ by
Mr Hammond’s performance on the BBC’s Question Time, when he suggested that
David Cameron was wasting parliamentary time and causing public anger by
backing same sex marriages” – Financial Times
> Yesterday:
Hammond: "The grey man who
could be David Cameron’s nemesis"
“You may not
have heard of Philip Hammond — there’s little reason why you should. After all,
the Defence Secretary is not the most charismatic politician…However, behind Mr
Hammond’s bank-manager-style exterior lies a man of considerable
accomplishment…Some of his friends say that, keenly aware of his own abilities,
he harbours a quiet determination to lead his party — which is reason enough to
pay particular attention to his public pronouncements at a time when the Tories
are facing something close to civil war over Europe. His announcement last
weekend that he would vote to leave the EU were a referendum held now was
remarkable” – Simon Heffer, Daily
Mail
Charles Moore leans one way: "David Cameron isn’t a disaster, yet I long for a radical new
leader…"
“I find myself in the odd position of longing for a new leader
(I don’t much mind from which party) who can propose – à la Thatcher,
Roosevelt, de Gaulle – a quite different way ahead, and yet also feeling that
Mr Cameron is not at all a disaster. If only he would bring…clarity to the
subject of Europe…He seems to regard the issue as a migraine-inducing matter of
party opinion-management rather than for what it is – the main constitutional,
strategic and economic question which this country faces. On the subject of
Europe, Cameron the great moderniser is painfully 20th century” – Charles
Moore, Daily
Telegraph
…And Matthew Parris the other: "If Dave cuts a
deal with UKIP I’m outta here"
“Along with millions (I believe) of liberal Tory
supporters, and millions more still undecided, I will never vote for any
Conservative candidates who pay UKIP protection money by signing up to their
policies in return for being given a clear run. We must expose any such deals
and punish at the ballot box those who connive in them. It’s simple. A vote for
a Tory- UKIP collaborator is a vote for UKIP…This week it began to appear that
to cut any ice in Tory politics, you have to cut up rough and treat your party
like a bar-room brawl. Well, here it is in bar-room language: cut a deal with
UKIP, and I’m outta here. And (the Tories would find) outta here too would be
millions more” – Matthew Parris, The
Times (£)
Salmond
and Farage clash over anti-UKIP protest
“Alex
Salmond, Scottish first minister, has mocked complaints from Nigel Farage over
his barracking by protesters at an Edinburgh pub, saying Scotland does not need
the UK Independence party. In a testy BBC Scotland radio interview, Mr Farage
condemned the protesters who surrounded him at a press event on Thursday as
‘fascist scum’ showing an ‘ugly face’ of Scottish nationalism.” – Financial
Times
Conservatives float two-tier benefits system in private survey
in Labour marginals
“The proposal for a two-tier benefits system is one of a number
of Conservative policy ideas in a survey sent to members of the public in
marginal seats held by Labour. The five page survey, obtained by Tribune
magazine, contains 35 questions grouped under headings such as ‘helping with
the cost of living’ and ‘making our welfare and benefits system fair’” – Daily
Telegraph
“Bedroom tax” causes huge leap in hardship payments
“The extent of the
suffering inflicted by the “bedroom tax” can be revealed for the first time today
as figures show a 338 per cent leap in the number of people applying for
emergency handouts in the month since it was imposed. In April, more than
25,000 people resorted to applying for discretionary housing payments (DHP) to
help cover their rent, according to an analysis of 51 councils by the
Independent. There were only 5,700 such claimants in the same month last year”
– Independent
News in brief
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