The Standards & Privileges Committee: J'Accuse

When something is leaked it's usually a good idea to seek to understand the leaker's motivation. So when we heard that the David Laws report was being leaked left right and centre, I immediately thought: "Who's done that and why?" It seems clear to me that a member of the Standards & Privileges Committee is most likely to be the guilty party, and they did it to cause maximum damage to David Laws. Why? Because they want to prevent him being brought back into government. So, who was it? These are the members of the Standards & Privileges Committee...

Rt hon Kevin Barron MP (Chair) Labour
Sir Paul Beresford MP Conservative
Tom Blenkinsop MP Labour
Annette Brooke MP Liberal Democrat
Rt hon Tom Clarke MP Labour
Mr Geoffrey Cox MP Conservative
Matthew Hancock MP Conservative
Mr Oliver Heald MP Conservative
Heather Wheeler MP Conservative
Dr Alan Whitehead MP Labour

This is not the first time members of this committee have behaved in a disgraceful way, and I have no doubt it won't be the last. But what does it say about a committee which is supposed to oversee standards in Parliament, that certain members of it can't resist leaking and giving out privileged information? If they are the people who uphold the rules of the House of Commons but can't obey the rules themselves, what faith can we have in them?

From the reporting, it is also clear that the leaker only leaked the most damaging passages to David Laws. So I suggest we all wait for the final report tomorrow before we rush to judgement.

Another Biteback Book Makes a Splash

David Laws's book, 22 DAYS IN MAY, which I am publishing, is serialised in the Mail on Sunday tomorrow and it's on their front page. This follows the splash in the Guardian today for Rob Wilson's book.

My colleagues at Biteback, James Stephens and Katy Scholes, have done a terrific job on the marketing of these two books.

We've also got Anthony Seldon's book, BROWN AT TEN coming up. I hope I am not deluding myself in thinking that Biteback has now really established itself as one of the (if not the) premier political publishers in Britain.

So if you have a political book you want published...

David Laws: A Correction

In this morning's Guardian, Julian Glover writes...

In the endpiece to his forthcoming book, the Lib Dem MP David Laws will call for
the coalition's ambitions to span a decade in power. That is tantamount to
saying that some sort of election deal must be done, and the closest any Lib Dem
parliamentarian has come to echoing the backing of the Tory MP Nick Boles for
the same thing.

I don't know where this has come from, but as the publisher of the book, can I categorically state that David Laws says no such thing, either in the endpiece, or elsewhere in the book.

David's book, 22 DAYS IN MAY will be published on 22 November and will be serialised this weekend. You can preorder it HERE.

Rob Wilson's book 5 DAYS TO POWER: THE JOURNEY TO COALITION BRITAIN is also out on 22 November and can be preordered HERE.

Careless Talk Costs Defections

I have another column in the Telegraph today, which you can read in full HERE. This is an excerpt...

Two years ago, Mark Oaten - then a rising star in the Liberal Democrats - told a leading Conservative that his party's generation was hungry for power and would go out and seek it. He had just published The Orange Book with his political soulmate David Laws, and was taken aback by the opprobrium from Left-of-centre Liberal Democrats. It was at that point that some of the Orange Bookers started to think long term; several found the prospect of 20 years on the Lib Dem benches a pretty soul-destroying prospect and their policy positions on many issues - tax, welfare reform and public services - were not poles apart from those adopted by liberal Conservatives.

Oaten came very close to defecting to the Conservatives in the autumn of 2005. As Lib Dem home affairs spokesman he was frustrated by the party's opposition to his tougher approach on crime, and, in particular, terrorism: but the Tories were choosing a leader and Oaten's bargaining position was weak, so he stayed put. David Cameron nearly claimed his first scalp two months into his leadership. Rumours had been swirling around Westminster of an imminent Lib Dem defection. I wrote on my blog that David Laws was about to jump ship. It was then that I received a phone call from someone close to the Cameron set who asked if I could tone it down a little as things were "at a delicate stage".

If Laws is to be believed, George Osborne's attempt to lure him across - then, or later - was less a political seduction than a "wham bam, thank you ma'am". Laws has been telling Tory MPs this week that Osborne asked abruptly, without any political foreplay, whether he wanted to defect or not. He was so taken aback that he spluttered "not".

In a GMTV interview at the weekend, Osborne confirmed that he had held discussions with Laws and was also talking to Labour MPs. The first rule of political defections is that you not only keep any discussions secret from your own side, you don't talk about them on television either. Afterwards, Osborne knew he had made a mistake, but the damage had been done.

The Tories and Lib Dems are becoming allies of convenience on issues where they have common ground. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dems Home Affairs Spokesman and leader-in-waiting, has been astonished at how similar his views are to those of David Davis, whom he had previously regarded as a hardline Right-winger. Cameron confidante Ed Vaizey has been deputed to cosy up to the Lib Dems. His recent trip to the Arctic Circle with Nick Clegg may not have resulted in a defection, but eight hours a night in an igloo can hardly have failed to bring them closer.

The Cameron inner circle ought to remember the Second World War maxim: careless Talk Costs Lives," except they should replace the "lives" with "defections".

UPDATE: More councillors defect to Tories HERE.