David cameron

Today at Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron quoted Gary Porter, the Tory chair of the Local Government Association, praising reforms in the spending review that will allow councils to raise money for the cost of social care using council tax. The Tory leader was using the quote to prove Jeremy Corbyn wrong in his warnings about the NHS and social care. He said: ‘If he wants to swap quotations, this is what the chairman of the Local Government Association says: “The LGA has long called for further flexibility in the setting of council tax… Today’s announcement on council tax will go some way to allowing a number of councils to

David Cameron will be relived that his European Referendum Bill is finally on its way to Royal Assent, after weeks of threats from Labour peers. But Europe being Europe, there are a whole heap of other problems that the Prime Minister needs to contend with too. It’s not just the specific question of whether David Cameron can get any sot of reform to access to benefits for migrants that looks like he’s won a battle, but whether the overall renegotiation and its result are really sufficient to impress MPs and then voters into backing staying in the European Union. Today’s European Scrutiny committee report on the renegotiation warns that the

Can Britain reorder Europe? When James Forsyth and I interviewed the Prime Minister on Monday we were struck by his line of argument. Yes, he said, seeing the immigration crisis coming straight after the Euro crisis may make voters want out. But this, he said, was an instinctive reaction. There was a better response:- The longer term reaction might actually be: well if they are going to have a single currency and they are on our doorstep and they are going to try and make it work, let’s make sure our relationship with them works…  If they are going to have a borderless Europe which we’re not part of, for heaven’s sake

This is an extended version of an interview with the Prime Minister from the Christmas special issue of The Spectator. The last time David Cameron sat down with The Spectator for an interview, he was on a train and looking rather worried. There were just weeks to go until the general election and the polls were not moving. At the time, almost no one — and certainly not him — imagined that he was on the cusp of a historic election -victory that would not just sweep the Tories to power but send Labour into an abyss. This time, we meet on another train. But he’s far more relaxed, reflecting on winning

Jeremy Corbyn is like the lights in a planetarium. Whenever he goes off, stars appear. Last week the radiation came from Hilary Benn. At PMQs today it was Angela Eagle who outshone her leader. With Cameron away, George Osborne manned the despatch box but he showed not a flicker of joy or anticipation as he uttered the golden words. ‘Today I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others…’ Beneath the tomb-stone expression was this. ‘It’s mine already – try and take it off me’. Ms Eagle was dressed for a PTA meeting in a twinkly caravanning jumper and a Primark jacket. Her no-nonsense blonde hair was cropped short at the

What if David Cameron does win his fight – staged or otherwise – with European leaders to block benefits for EU migrants for four years? In terms of his pitch to the British public that voting to stay in the bloc is a good idea, this win would be very handy indeed. But would it actually materially change anything? Today, in an evidence session to the Treasury Select Committee, Office for Budget Responsibility Stephen Nickell rather undermined the importance of this row between leaders when he ended up telling MPs that it wouldn’t make much of a difference to immigration from other EU countries to Britain anyway. He said: ‘I

Over the weekend a man attacked passengers at Leytonstone tube station, claiming he was acting in protest at the government’s decision to carry out airstrikes on Syria. One small ray of light to emerge from the incident — which left three injured — was a video of the aftermath in which a man shouts at the offender: ‘you ain’t no Muslim, bruv’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYjGaxYhDuQ Since then the phrase has gone viral, with many tweeting it online as an act of solidarity. All very well, until David Cameron decided to go one step further and quote the phrase in a speech today: ‘Some of us have dedicated speeches and media appearances and soundbites and everything to this