Party Lines: November 16th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

The news has been dominated by the royal engagement today, and might have been a day for burying bad news, had we not been keeping a close eye on today’s announcements. We’ll also be keeping an eye on tomorrow’s announcements, so keep an eye out for anything significant. Perhaps the news the government will most want to keep quiet is that Labour now have a 5% lead in the polls with YouGov (42/37/10)

Meanwhile, Ed Miliband wished the prince and his future wife well, Michael Dugher responded to David Cameron removing his vanity staff from the civil service payroll, Lord Goldsmith said he hasn’t been made aware of torture allegations whilst Attorney General and Chris Bryant attacked the fixed parliaments bill as “anti-democratic”.

Ed Miliband reacted to the news of the royal engagement, wishing the prince and his future wife the very best:

“I’m delighted for Prince William and Kate Middleton and send them my very best for their wedding.”

“The whole country will be wishing them every happiness.”

Michael Dugher MP responded to the news that David Cameron’s personal photographer and film maker will be taken off the Civil Service payroll:

“I welcome the Prime Minister bowing down to public pressure. The Prime Minister should have known from the start that it’s wrong to bill the taxpayer for his vanity photographer.”

“But today’s flip-flop raises more questions. If it’s wrong to charge taxpayers for Andrew Parsons or Nicky Woodhouse then why are so many other Conservative Party workers being hired via this sharp practice as so-called civil servants?”

Speaking on Radio 4, former attorney general Lord Goldsmith said he hadn’t received information that British nationals were mistreated while he was Attorney General, but pointed out that his office lacked the resources to pursue such claims:

“My view is the Attorney General’s office doesn’t have the resources to be able to investigate ourselves so we have to rely on what others have told us.”

“I did receive information about what was believed to be the conditions of British nationals in Guantanamo…certainly I received no information at all that they were being mistreated at all, and the fact is detention was wrong in my view so we negotiated for their release.”

Speaking in parliament on the fixed-term Parliaments bill, Chris Bryant labelled the reforms “anti democratic” and called for general elections to take place every four years instead of five:

“This is wrong piece of legislation, it is anti democratic, it will mean general elections will happen less frequently and I believe this house should therefore support amendments that call for four year Parliaments, rather than five year parliaments and the next general election in May 2014, not 2015.”