Just 24 hours after my first appearance as shadow leader of the House last week, the prime minister answered my call to include more women in his cabinet. So I started off at this week’s questions by calling for an immediate general election – I’ll wait to hear from Number 10!
At the beginning of the week we all saw the astonishing pictures of Oliver Letwin taking his regular early morning strolls in the park. It appears that the prime minister’s policy supremo and blue-sky thinker has developed a penchant for al fresco filing and is the subject of two official investigations as a result. At Business Questions, I suggested to the House that next time he’s out for an early morning stroll perhaps he would be better off throwing the government’s failing economic strategy and their wasteful NHS plans in the bin, rather than disposing of his constituents’ private details.
It is not the first time Mr Letwin has caused the government embarrassment. Not so long ago he startled a group of his own backbenchers by announcing that the government would run out of ideas by 2012. On another occasion, he upset the deputy prime minister when he was reported to have said “We don’t want more people from Sheffield flying away on cheap holidays.” I worry what the Rt. Hon Member for Dorset West is going to say or do next!
On Wednesday I responded for the opposition following the statement on Sir Gus O’Donnell’s investigation into the scandal surrounding the former secretary of state for defence. Among other things, I asked the leader of the House if an investigation will take place following reports that the former defence secretary used his parliamentary office to run his discredited charity, Atlantic Bridge. The government is desperate to move on from this but some serious questions remain unanswered.
The injustice and raw emotion still felt by the Hillsborough families was movingly reflected in the House on Monday in one of the most powerful debates I have witnessed in all my time as a member of parliament. Both sides of the House now recognise the urgent need to release all documents relating to the disaster to get finally at the truth and bring some comfort to the families. My colleague, Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram, should be congratulated for his dedication to securing this debate and for his tireless campaigning on behalf of the Hillsborough families with Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle.
Next week parliament will be dominated by talk of a Tory backbench rebellion over Britain’s membership of the EU. With 59 Tories already declaring their intention to defy their leader and reports of at least five ministerial aides on the brink of resignation, we are seeing signs of yet another Tory mutiny over Europe.
You see the signs of “another Tory mutiny over Europe”. But do you see the signs of a robust defence of EU membership from our side?
Will we note that UK spends £10bn on development support for countries far away and half that (£5.4bn) on support (via the EU) for our poorest neighbours like Romania or Slovakia. Yet the eurosceptics say this support for the poor is robbery from the UK! Are they stupid or heartless?
Will we note that the EU gives us €6.7 billion in cash every year? Plus easy term loans… only this week the European Investment Bank lent Greater Manchester £0.5 bn to develop its tram network… repayable over 30 years.