Category Archives: David Cameron

Week after week at PMQs this summer, Gordon Brown chose as his line of attack against the Tories the accusation that David Cameron intended to cut public spending by ten per cent.  Indeed, he wittily dubbed Cameron “Mr Ten Per Cent”, admittedly not to  huge levels of hilarity.  It’s the way he tells ‘em.

Today, at a press conference in London, Mr Cameron highlighted revelations contained in a leaked document which indicate that as long ago as last June, when Mr Brown was employing the witticism, he had received advice from Treasury officials that there would have to be a cut of 9.3 per cent in departmental budgets over the four years from 2010 if the Government’s own plan to halve the buget deficit were to be realised.

In the circumstances, the following exchange at PMQs on 1 July may require some explanation from the Prime Minster:

Mr. David Cameron (Witney) (Con):  I want to turn to total spending. Does the Prime Minister accept that his own figures show that once the Treasury’s forecast for inflation is taken into account, total spending will be cut after 2011?

The Prime Minister: No, total spending will continue to rise, and it will be a zero per cent. rise in 2013–14.

I understand that, at today’s press conference, Mr Cameron stopped short of calling Mr Brown a liar.

It appears that the prospect of a televised general election debate among the three party leaders – itself long debated – may well be realised.

David Cameron has called repeatedly for such a debate, but Gordon Brown has consistently seemed less than keen to participate.   In July, Peter Mandelson did indicate that the PM would “not have a problem” with a televised duel with Cameron, but Downing Street later poured cold water on the suggestion, contending that there was already a continuous debate between the leaders, in the form of the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions.

Today’s Times, however, reports that meetings of the three main political parties have been taking place over the summer to discuss the issue and that Sir David Frost has been mooted as potential chairman of the debate.  The Prime Minister is said to be “considering the proposal seriously”.

The decision, in reality, may already be out of Mr Brown’s hands.  Also writing in the Times this morning, John Ryley, head of Sky News, says that his channel will be hosting a live debate, come what may, prior to the election and that he has written to the three party leaders to inform them accordingly.  Separate debates will be hosted in Wales and Scotland.  So as to avoid any suggestion that a single channel is seeking to “own” such an important event, live feeds of the debate will be offered to rival broadcasters.

Ryley concludes:

So there we have it. The UK’s first televised leaders’ debate: no extended negotiations over lighting or rebuttals; no rows about who goes first and who gets to question whom. A date and time will be set. Three chairs provided.

The decision for the politicians is simple: fill them or leave them empty. I give this guarantee: the cameras will be rolling and anyone who doesn’t show up better be ready to explain themselves to the public.

This, it would appear, is a challenge that even the notoriously reticent Gordon Brown will have little option but to accept; to decline would be to sustain a total loss of electoral credibility. 

It is, indeed, an offer not even Prime Minister Macavity can refuse.

Update: David Cameron has written to Sky agreeing to the debate.

At this week’s PMQs, David Cameron came as close as gosh-darn-it to calling Gordon Brown a liar.  He couldn’t do so, of course, because to use such an expression is unparliamentary.

Now the Conservative party has published a video neatly illustrating what Cameron wanted to say.  And it doesn’t avoid the l-word: