The deputy leader of the House Tom Brake finally announced in his business statement this morning the dates that parliament will sit next year. The dates for the summer conference recess have had to change because Liberal Democrat conference clashes with the Scottish referendum. I enjoyed pointing out that it is unnecessary to find a new time for their conference because at the rate they are losing members by next year they could hold it in a telephone box over the weekend!
Yet again the business statement was very thin on business for the Commons – while the Lords is stuffed with it. I asked for the third time where the offender rehabilitation bill has got to, but yet again didn’t get an answer. It seems that the government are trying to privatise the probation service behind the back of the House of Commons.
In the last two weeks three of the ‘big six’ energy firms have announced price rises of around 10 per cent. To stand up to this abuse of market power Labour will freeze prices until 2017- but the government’s energy policy is in chaos.
In opposition, the prime minister hugged huskies and pretended to be green and only last year he was boasting that his green levies were bigger than our green levies. But last week his backbench climate change deniers were agitating to abolish them, reducing bills by hitting the poorest hardest and abandoning energy efficiency altogether. And yesterday in a blind panic, the prime minister announced he’d given in to them.
When the prime minister announced this at PMQs, the deputy PM looked like he’d swallowed a wasp. And afterwards Lib Dem spinners dismissed it as: ‘A panicky U-turn … which won’t be allowed to dictate government policy’.
Two weeks ago the prime minister said we were living in ‘some sort of Marxist universe’ for suggesting a 20-month energy price freeze. He said it wasn’t possible to intervene in a market to set prices. This week his government signed a nuclear deal with the Chinese which sets prices not for 20 months but for 35 years.
On Tuesday John Major announced his conversion to a windfall energy tax and worried about the silent have-nots who will have to choose between heating and eating this winter. Meanwhile, No 10’s advice to those who are cold was to wear a jumper.
It speaks volumes when the former Tory prime minister responsible for the creation of the ‘big six’ energy companies sounds more in touch than the current prime minister. I asked the deputy leader of the House to arrange for an urgent statement to clarify government policy on energy and I asked him if the prime minister could tell us if he thinks John Major is a Marxist too.
The Conservative party in the 1992 parliament is remembered for being one of the most disloyal in its history. But I’ve been looking at the numbers and it turns out that the current crop of government MPs is three times worse than they were. It sounds like the prime minister doesn’t just need to listen to his predecessor on energy prices, but on how to control his rebellious backbenchers. While Major told them to put up or shut up, the current prime minister just caves in.
We know that for 39 out of the 40 months since the election, prices have grown faster than wages. I asked the deputy leader of the House to now admit what we all know – that it was the chancellor’s city bonus tax dodge that accounted for the surge in earnings in that one isolated month. While living standards are falling bonuses are soaring and the chancellor creates a bonus tax loophole for his mates. I asked for a statement from the chancellor about why he prioritises his millionaire friends over tackling our cost-of-living crisis.
Last week I asked Brake why he’s campaigning against the closure of his local hospital despite being in the government responsible for it. And today Clegg will criticise free schools policy despite being in the government responsible for it. I know it was the final of the Great British Bake-off this week but when will the Liberal Democrats realise they can’t have their cake and eat it?
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Angela Eagle is MP for Wallasey, shadow leader of the House of Commons and writes the weekly Business of Parliament column for Progress. She tweets @AngelaEagle