The demise of a secretary of state always adds a spark to the tinder wood that is the House of Commons. Sadly, those wishing to see the amusingly-named Ed Davey feel the heat as the new energy and climate change secretary will have to wait: his first questions session is on 8 March. Nonetheless, the third major resignation of the parliamentary term will focus minds within No 10 ahead of a crucial week. The febrile atmosphere is likely to be heightened by flagship government legalisation coming before both Houses of Parliament; the financial services bill will be debated by MPs on Monday afternoon and the contentious health and social care bill returns to the Lords. Given the troubles Stephen Hester had with his bonus last week the former is timely and the depth of political damage the latter is doing, many within government would wish it wasn’t on the Order of Business at all.
After a sluggish start to 2012 Ed Miliband will hope to use both bills to seize the political agenda. The leader of the opposition received much vitriol for his seminar-like address to Labour party conference in sunny Liverpool, but it has undoubtedly struck a chord with the nation’s conscience. After speeches lauding ‘moral capitalism’ from the prime minister and promising ‘responsible capitalism’ from Nick Clegg – the financial services bill is the government’s riposte. Unveiled by Osborne two weeks ago, the measures amount to the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since Labour moved supervision out of the Bank of England in 1997. Miliband has thus far driven this agenda; it will be up to his MPs to help sculpt a bill that truly protects us from the scenes witnessed in 2008.
The key political battlefield that lies in the week ahead is undoubtedly the NHS. Andrew Lansley has tabled no less than 137 amendments to his health and social care bill in a last-gasp effort to ease the concerns of many a worried peer. With much of the medical profession now outright opposed to the plans and Downing Street increasingly concerned, Miliband talks confidently of a three-month cross-party campaign in parliament, backed by the medics and the public, that could deliver Lansley’s his last rites. The British have only one national religion, Nigel Lawson famously observed, and it is the NHS. The former chancellor was right in the 1980s, and today most of us still admire this most British of institutions.
Elsewhere, on Tuesday Nick Clegg emerges from his bunker for his monthly bout of baiting in deputy prime minister’s question time and the defence committee continues its examination of the Armed Forces Covenant, with witnesses drawn from serving personnel’s families. Jim Murphy would do well to ensure that the pressure to enshrine the duty of care into law is maintained, and that his Labour Friends of the Forces campaign continues to underline Labour’s commitment to the armed forces.
The public administration committee continues its examination of strategic thinking in government, of which they clearly don’t think there is very much of. Thankfully for the government Labour’s Lord Hoyle has tabled a question on the compulsory micro-chipping of dogs. Truly barking.
MPs, never knowingly short of holidays, break for recess on Thursday and with much of the country either enjoying, or worrying about, the snow, Labour will have to battle against parliamentarians and the public alike. But Labour victories in the week ahead are a must; the future of our NHS depends upon it.
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David Talbot is a political consultant
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