Ed Balls: I had to tell Brown to shut up
I’m not the first journalist to point out that Balls has his work cut out to distance himself from Gordon Brown, his old mentor. But in a Telegraph interview tonight he has a stab at it:
(He also reveals that Labour was prepared to reconsider Trident as the price for a coalition deal. And that he had to talk Gordon Brown out of standing on the proviso that he would step down after a year). Read more
“Blood on the wall”: Labour general secretary versus the unions
There could be “blood on the wall” within the Labour brotherhood over plans by the party’s general secretary, Ray Collins, to limit the unions’ involvement in the leadership contest. Their phrase, not mine.
Mr Collins, himself a former T&G official, surprised union general secretaries at a private meeting on Tuesday when he proposed a change to the rules to stop them leafleting their members to tell them who they were supporting. I’m told the barons were “furious” at the “crazy” plan to prevent the unions informing their members what they thought about the contest. Collins has also restricted the spending by each candidate to £155,000.
A meeting of the NEC procedures committee yesterday failed to resolve the leafleting issue but the union leaders are threatening blue murder if Collins gets his way. “I don’t know what he’s playing at,” says one union source.
Some Westminster journalists presume all unions will back Ed Balls en masse on the basis that he is friendly with Charlie Whelan, political officer for Unite. If only things were so simple. That theory is undermined by the internecine rivalries within the movement and within each union. Read more
Will Ed Balls struggle to gather the signatures of 33 MPs?
There is a bit of speculation around Westminster that the former schools secretary may not gather the 33 MPs he needs to mount a leadership bid – even with the deadline extended from Thursday to June 9. The theory is that his charms are lost on some members of the PLP. Read more
The rise and rise of Danny Alexander
Of all the new cabinet ministers surely one of the most obscure – until recently – is Danny Alexander, who was chief of staff for Nick Clegg. Alexander has played a key role in producing the Lib Dem manifesto and in the coalition talks of recent days, working closely with the Tories’ Oliver Letwin to produce yesterday’s coalition agreement. Read more
MPs in full revolt over new expenses regime
Polly Curtis at the Guardian brought us the story yesterday of an MPs letter complaining about the new expenses regime at the House of Commons. (Run by IPSA – the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority). Members are writhing over perceived unfairness, for example:
* The £110,000 budget for staff is less than some MPs received before, after pensions are taken into account, meaning they have to cut wages, lay off staff or top up the payments themselves. Read more
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Jim Pickard is the FT's chief political correspondent, having joined the lobby team in January 2008. He has been at the FT since 1999 as a regional correspondent, assistant UK news editor and property correspondent.
Kiran Stacey is an FT political correspondent, having joined the lobby in 2011. He started at the FT as a graduate trainee in 2008, working on desks including UK companies and US equity markets before taking over the FT's Energy Source blog.
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