It’s Christmas Eve, and the Daily Telegraph have wrapped up their sting operation in
time for tomorrow. The final victims are the Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne and the children’s minister Sarah Teather. As it happens, Teather gets off without blemishing her
copybook: her greatest indiscretion is to claim that Michael Gove is “deeply relieved” to be in coalition, as it means more funding for schools. Browne, though, is a touch more
forthright: he says that Tory immigration policy is “harsh” and “uncharitable,” but that Lib Dem involvement will provoke a “more enlightened” outcome. He adds that
the Tories’ EU grouping contains parties that “are quite nutty and that’s an embarrassment to them.”
Labour will no doubt make play with the Browne comments at some point after Christmas. They have always been keen to attack the Tories’ European alliances, even if the dynamite has never quite set light.
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