Juliette Gerstein looks back at the week in politics and the media.
Criticism of Maria Miller’s expenses dominated the early part of the week, ultimately leading to her standing down from her role as Culture Secretary. She was replaced by Sajid Javid, with Nicky Morgan moving to become Financial Secretary in his place, and Andrea Leadsom joining the Government as Economic Secretary. There was much focus on Javid’s promotion as the first British Asian to enter the Cabinet, and Tim Montgomerie praised his Thatcherite instincts and Andrew Pierce tipped him as a future Prime Minister. There were some questions about Javid’s qualifications to be in charge of culture, whilst others concentrated on the decision to give Javid the Equalities brief, but Nicky Morgan, who voted against same sex marriage, responsibility for women. Ian Birrell and Isabel Hardman questioned whether these jobs were entirely necessary.
It’s been a difficult week for the Conservative parliamentary party. The Prime Minister’s decision to defend Miller initially drew accusations of indecision from the media, and Polly Toynbee voiced concerns about the current system of self-regulation. The Times reported that she only left after George Osborne and Lynton Crosby felt that the ongoing scandal was proving too much of a distraction; Rafael Behr suggested that Cameron is not good at reading the public mood. Michael Fabricant was fired as Tory Party Chairman as a result of his opposition to HS2 and his comments on twitter about Miller, whilst the Standard reported that Boris Johnson was seeking a ‘superpost’ in the Cabinet, combining responsibility for transport, business and housing. The former Deputy Speaker, Nigel Evans, was cleared of sexual assault charges yesterday. Some Tory MPs have criticised the CPS for bringing the trial, but there is also some focus on misconduct in Parliament after a Channel 4 investigation revealed that a number of researchers claim to have received unwanted advances from MPs. Tory MPs are reportedly being asked to sign up to a new voluntary code of conduct and grievance procedure for staff.
The Chancellor is due to give a speech at the IMF in Washington dismissing those who had previously questioned his austerity programme, and arguing that despite the ongoing need for restraint, the UK economy will grow. He was also boosted by an SMF report challenging the concept of the ‘squeezed middle’ saying that of the households in the middle of the income bracket, 42% saw their income rise since 2008, whilst only 18% saw their income fall. This has not deterred Ed Miliband who wrote about falling living standards on Monday and is due to give a speech today criticising suggestions that the economy is improving and arguing that the squeeze on living standards will continue until 2020. In the Mail, Daniel Johnson argued that it was Labour policies that caused the squeeze, and that their current policies wont help the problem, whilst the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has accused the Labour Leader of ‘clutching at straws’. Miliband also gave a speech promising that Labour would put more money into local growth projects to increase economic devolution to towns and cities, but Mary Riddell was unsure if this was enough to reassure Labour voters.
The Work and Pensions Secretary gave a speech emphasising that restrictions on benefits were encouraging people back into work, and Matt Ridley emphasised that the claimant contract was having a real impact on jobseekers. But the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned that the ‘bedroom tax’ has saved £115m less than expected, whilst the Work and Pensions Committee said that the Government had hampered scrutiny of universal credit.
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