Category: Lib Dems

Lib Dems go after high-earners’ pensions

February 14, 2012 1:05 pm by Kiran Stacey

The Liberal Democrats have a problem. They have staked their colours clearly to the mast when it comes to raising the minimum threshold for income tax to £10,000. Most expect it to be done by the end of the parliament, if not by 2014.

The problem is, this will cost money – £4bn if it’s done by 2015, £5.5bn if it’s done by 2014 – and there isn’t much of it floating around. Lib Dems will tell you they are keen on two options to pay for this: one is to clamp down on tax avoidance; the other is to tax the pension contributions made by higher earners.

Both options are likely to make some kind of appearance in the Budget in March. But it is the latter that raises the serious money, and carries potentially serious risks for the coalition.

Continue reading: “Lib Dems go after high-earners’ pensions”

Tags: Pension contribution tax relief
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, Tax, Treasury, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Letters between Huhne and Clegg

February 3, 2012 11:31 am by Kiran Stacey

Chris Huhne has written to both the prime minister and deputy prime minister offering his resignation. The exchange with Cameron is in a separate post. Here are the letters between the former energy secretary and Nick Clegg, the man he once challenged for the party leadership:

Dear Nick,

I am writing to resign, with great regret, as Energy and Climate Change Secretary. I will defend myself robustly in the courts against the charges that the Crown Prosecution Service has decided to press. I have concluded that it would be distracting both to my trial defence and to my official duties if I were to continue in office as a minister.

Continue reading: “Letters between Huhne and Clegg”

Tags: Chris Huhne
Posted in Coalition, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

Letters between Huhne and Cameron

February 3, 2012 11:25 am by Kiran Stacey

Here is what Chris Huhne wrote to David Cameron in his resignation letter, and what the PM wrote in return:

This letter is to submit with much regret my resignation as Energy and Climate Change Secretary. I intend to mount a robust defence against the charges brought against me, and I have concluded that it would be distracting both to that effort and to my official duties if I were to continue in office.

Continue reading: “Letters between Huhne and Cameron”

Tags: Chris Huhne
Posted in David Cameron, Lib Dems, UK politics | Permalink

Reshuffle speculation grips Westminster

February 3, 2012 11:21 am by Kiran Stacey

UPDATE: The results are in, and, as widely predicted, Ed Davey has been promoted to energy secretary, with Norman Lamb coming into the business department. Jenny Willott has been made an assistant whip, while Jo Swinson is now Nick Clegg’s PPS. I’ll leave the rest of the post unchanged so you can judge for yourselves who right I was…

Chris Huhne has resigned as energy secretary after being told he will be charged with perverting the course of justice following allegations he asked his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, to accept speeding points on his behalf.

This means that David Cameron, famously reluctant to reshuffle his ministers, will now be forced into his second reshuffle of the last three months. As with the last one, in which Liam Fox was replaced by Philip Hammond, this one is expected to be fairly limited, with only Liberal Democrats moving. So here are the runners and riders:

Continue reading: “Reshuffle speculation grips Westminster”

Tags: Chris Huhne
Posted in Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

Clegg: I will use Parliament Act to force through Lords reform if needed

December 20, 2011 1:50 pm by Kiran Stacey

Many commentators have been asking why the Liberal Democrats are still in the coalition, given they have now lost major battles on tuition fees, electoral reform and Europe.

Philip Stephens, writing in today’s FT, suggests:

With trust gone, the coalition is now much more a transactional affair. Anything beyond the shared goal of reducing the deficit is the subject of intense negotiation.

Clegg, when asked today in the Commons, said that the main reason to form the coalition, and to stay in it now, was to bring down the deficit. But if there is one issue that might seem distinctively Lib Dem, and on which Clegg might be able to score a victory, not least to placate his own backbenches, it is on reforming the House of Lords.

Continue reading: “Clegg: I will use Parliament Act to force through Lords reform if needed”

Tags: house of lords
Posted in Coalition, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

Should Clegg back an EU referendum?

December 19, 2011 3:34 pm by Kiran Stacey

I wrote a few weeks ago that the number one priority of those at the heart of the coalition, and especially those close to Nick Clegg, was not to have a referendum on Europe. But there are people on his side who think the Lib Dem leader should effectively call the Eurosceptics’ bluff and back a referendum, not just on any new European treaty, but on the UK’s very membership of the union. It is an argument even Clegg used to advance.

Philip Stephens, the FT’s chief political commentator, made this call a few weeks ago in a provocative column (at least for a europhile) entitled Britain’s eurosceptics are right to call for a referendum. In it he argued:

Barring a euro break-up, Britain and its partners are now set on different courses. At some point the divergence will become unsustainable. The Tory sceptics may be right after all. There is a case for an in-or-out referendum. My guess is the sceptics would be sorely disappointed by the outcome. The voters are realists. Much as Brussels may irritate them, they know there is nothing splendid about isolation.

Now YouGov have done some polling that seems to back up Stephens’ conclusions, especially about the outcome of such a referendum.

Continue reading: “Should Clegg back an EU referendum?”

