The Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Danny Kennedy has called for the rules by which the First Minister is chosen to be amended, in an attempt the block the prospect of either Gerry Adams or Martin McGuniess takingtest
The Andy Coulson affair appears to be opening up divisions within the Coalition, albeit ones which have so far done no more than simmer beneath the surface. Several Liberal Democrats have let their negative opinion of the Cameron’s Head of Communications spill out into the public sphere.
None of these donations are illegal, but questions will be raised over why people with such vested interests are handing over huge sums of money, and in the having seen Conservative MEPs vote against a clamp down on tax dodgers and Mr Osborne’s fight to block European regulation of hedge funds, one must ask: cui bono?
When David Cameron took the reins of government, within a week of doing so, he made a point of visiting each of the devolved governments, seeking to highlight his new mantra of respect between Westminster, Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont. Little did they know; it now transpires that the respect is not, it seems, applicable to relations between Conservatives in London and Scotland.
In an address to the Fabian Society this morning, Ed Balls unveiled new research which attacks Michael Gove’s academies programme for being elitist.
Damian Green is to give his first speech as immigration minister later today, in which he will claim that the number of foreign students entering the UK is ‘unsustainable’, drawing on new Home Office research. The same research has also suggested that it will be very difficult for the Government to meet its target of reducing net immigration to under 100,000 a year.
As voting commences, Labour leadership front runners David and Ed Miliband have answered a series of policy questions for Left Foot Forward – read their answers in full here.
Ed Miliband leads his brother in a poll of LGBT members of the Labour Party for the Pink News website; of the 680 sample, Ed polls 42 per cent, David 31 per cent, Diane Abbott 16 per cent, Andy Burnham 7 per cent and Ed Balls 4 per cent.
The deputy leader of the Conservative group on Sandwell council has defected to Labour in protest at Michael Gove’s slashing of the Building Schools for the Future programme in her borough.
UKIP’s autumn conference kicked off today in Torquay. High on the agenda is the choice of a new leader, following Lord Pearson’s candid announcement two weeks ago that he was “not much good” for the job.
