Cameron puts spin on EU back down

Eurosceptic Tories were meant to avert their gaze from a retreat in his campaign to freeze next year’s EU budget as the prime minister hailed his success in winning support from 12 EU leaders for a 2.91% increase in the budget. “As a result of Britain’s intervention, the spotlight has now shifted to reining in the excesses of the EU budget,” the prime minister declared as he hailed a British success in rejecting a call from the European Parliament for a 6% increase in the budget. The prime minister’s opponents saw the letter as chaff when they pointed out that he had been campaigning for a cut or a freeze in the EU’s £107bn budget. Glenis Willmott, the Labour leader in the European Parliament, said: “Cameron is trying his hardest to appear Thatcheresque. While I don’t have much positive to say about Britain’s first female prime minister, I doubt she’d have allowed herself to be caught out in the way Cameron has been this week.” Labour believes the prime minister’s belated decision to champion a position he had been campaigning against highlights the weakness of his overall position in the EU. Cameron is a marginalised figure, they say, after abandoning the main centre right grouping in the European Parliament. – The Observer

There was something very odd about the fiasco of David Cameron’s much-vaunted claim that he was going to bang the table at the European Council and demand a halt to the proposed £6 billion rise in the EU budget. No doubt Mr Cameron had in mind those heroic days when Mrs Thatcher spent five years at European Councils demanding her budget rebate. But the annual EU budget has nothing to do with the European Council. Under the Lisbon Treaty, the real power over this now lies with the EU Parliament, which voted for a 6 per cent increase – although this still has to be agreed with the Council of Ministers, a quite different body from the European Council. That is why Mr Cameron’s bid for glory was not even on the European Council ‘s agenda. If the Council of Ministers is now asking for the increase to be cut from 6 per cent to 2.9 per cent, the Parliament may still gets its way in the end, keeping the increase to the 6 per cent it voted for. – The Telegraph

Mitchell makes “intervention” for donor

A Conservative cabinet minister intervened on behalf of one of the world’s richest cocoa dealers to get a ban on trading lifted after receiving £40,000 in donations from the millionaire’s company to his parliamentary office. Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, reportedly made the intervention after he was asked for help by Anthony Ward, whose firm, Armajaro Holdings, had been banned from trading following allegations that a contractor was involved in smuggling cocoa out of Ghana. The minister telephoned the British high commissioner in Ghana on the issue, according to internal government documents cited by the Sunday Times, despite the fact it involved British business interests overseas, which is outside Mitchell’s remit. Officials in Mitchell’s office also contacted the Foreign Office to say that the matter required “urgent attention”. – The Oserver (more…)

“No great achievement” for Cameron on EU budget

The Prime Minister clashed with BBC2 Newsnight’s Michael Crick over how he could hail a deal that will see Britain hand an extra £430million to Brussels as a victory. Days ago Mr Cameron called for the amount the UK pays the EU to be cut or frozen but yesterday he claimed to have “succeeded spectacularly” by limiting the rise to 2.9%. Answering Mr Crick, the Conservative leader said: “I would explain patiently – as I hope you will on Newsnight – that we were facing a 6% increase. We have pegged it back to 2.9%.” – The Mirror

David Cameron claimed a “spectacular” victory yesterday in keeping an EU budget increase for 2011 down to 2.9%amid calls by MEPs for one of 6%. However, critics pointed out that the Prime Minister had, given the straitened times, initially demanded a freeze or even a cut in the European Union’s annual budget and that a 2.9% rise still meant Britain would be forking out an extra £453 million a year to Brussels. Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, branded Mr Cameron’s “grandstanding” a “complete failure”, saying: “European governments decided on 2.9% in August, so he has achieved absolutely nothing. He’s tried to swing his handbag but simply ended up clobbering himself in the face.” Eurosceptic Conservative MEP Roger Helmer accused the PM of “rolling over” and said the outcome had been “no great achievement”. – The Herald

The Prime Minister had faced criticism for failing to fulfil his ambition to freeze or cut this year’s budget. Instead ministers agreed to reduce a planned 6 per cent increase to 2.9 per cent. “We’ve prevented a crazy 6 per cent rise in the EU budget, we’ve made sure the EU budget must reflect domestic spending cuts, and we’ve protected the UK taxpayer from having to bail out EU countries that get themselves into trouble,” he said at a press conference[…]A 2.9 per cent increase is expected to see Britain’s contribution to the EU budget grow by about £400 million a year. Tory right-winger Lord Tebbit has described Mr Cameron’s agreement to the rise as a “Vichy-style” betrayal. – The Telegraph

Cameron shot by both sides

The Government endured sustained criticism of plans to cut housing benefits led by the London Mayor Boris Johnson, who likened the policy to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. It faced difficult questions over child benefit reforms and suggestions it was watering down the planned immigration cap. And Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, stole Mr Cameron’s thunder at the CBI by mocking his Tory partners’ lack of economic judgement. As Mr Cameron travelled back from Brussels, the mood in the Coalition camp reflected the reality of running a two-party government in a country with no money. Government sources acknowledge the Coalition faces a “hard grind” following the upheaval of the power-sharing deal and the announcement of huge spending cuts. They are realising that in a coalition, attacks can come from all sides. This week saw not just a Labour onslaught and Liberal Democrat protests, but also an attack from Boris Johnson from the Tory left, criticism from Norman Tebbit from the right and whispers of “chaos” in the Treasury. Labour’s return to the political fray after months of introspection added to the pressure. Mr Miliband has made a confident start as Opposition leader, while Alan Johnson has confounded sceptics with a sure-footed debut as shadow Chancellor. – The Independent (more…)

Boris and Cameron at war, again

The two biggest beasts in the Tory jungle clashed yesterday over their own spending cuts. War broke out after Boris Johnson warned David Cameron he would not tolerate “Kosovo-style social cleansing” caused by axing housing benefits. The London mayor said: “The last thing we want is the less well-off pushed out to the suburbs. “I’ll emphatically resist any attempt to recreate a London where the rich and poor cannot live together. We will not see and we will not accept any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London. “On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots.” The extraordinarily provocative remarks echo the horrific “ethnic cleansing” of thousands of Albanians in the Balkan wars of the 90s. And they sent the Prime Minister – Mr Johnson’s old rival from Eton and Oxford – into a fury. – The Mirror

Boris Johnson provoked fury in Downing Street yesterday as he warned that Coalition reforms of housing benefit would lead to a ‘Kosovo-style social cleansing’ of the poor from city centres. The Tory London Mayor tore into ministers’ plans to cap housing benefit payments at £400 a week, insisting he would ‘emphatically resist any attempt to recreate a London where the rich and poor cannot live together’. ‘What we will not see and we will not accept [is] any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London.  On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots,’ he declared on radio in the morning. – The Daily Mail

Make no mistake about it, Boris Johnson’s rhetorical assault on the coalition’s housing benefit plan is a direct challenge to David Cameron’s authority. The two best-known Conservatives in the country are now involved in a battle that only one of them can win. Boris told BBC London this morning: “What we will not see and we will not accept any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London. “On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots.” What is infuriating the Tory machine is not only Boris’s criticisms, but the language that he is used—which makes Labour’s talk of social cleansing sound positively moderate. The mayor has clearly decided that he needs to be seen to be standing up for Londoners on this issue. I also suspect that he might have decided that there will have to be concessions to appease the Lib Dems and that he wants to be in a position to take credit for them. – The Spectator

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