Michael Crick
Centre-left Tory MPs launch Cameron supporters club
Michael Crick blogs from the Conservative Party conference.
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Osborne’s pledge: We will ride out the storm
In his address to the Conservative Party conference, Chancellor George Osborne returns to his theme of unity in the face of international economic adversity – but rules out early tax cuts.
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PM tells Gove to ‘get a move on’ with schools policy
Education Secretary Michael Gove tells Channel 4 News the prime minister has told him to “get a move on” with widening choice in education, as the government’s free school policy falls under scrutiny.
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Top Tory attacks Osborne economy plan
Coalition plans for the economy are criticised by a senior Conservative backbencher on the eve of the party’s conference in Manchester.
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Michael Crick
He unites the Milibands – in embarrassment
It was BBC Scotland political correspondent Tim Reid who in 2008 overheard David Miliband saying he didn’t want to be seen to be openly challenging Gordon Brown. Now Reid has embarrassed the younger of the Miliband brothers, blogs Michael Crick.
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Michael Crick
Will Toby Young win his £15,000 bet?
Michael Crick asks: will London Mayor Boris Johnson fulfil Toby Young’s prediction in the latest edition of The Spectator, and become Conservative Party leader by 2018?
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FactCheck: Cooper caught out on crime
FactCheck is a bit mystified. Labour’s press office pinged out a preview of Yvette Cooper’s speech this morning, which obviously we leapt on with our fine toothed factchecking comb. And something caught our eye. The release, published on Politics Home, announced that Yvette Cooper would say at Conference today that Labour was “the first government in a hundred years where crime went down and not up”.
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Ex-Met chief to lead Labour police review
A review of policing headed by former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens is to be set up by Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will announce at the party’s conference in Liverpool.
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FactCheck: Where are Labour’s voters going?
Tessa Jowell tried to brush off today’s humiliating slip in the leadership polls with the retort that no political party does well when the economy’s in the doldrums. “Benign times of growth are always easier for political parties,” she said, adding that it’s both a challenge and an opportunity for Ed Miliband. The news that the Tories have overtaken Labour for the first time since last October came as a huge blow to Mr Miliband as he delivered his keynote speech. According to a ComRes poll, the Conservatives are on 37 per cent, with Labour just behind at 36 per cent and the Lib Dems at 12 per cent. But Ms Jowell says this has more to do with people withdrawing from politics, than signing up to the Tories. FactCheck calls up the pollsters.
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Miliband wants ‘new bargain’ with British people
In his keynote Labour conference address, party leader Ed Miliband offers a “new bargain” to the people of Britain. Top Labour figures tell Channel 4 News the speech was “typical Ed”.
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Unions call for civil disobedience
Channel 4 News learns union bosses are calling for a campaign of civil disobedience and sit-ins as well as strikes over the spending cuts, with one leader saying he is “prepared to go to jail”.
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Labour targets ‘fast buck culture’
As an opinion poll puts Labour one point behind the Conservatives, Ed Miliband promises a “new bargain” for Britain in his Labour conference speech.
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FactCheck: Ed Balls won’t give the Tories a free kick on the economy
Ed Balls doesn’t really do contrition. He flirted with the idea on the Today programme this morning when he said sorry for the failure of banking regulations, and admitted that not every pound had been well spent by Labour.
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Michael Crick
Five-year parliament changes dynamics of opposition
Ed Miliband has one big advantage. He’s the first leader of the opposition in history who knows, pretty much for certain, when the next election will be – in May 2015. The new legislation setting down that all parliaments will last five years in future makes it much easier for an opposition to plan. Only…
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‘Ed Miliband has an angry, insurgent side’
The Labour peer credited with inventing the “Blue Labour” concept, Lord Maurice Glasman, reveals another side to Ed Miliband in an interview with Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon.
