PMQs review: a Bone of Contention and an unhappy Foreign Secretary
Nik Darlington 2.01pm
“Sam wears the trousers,” said David Cameron on BBC’s The One Show on Tuesday. She might be picking out Will & Kate’s wedding present, but I don’t think she’s started writing his speeches.
Unlike Mrs Peter Bone, who so passionately demands an in-out EU referendum, the Honourable Member for Wellingborough & Rushden was moved to bring it up at PMQs. “Mrs Bone demands it.” Rare are the moments when the Commons joins as one into unmitigated laughter. This was one of them. The Prime Minister said that he would have to disappoint Mrs Bone.
Unlike last week, when the best action took place away from the Despatch Boxes, today truly was a tussle between the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband. The Labour leader asked probing questions about police cuts, which Cameron confidently dismissed as brazen “opportunism” considering the Labour party’s position at the last election. Alan Johnson, then Home Secretary, said that Labour could not promise to maintain the number of police officers. The headlines are indeed bad, which favours Miliband, but the underlying truth - including the position of Acpo - is on Cameron’s side.
The real force of Miliband’s barrage came as he accused the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the Government in general of “incompetence” and being “out of touch”. Labour are rolling strong on this theme. Miliband said it about the forests last month, about the Libyan evacuation (a “whiff of incompetence”) and again today. It is a common refrain on radio and TV interviews with shadow ministers and typical of the smart marketing when Campbell and Mandelson pulled the strings: repetition, repetition, repetition. Expect plenty more of it.
William Hague is a man under serious attack and covering fire from colleagues is few and far between. He was not in the Commons today and when asked, Downing Street didn’t know where he was. “Ask the Foreign Office.”
Hague insists that he is committed to the job for “an extended period of time”. This is hardly coming out fighting, as Paul Waugh comments. He has been blamed for the embarrassing Libyan evacuation shambles and abortive SAS mission, whilst his “full confidence” backing of Prince Andrew looks questionable alongside the more reticent judgements of Vince Cable. As commentators question whether Hague has lost his ‘mojo’ (transl. for non-Guardianista culturati: “lost heart”), speculation won’t die down about his future.
Considering the stakes, the Prime Minister failed to give as convincing defence as he might have done of his Foreign Secretary. After all, each of the criticisms mentioned can be traced back to Downing Street. David Cameron also had to apologise for the Libyan evacuation and the ultimate order to deploy the SAS would have to come from the top. Prince Andrew has received the PM’s “full confidence” too.
David Cameron said today, “I take full responsibility for everything my Government does.” Yet even Gordon Brown, the man who, tragically, could never believe himself wrong, took “full responsibility” on some occasions, such as the election that wasn’t, Damian McBride, failures in the banking sector when he was Chancellor, and Labour’s abysmal election defeat.
The precociously talented former party leader returned to frontline politics to serve under David Cameron because he wanted to, not because he had to. Hague was doing quite nicely as a historical biographer and speaker, and some are suggesting he yearns for the simple life again. He feels harrassed and unmotivated.
Two years ago, David Cameron described William Hague as his “deputy in all but name”. You could not say the same today. The Conservative party leader has a new friend in Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, and if Cameron is the Government’s chairman, George Osborne is perceived to be its chief executive. These personal dynamics matter.
Whilst Cameron and Hague have operated closely politically, people have questioned their personal relationship. Apparently, David Cameron invited Hague to Downing Street for a drink on Monday evening, as a sign of support. If you are close to someone and co-ordinating a seminal foreign policy response together, does there need to be such an invitation, and even more so, does it need to be announced to the press?
The Prime Minister made an incisive, brutal remark about Ed Miliband being the ”only person here who has knifed a Foreign Secretary”. Usually I disagree with the Labour leader when he talks about Cameron “losing the argument” using jibes about his brother. On this occasion, I don’t. David Cameron was rattled, to the extent that he forgot to make an explicit defence for Hague.
Whether or not that was a deliberate slight or a symptom of Miliband getting the better of him, it is still a sign that something is afoot. Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary need to sit down for another of those drinks.
Better still, make it a double.
