Morning Report – July 20th

Only a day later than planned, the end of the Westminster year is here, but before MPs head off on holiday (as the papers will have it) or back to their constituencies (which is what will really happen), there’s one more item on the agenda. David Cameron faces the commons at 11.30 to discuss the developments around phone hacking – we’re going out with a bang.

No doubt Cameron will be expected to explain a number of somewhat incredible episodes in this saga. Like why were his staff so keen that he wouldn’t know anything about phone hacking, why did he ignore the advice not only of the Guardian, but also of the palace, and what exactly was Neil Wallis doing for the Tory Party ahead of the last election. Last week Cameron managed to get back ahead of the story (albeit only briefly) after making a comprehensive statement. Now he nees to do it all over again…

Elsewhere this morning, No. 10 has revealed the salaries of Cameron’s top staff (not quite burying bad news, but close). Interestingly, Steve Hilton (one of his most trusted aides), is paid £50k per year less than some of his newer advisers. And over at the New Statesman, Dan Hodges reports that Blue Labour could be “disbanded” over Lord Glasman’s immigration comments earlier in the week. We’ll be chasing that up today, as well as keeping n eye on all of the latest developments in the phone hacking saga.

There’s no such thing as a quiet day around here anymore….