Tags: Guido Westerwelle
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, David Cameron, Europe, Foreign policy, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

PMQs: It’s panto season, and Cameron tells the best jokes

December 14, 2011 1:11 pm by Kiran Stacey

Ed Miliband started well at today’s PMQs, using David Cameron’s words from his 2011 New Year message to highlight the government’s failure to stop the rise in unemployment, which has hit a new 17-year high.

Miliband quotes the PM as saying: “What is uppermost in my mind is jobs,” before asking, “What went wrong?”

There then followed such a well-worn debate (“Unemployment is rising,” says Labour; “Here’s what we’re doing to tackle it,” say the Tories) that half the press gallery fell asleep during it.

Continue reading: “PMQs: It’s panto season, and Cameron tells the best jokes”

Tags: pmqs
Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Europe, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Nick ‘Heineken’ Clegg lovebombs Europe

December 13, 2011 3:32 pm by Kiran Stacey

Nick Clegg with Herman Van Rompuy

Nick Clegg’s advisers like to call him the “Heineken” of British politics, because he reaches the parts of Europe that other British politicians can’t reach. Clegg, who trained at the College of Europe, learned at the feet of Leon Brittan, the famously pro-European Tory, became an MEP and speaks to leaders across Europe in their own languages, is ideally placed to try and win back some goodwill for the UK among European leaders.

And that is what he will try and do over the next few weeks and months. He told cabinet this morning that he now wants to focus on how to re-engage with Europe after David Cameron’s treaty veto, which has clearly angered many on the continent. Vince Cable specifically raised the issue of business fears about being cut adrift.

Tomorrow, the Lib Dem leader will host a series of meetings with business leaders to try to soothe any worries they have on the UK becoming isolated from the rest of Europe, and to ask their views on Europe more generally. He will also attend a business breakfast arranged by Business for New Europe, a pro-EU group of corporate representatives.

Continue reading: “Nick ‘Heineken’ Clegg lovebombs Europe”

Posted in Coalition, Europe, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

Labour to LDs: Work with us on Europe

December 12, 2011 3:01 pm by Kiran Stacey

Douglas Alexander has written a piece for the New Statesman trying to prise open the cracks in the coalition over Europe.

In the run up to this afternoon’s debate on the EU, during which Ed Miliband is expected to paint Cameron as isolated both at home and abroad, the shadow foreign secretary has invited the Lib Dems to work with Labour to get the UK back into the heart of Europe.

He writes:

The roots of what happened on the night of Thursday 8 December lie deep in Cameron’s failure to modernise the Tory party. Just because he puts party interest before the national interest, there is no reason others should do the same. That is why I make a genuine offer to Liberal Democrats to work with us to try to get a better outcome for Britain, between now and when this agreement is likely to be finally tied down in March. Work can and should start immediately both to win back friends and allies and to consider what rules and procedures can avoid Britain’s further marginalisation.

Continue reading: “Labour to LDs: Work with us on Europe”

Tags: Douglas Alexander
Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Europe, Foreign policy, Labour, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, UK politics | Permalink

‘Nervous’ Lib Dems toe the line on Europe UPDATED

December 9, 2011 2:41 pm by Kiran Stacey

Nicolas Sarkozy avoids shaking David Cameron's hand

So Britain has isolated itself in Europe by refusing to sign up to a deal to save the eurozone because other countries refused to give the UK specific safeguards to protect the single market and the City of London. Tory backbenchers are delighted, but what does the pro-European Lib Dem half of the coalition make of it?

Anyone expecting a massive bust up at the heart of the coalition will have been dismayed to read Nick Clegg’s statement this morning. The deputy prime minister said:

The demands Britain made for safeguards, on which the Coalition Government was united, were modest and reasonable. They were safeguards for the single market, not just the UK.

What we sought to ensure was to maintain a level playing field in financial services and the single market as a whole. This would have retained the UK’s ability to take tougher, not looser, regulatory action to sort out our banking system.

Continue reading: “‘Nervous’ Lib Dems toe the line on Europe UPDATED”

Posted in Coalition, Conservatives, Europe, Foreign policy, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg | Permalink

Whoops: Vince Cable says Project Merlin has not succeeded

December 8, 2011 3:28 pm by Kiran Stacey

Sitting in the Commons chamber for business questions today, I was startled to hear an apparently frank admission from Vince Cable to a question from Gordon Banks, the shadow business minister.

Other ministers (including the chancellor) have insisted that Project Merlin, the deal between the government and the banks to increase gross lending to businesses, has been a success. But Cable apparently disagreed.

Here is the full exchange:

Continue reading: “Whoops: Vince Cable says Project Merlin has not succeeded”

Tags: Project Merlin, Vince Cable
Posted in Lib Dems, Treasury, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink

Vince tells big business: stop overpaying your execs

December 7, 2011 7:15 pm by Kiran Stacey

Vince Cable will not be outflanked by George Osborne. Osborne said on Tuesday that banks needed to show restraint when paying bonuses – an unusually anti-City message for a Tory chancellor.

But Cable today has gone one further, urging investors not to focus only on banks, but to make sure that no big company allows its executives to be paid too much. We will have more on this in tomorrow’s FT, but here is the letter he has sent to top investors and FTSE100 chairmen:

Continue reading: “Vince tells big business: stop overpaying your execs”

Tags: high pay, Vince Cable
Posted in Coalition, Lib Dems, Recession, UK economy, UK politics | Permalink