Simon Hughes must be getting dizzy up in the glorious heights of his plush sixth floor Portcullis House office. He has taken it upon himself to tell the Prime Minister that he does not speak for his own government:

“Council tenancy agreements have not been discussed by the coalition, and any idea or proposal floated so far is nothing more than that – an idea or a proposal and not a policy. So the ideas put forward by David Cameron this week in no way represent the policy of the coalition and certainly do not represent the policy of Liberal Democrats.”

First it was Clegg speaking in a personal capacity at PMQs, and now apparently the deputy leader of the junior coalition partner can tell the PM that his policy will not be adopted. In a pompous statement, Hughes has very much planted his tanks on the Downing Street lawn.

It takes some arrogance to say; “It is a Prime Ministerial idea. It has no more validity than that…” with a straight face. Paul Waugh suggests Hughes “exploded” last night upon hearing Cameron’s words about scrapping council houses for life. Guido has said many a time that Hughes and his left-wing dog-whistling is a weakspot and he’s a plotter. Could be a very interesting summer of explosions in the run up to Party conference season…