Clegg has been spinning hard on LBC this morning. On Handy-cock he, surprise surprise, says he wasn’t told about the allegations:

“My office never received the letter from the claimant’s solicitors (in 2011), we did however receive a letter in February this year. Police have looked at this before and dismissed it on the advice of the CPS. My chief whip has gone down to Portsmouth and spoken to Mike Hancock’s solicitor. I hope you won’t imply in any way that we are not acting thoroughly and quickly to what are very serious allegations. I’ve not spoken to Mike Hancock, he’s been very ill.”

Given the story broke in 2010, Clegg has a lot to thank the postal service for. On David “The Jews” Ward:

“I’ve spoken to David Ward, and he’s apologised. I am finalising an agreement with him that he will commit never to use generalised language that is offensive to communities in Britain.”

Because that worked so well last time…

.@timloughton Your lies on this subject are by far the worst of anything you've done in politics & we hope nobody believes a word you say—
Tory education news (@toryeducation) March 26, 2013

@toryeducation time 4 a senior DfE source to come out from cloak of anonymity and face scrutiny rather than rewriting history shamelessly?—
Tim Loughton MP (@timloughton) March 26, 2013

@toryeducation now we know there were only 5 people in room privy to me being blocked from publishing SCR so shall I name them?—
Tim Loughton MP (@timloughton) March 26, 2013

Big allegations.

UPDATE: Labour’s Ian Mearns has waded in:

“This extraordinary attack is another example of derogatory language by the Toryeducation twitter feed. Michael Gove needs to investigate if this feed is run by his advisers – if so that would be very serious. There is no place for these kind of personal attacks in public life. The Education Secretary needs to take action.”

The cynics amongst you might think it’s an interesting time for CCHQ stalwart Nick Park to jump to the private sector.

The Tory head of research and attack crafter is off to energy giants Centrica.

The loss of the best part of decade’s experience is a blow for the Tories.

Meanwhile Labour are beefing up their attack team for the coming digital battle. Obama’s rapid rebuttal unit “backroom Brit” Matt McGregor:

“McGregor was responsible for the digital rapid response unit that attacked Mitt Romney relentlessly, ensuring that any statement by the Republican was picked over and rebutted, often within minutes or hours.”

Could get bloody…

24 hours later and Osborne’s budget has yet to unravel, though both sides are having quite a set-to over the Help to Buy mortgage scheme. This morning Labour spinners got very excited by Osborne’s refusal to deny that the scheme would help wealthy homeowners to buy second homes, having the cheek to call it the “spare home subsidy”.

Big Budget story emerging – Osborne unable to deny that his new housing scheme will allow wealthiest to buy second homes with govt support—
Labour Press Team (@labourpress) March 21, 2013

Both Osborne and Cable again did not deny it in the House at lunchtime. A Tory spokesman insists to Guido: “this is a very technical area. We have said that we are going to consult in order to get this right, instead of rushing into decisions or knee jerk reactions”. Yet Housing minister Mark Prisk seems to have made his mind up, telling Wato second homes would not be included.

Labour aren’t having a much better time of it: yesterday two-faced Chuka Umunna told Radio 4 he liked the policy, today he’s against it. If it turns out the spare home subsidy doesn’t exist and the policy is as he thought yesterday, that leaves him in a rather awkward position…

Fourteen Tory rebels said no to exemplary damages in the Commons last night:

• Richard Bacon
• Christopher Chope
• Tracey Crouch
• Philip Davies
• Nick de Bois
• Andrew Percy
• Mark Reckless
• John Redwood
• Andrew Turner
• Martin Vickers
• Charles Walker
• Sarah Wollaston
• Richard Drax
• Jacob Rees Mogg

And here is what has been dreamt up by Hacked Off and politicians in the middle of the night. It’s all very simple and straight forward:

Got that?

Graphic via Mail.

All sides are claiming victory this morning, with the exception of the press. Given that the concessions were reportedly made by Letwin in Ed’s office, in the wee hours, just hours before the prospect of a Commons defeat, the Tories are starting the spin battle from the bottom of the hill. Maria Miller insists Dave has won and that there is no statutory underpinning:

“There is no statutory underpinning for the approach that we are taking. There will be no statutory underpinning. What we’re talking about here is simply reiterating the fact that there can be no change to the charter as we move forward. I mean, this is already incorporated into the charter and has been from the beginning … This is not statutory underpinning, it is simply making sure that there’s no change – it’s a no-change clause. What has been accepted by all the parties is that the prime minister’s royal charter should go ahead, and that importantly we’ve stopped Labour’s extreme version of the press law, which now, as part of any deal, the Labour party would actually vote against.”

