Cameron addresses Tory MPs his way on the new coalition agreement

Just off to hang around near the meeting of Tory MPs. David Cameron is to address them on the fleshed-out coalition agreement, 30 pages long I hear, which will be published tomorrow.

It covers every department and all the main issues of government. One Tory MP told me he was intending to ask for an opt out, just like the one the Lib Dem MPs have on nuclear energy, if he doesn’t fancy voting for capital gains tax changes. I wonder if he does.

This will be the third meeting of its type since the election. It is no accident that these meetings subvert the authority of the 1922 Committee backbench meetings (born of a collapsed coalition government many moons ago) where elected backbench MPs shape and chair the meetings and (shadow) ministers are guests.

David Cameron pioneered and clearly intends to keep going with his own MPs’ meetings on his own terms (in the case of the first three of this Parliament, summoned at short notice to serve the leadership’s plans). The Lib Dem MPs meet at 6pm.

Mr Cameron has been ringing up some of “the dispossessed” who lost out on ministerial jobs they might have expected. Some are being consoled with unpaid PPS posts to show they haven’t been forgotten. Others are sniffing round the select committees to see what other job opportunities are on offer.