0135 Hrs GMT London Monday 1 June 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! For years! That Alistair darling lied to Parliament for Big Business Crossrail scam. He lied.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6402211.ece
Chancellor Alistair Darling under pressure as Gordon Brown prepares fightback
Gordon Brown, preparing to be interviewed on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday
Cabinet defends Darling | Vernon Bogdanor | William Rees-Mogg | Brown pledges code of conduct | Cameron to face scrutiny
Alistair Darling was under mounting pressure last night after it emerged that Gordon Brown was considering replacing him as Chancellor with Ed Balls and there were fresh disclosures about his expenses.
Mr Darling was accused of claiming second-home allowances on two properties at the same time, which would be against the rules.
A spokesman for the Chancellor denied the alleged rule breach, which followed other suggestions that he charged the taxpayer for accountants’ fees. It has already been disclosed that Mr Darling is a “serial flipper” who has designated four properties as his second home in four years.
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Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said that the Chancellor had been caught with “his fingers in the till” and should go.
Downing Street insiders insisted that nothing had been decided on the reshuffle, while senior ministers said that if Mr Darling was moved from the Treasury, he would be offered another top job, possibly Home Secretary. Sources close to the Chancellor denied a report that he had to be talked out of standing down at the next election.
The Prime Minister, meanwhile, turned down calls yesterday for a general election and made plain that he would defy any attempt from colleagues to drive him from No 10 after Thursday’s European and county council elections. Mr Brown said that the public expected him to clean up politics first and defeat the recession. Asked if he would respond to a Cabinet call to quit, he said: “No, because I am dealing with the issues. I am dealing with the economy every day.”
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was dragged into the expenses affair after claims that he paid off a loan on his London home soon after taking out a £350,000 taxpayer-funded mortgage on his constituency house. He insisted he had done nothing wrong but agreed to repay the cash if he was found to have done so.
According to senior ministers contacted by The Times, there is unlikely to be any move against Mr Brown, even if the European results when announced next Sunday bear out polls suggesting that Labour could drop as low as 16 per cent.
Ministers say that party activists are more worried and angry than ever before. However, a challenge from the Blairite wing is unthinkable while Lord Mandelson remains at the centre of affairs, strongly backing Mr Brown, as he did yesterday. Mr Brown’s advocacy of policies favoured by the modernisers also makes any move from that area unlikely.
Labour has already changed leader once this Parliament and most ministers believe that this could only occur again if Mr Brown voluntarily steps down. Some want that outcome and would probably back Alan Johnson as a successor. However, all agree that a change of leader will only happen if Mr Brown decides himself to bow out.
His intention yesterday, in a BBC interview at the start of the most critical week of his career, was to make plain that he had no intention of doing so.
Instead, Mr Brown used the interview to show that he had a full agenda ahead of him, including swift action on MPs’ expenses and a longer-term radical programme of constitutional change, which he suggested, for the first time yesterday, could include a reform of the Westminster voting system. He backed the prosecution of MPs shown to have broken the law. Two of his MPs have been accused of claiming mortgage interest payments on mortgages that no longer existed.
The Prime Minister announced that he intended the clean-up, including the extension of freedom of information legislation, to include all public institutions, including the health service and the BBC.
Mr Brown heralded a constitutional renewal Bill within weeks that would include the new parliamentary standards regulator, which will take responsibility for MPs’ remuneration away from the Commons fees office, which is to be scrapped. It is also likely to include a new German-style statutory code of conduct for MPs, setting out in legislation their precise roles and possibly including sanctions if they fail to live up to them.
Mr Brown also announced the setting up of a new national democratic council, similar to his National Economic Council, which will take charge of wider constitutional reforms. These would include a Bill of Rights, lowering the voting age to 16, introducing a written constitution and possibly changing the voting system so that it was fairer but kept the link between an MP and his constituency. The Prime Minister appeared to align himself with the AV-plus system backed last week in The Times by Alan Johnson, who remains favourite to replace Mr Brown were he to go.
Friends of Mr Brown said that the only circumstance in which he would leave office early would be if he felt it would help the Labour party. “But he genuinely believes he is the best person to take us through this and there is nothing in the polls to suggest otherwise.” Several Cabinet ministers have said privately that the public’s low esteem of politicians would increase if there was any attempt to “backstab” Mr Brown, whom the public could at least see was trying to do something about the abuses.
What is the definition of 'age of majority' to be ? In reducing the voting age to 16 it would follow 16 year olds should be adults in court cases too.
I have always thought that age is a foolish indicator of 'adulthood'. Perhaps instead it should be 'having compled a year of paid employment'.
John , London, UK
Here's hoping Darling goes and takes his 50 % tax and Non Domicile global taxes with him. Unfortunately, havent seen Cameron make any statement of either of the two. May be just as bad
Sanjay Khanna, singapore, Singapore
Don't listen to a word of it Gordon, you're doing a marvellous job.......for the Tories
John S, Andover, England