Westminster Blog

The shadow cabinet may have been kept in the dark but Ed Miliband did have a policy to announce on Thursday; and it was a big one which made the front of today’s FT.

With one stroke he has seized the political initiative, at least temporarily. The politics and fiscal implications are both worth examining in detail.

Clearly the promise of a new mansion tax is an attempt to steal the Lib Dems’ big idea and neutralise any lingering attraction between the third party and left-leaning voters. Labour is still vague about how the tax would work, however: it could still consist of a new upper rate of council tax on the most pricey homes. (Ed Miliband’s is said to be worth about £1.9m, incidentally).

Meanwhile by promising to reinstate the 10p tax band – albeit only in a limited way – Labour hopes to close down any attempt by the Tories to make a similar move. The party also wants to end any lingering anger at the original scrapping of the rate by Gordon Brown.

It was in the spring of 2008 that the changes kicked in as a way to make up for Read more

Cynics have long worried that the “Mary Portas Review” of the high street, commissioned by the government, was largely a PR exercise. I pointed out last autumn that there were concerns that the review’s recommendations were just a drop in the ocean compared to the wider global trends forcing the closure of countless retail chains.

And now it has emerged that eight months after £1.1million was awarded to the first wave of Portas Pilots – to “kick start a renaissance” in town centres -only 12 per cent of the money has been spent.

The figure emerged from an Foi request by Paul Turner Mitchell, a retail commentator and fashion boutique owner. This suggests that only £136,000 has been spent so far with some pilots having spent none of the funding allocated.

Some of this has gone towards DCLG meetings, project co-ordinator salaries, charges for Read more

By Beth Rigby

Pro-European Conservatives have set up a group to press the case for Britain’s place in Europe in an attempt to redress the party’s rabid euroscepticism.

The Mainstream Conservatives, led by Laura Sandys, will campaign for a “Yes” vote to membership of the European Union in a future referendum and will also offer a pro-European perspective on issues spanning trade and investment, the environment and justice.

A dozen MPs, including former cabinet ministers Stephen Dorrell and Caroline Spelman, have put themselves forward as spokespeople.

The new group will act as a counterpoint to the Fresh Start Group, led by Andrea Read more

Ed Miliband channelled Ronald Reagan as he used PMQs to push the prime minister on living standards – the issue likely to be the main battleground of the next election.

He put horsemeat to one side to ask David Cameron if living standards would be higher or lower at the end of the Parliament.

The prime minister is vulnerable on the issue given the stagnating economy and cuts to benefits and public spending. He retorted that people would be better off than they would have been under Labour.

But his reply that 24m people would see a tax cut was not exactly convincing: the rise in the income tax threshold towards £10,000 does not negate the much bigger cuts to living standards elsewhere – for example through changes to benefits or tax credits. Read more

Mary Creagh has rightly been getting plaudits for putting the boot into the government over its handling of the horsemeat scandal. The fiesty shadow environment secretary has proved herself one of the most effective operators on the opposition front bench.

But is she right to suggest that Owen Paterson, environment secretary, is the only politician to have responded in a somewhat lacklustre way to the unfolding scandal? Read more

George Osborne, left, and Danny Alexander

While Tories tear themselves apart over gay marriage, another row is creeping up on the government which could be much more long-term and damaging.

Without creating too much of a stir (yet), George Osborne and Danny Alexander are busy in the Treasury, planning their next round of spending cuts. They have told ministers that they intend to keep cutting at the same rate and in the same proportions as has been done so far, which means returning for further savings to departments that have already been hit heavily.

Theresa May, Chris Grayling, Philip Hammond and Vince Cable all realised this would place them at the front of the axeman’s queue, and urged Osborne to rethink his strategy at a stormy cabinet meeting a few weeks’ ago. Read more

First George Osborne got it in the neck from his constituents because HS2 was set to pass through Tatton, as we revealed on Saturday.

Now the chancellor is getting criticised for the opposite reason – that the controversial route will not pass through the most verdant areas of the north-west constituency.

The Daily Mail reports today that Tory-run Cheshire East council issued a press release yesterday suggesting the chancellor had kept the line from Tatton’s “Golden Triangle” of Prestbury, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge.

“Your MPs George Osborne, Edward Timpson and I (council leader Michael Jones) have fought hard to keep the line away from Knutsford and Tatton, which we have been successful in achieving”, said the release.

Critics, in the words, of the Mail, “accused ministers of double standards Read more