Childcare row becomes more about Coalition and less about the policy itself

It is not an enormous surprise that Nick Clegg has confirmed that he will block the government’s plans to relax ratios for childcare providers. The Tories working on the plans seemed entirely resigned to losing them a month ago.

But what is interesting is that this row is becoming the new boundary reforms for the Coalition. It might not have long-reaching political effects like the demise of those changes to constituencies, but this is now an argument about process, who-did-what-when, and who-definitely-didn’t-say-that-at-all. The Tories are annoyed, once again, that the Lib Dems are briefing the demise of these proposals before the whole package to reduce the cost of childcare has been finally agreed. The Lib Dems like to point out that they never gave consent for the ratios, only the consultation. But the Tories like to point to letters showing Liz Truss highlighted the ratios plan very early on. It really is rather exhausting.