Harriet Harman says there is:

“There is a an amendment going forward into the enterprise and regulatory reform bill which says that where a charter says in that charter it can’t be dissolved or amended without a two thirds majority in both Houses, then that should have the force of law. There is a little bit of statute. Hacked Off will be very pleased by the outcome.”

What do you think?

The Tories’ big new attack poster (click to enlarge) has “little brother” Ed snooping into your home, with Labour’s homes tax seeing clipboard-carrying government agents looking round houses up and down the country. It claims that “a new homes tax would allow Labour to send government snoopers in to revalue your house…No home is safe under Labour”. That line would be all well and good if Whitehall departments did not already have the right to enter homes – without a warrant – thanks to more than 1400 different powers of enrtry. Big Brother Watch’s Emma Carr explains why CCHQ aren’t quite being straight:

“This snooping power is already law. The Conservatives promised that in Government they would change the law to clamp down on these powers yet since the election the number has gone up.”

Now if the Tories repealed the snoopers law, trapping Labour in a position where they were calling for it to be reinstated, they might be on to something…

27 executives put their names to a letter in the FT this morning praising international aid. The names were gathered by Brendan Fox, former SpAd to Gordon Brown and current Save the Children policy director, where he works with Justin Forysth, another ex-Gordon spinner. So do the signatories have anything in common? BP, Pearson, BT, Xstrata and Reckitt Benckiser all signed the letter, all either are or have been clients of top City spinners Brunswick. Brunswick are in turn run by Alan Parker, a friend of Gordon who is also in charge of Save the Children. Surely all just coincidence…

The original Sunday Times report on Huhne and speeding referred to Westminster rumour and speculation about him taking points. Well guess who it was talking about the case…

Emails shown to the Pryce jury point the finger at the very top of the LibDem establishment, who once again seem very good about ignoring things they do not want to hear:

• 12 March 2011: 

Pryce to Sunday Times: “Other possibility would be to tell NC or his close associates (having coffee with Miriam this PM) that the papers are on to him … (that also might have the added benefit of NC not wanting any more scandals and ease him out anyway …).” 

• 9 April 2011:

Pryce to Sunday Times: “Actually I had told Vince and Rachel about points before when the three of us were having supper about a month ago – they were horrified at the time but VC has probably forgotten it by now. He was v tired that night.”

• 18 April 2011:

Pryce to Sunday Times: “Having lunch with Miriam c tmr. Should I hint at anything? I told Vince there is something hanging over him [Huhne] and he wanted to tell Clegg.”

• 26 April 2011:

Sunday Times to Pryce: “To what extent is Clegg aware that something is hanging over Huhne (you mentioned it to Miriam, didn’t you?)”

Pryce: “Yes, I have told VC, Miriam C, MOak (Matthew Oakeshott) … and a few other Lib Dem Lords and others working close to NC.”

A spokesman for Vince Cable says:

“Vince and Rachel have no recollection of the issue of points being raised with them over the course of dinner with Vicky Price on 28 January 2011. They have consulted their personal records which confirm that the issue first came to their attention in May 2011 when the story broke in the press.”

What sort of personal records did they keep? A diary? 

A Lib Dem spokesman says: “Vince, Matthew and Miriam are all clear that the allegation about driving points was not raised with them.“ A spokesman for Miriam Clegg says: “I have never ever been told by Vicky or anybody else about the traffic points story. I got to know about this when everybody else did.” Lord Oakeshott says: “Vicky must have been under a lot of pressure, but I am sure she never raised the points with me.” Remind you of any other recent outbreaks of yellow amnesia? 

UPDATE: Vicky Pryce claims Huhne made his millions from “dodgy investments” relating to his father’s speed camera company.

At the height of the Healthcare Bill’s passage through parliament former Labour Health Secretary Andy Burnham was left looking like an idiot when he declared that the were just “two weeks to save the NHS”. The Bill became an Act and healthcare in Brtiain remained massively centralised and free at the point of entry. Well he’s back, and this this time he “means it”:

2 weeks to save the #NHS (& this time we mean it): Mon 18th March set for Lords debate & vote on s75 regs. Lab tabled 'fatal' motion.—
Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) March 04, 2013

So was it just spin and bluster last time?

Burnham all but went to ground during the fallout from the Francis Report. Given what happened on their watch up in Staffordshire, he should probably avoid using the words “fatal” and “Labour” in the same sentence. But it’s fine, he really means it “this time”.