Boris Johnson has threatened a rift with senior Tory colleagues by condemning the government’s aviation policy as “totally mad” and urging ministers to proceed faster with new economic growth measures.

The mayor of London, buoyed by strong poll ratings and a successful Olympic games, made the forthright comments in a newspaper interview on Wednesday. His observations left colleagues visibly irritated, with Iain Duncan Smith, welfare secretary, saying it was nonsense to suggest that the prime minister was simply sat “twiddling his thumbs” in Downing Street.

Despite hugging one another at an event during last week’s Olympics, relations between David Cameron and Mr Johnson are uncomfortable, not least because the latter is now the grassroots favourite to become the next leader of the Conservative party.

In his latest outspoken interview – in the Evening Standard – the mayor urged the government to “stop pussyfooting around” and get started on a clutch of new Read more

Last Saturday I revealed that Danny Alexander will use the Lib Dem conference to articulate his differences with Tory partners over green energy and employmeng legislation.

The event is likely to see many more moments of differentation, and not only from the usual suspects such as Tim Farron or Vince Cable.

On transport, too – and in particular aviation – the Lib Dem motion at conference is a reminder of the gulf between the two parties on issues of policy.

While the Tory leadership (if not transport secretary Justine Greening) has swung behind a third runway at Heathrow, the Lib Dems are determined in their opposition to the scheme.

The motion says that Heathrow is “extremely badly located” and repeats that the Lib Dems remain “strongly opposed to the third runway“.

It repeats the coalition rejection of new runways at Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick. It then goes further and voices opposition to mixed-mode at Heathrow, which the Tories are keen to push as an interim measure for the next three years.

(I revealed on July 1 that the coalition has put any aviation decision into the long grass until 2015 and that the Tories will not mention Heathrow in their manifesto to enable a U-turn in the next Parliament.)

The Lib Dem motion, from backbencher Julian Huppert (who has a Read more

 Read more

 Read more

It was pretty clear yesterday that the government still doesn’t quite know what position to take on Standard Chartered, which has been accused by a New York regulator of breaching sanctions on Iran. Even the usually vocal Vince Cable has been completely silent on the issue; while the Treasury merely emitted a neutral statement saying “these are allegations at this stage”.

Not so Boris Johnson. The London mayor has come out with a trenchant defence of the bank, saying to the FT:

“We must be very careful that the proper desire to root out wrongdoing does not become an excuse for protectionism and a self-interested attack on London’s status as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre.”

 Read more

Louise Mensch was something of a Marmite character in Westminster but she was never boring; the Commons will be slightly less interesting without her sharp opinions and colourful interventions. She was no doubt  controversial, however: at least one senior Tory called her “Gizza Mensch” in reference to her love of media appearances. Here is our news story about the exit – a by-election is expected in November.

One senior Tory MP even said icily that Ms Mensch’s resignation showed the “folly” of the A-list system:

“There’s no point in bringing people in who haven’t really thought about what the job will be like – people who think it’s much more glamorous and more fun than it actually is.”

The highlights of her brief Westminster career included a glamorous magazine spread; testily standing up to Tom Watson over the Murdochs; and a painful appearance on Have I Got News For You. (The Guardian has a good catch-up on some of these).

But commentators are divided about whether her departure has wider Read more