By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter Three of the four Universal Credit pilots due to start in April have been postponed to July. It might sound a modest delay but the Labour Party is gleeful. Liam Byrne, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary says: "This scheme is now on the edge of disaster." That sounds like […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Yesterday morning I blogged some general thoughts on Cameron's immigration speech that he'll give later today. We now have some more detail on the PM's prepared remarks. His speech will have three themes overall: (i) Cutting immigrants' access to benefits; (ii) ending 'something for nothing' benefits'; and (iii) cracking […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Theresa May was reported earlier this week to have led a Cabinet charge by the "National Union of Ministers" – herself, Philip Hammond and Vince Cable – against the protection of the health, education and aid budgets. I have certainly heard senior figures in the Home Office suggest that […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Take a run through this morning’s papers, and you’ll clatter into this story in the Mail on Sunday. It details a ‘secret Chequers summit’ that will be attended, later this week, by the ‘Fab four’ of David Cameron, George Osborne, Ed Llewellyn and Lynton Crosby. Apparently, this summit will focus […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter What’s in a definition? An awful lot, particularly when it comes to child poverty in this country. The last Labour government defined a poor child as one living in a household earning less than 60 per cent of the national median income; and they had a target to raise all […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If you feel like reading something about David Cameron that isn’t related to Europe, then how about the interview with him in the latest issue of the House Magazine? The problem with these interviews conducted by Paul Waugh and Sam Macrory is that they contain too many brilliant nuggets of […]
Perhaps the most intriguing political story in today’s papers is this one in the Sun. It says that ministers are “drawing up controversial plans” to axe benefits such as the Winter Fuel Allowance, free bus passes and free TV licences for all new pensioners. The idea, apparently, is that the poorest new pensioners will be handed more money via their […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter One of the useful reminders of Lord Ashcroft's polling (read his latest reflection on ConHome today) has been to remind us of the importance of language as well as policy. Often ethnic minority voters misinterpret an attack on "multiculturalism" as an an attack on a multi racial society. Voters defecting […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Cameron appeared on BBC1 wearing a light blue shirt. It's the second time in 2013 he's abandoned his normal white shirt policy. Perhaps Mrs Cameron bought him a new wardrobe for Christmas? We have two interviews with the PM to report this morning. In one, in The Sunday Telegraph, […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Iain Duncan Smith might never have become Work and Pensions Secretary. An alternative history could easily read as follows. David Willetts was made Work and Pensions Secretary in 2010. After Theresa May had been sent to the Home Office, Mr Willetts (who's in the news today over University admissions) […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter 2013 starts with some good news. After repeatedly attacking his Coalition partners (on Europe, on wanting to cut welfare too much, on property taxes and general Right-wingery in recent weeks) the Deputy Prime Minister has turned his fire on Labour this morning. Let's hope it's a New Year's resolution. […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Time for the the fifth result from our end-of year readers’ survey: those for Policy of the Year. The overall winner, by some distance, was the benefits cap, which secured 57.6 per cent of the vote. The list of runners-up reads as follows: The higher and higher basic income tax […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Oh look, the Welfare Uprating Bill is published today. That’s the Bill which formalises the Government’s plan to increase many benefits by only 1 per cent a year, rather than by the rate of inflation. It’s the Bill which has given us what will surely be one of the defining […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown committed their party to Conservative spending plans when they fought the 1997 election. Their shrinking of the target at which their enemies could fire set the tone for the next 20 years, followed as it was by one of biggest landslide victories in British […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. After PMQs on Wednesday, Labour launched a campaign, the price of Tory failure, which attacks the Government's welfare policies. The idea is to target 60 marginal Tory seats where the number of families receiving in-work tax credits is greater than the MP's majority. CCHQ have responded with a hard-hitting […]