This was just sent to Tory MPs:

We hear and we take notice, as always, of what Parliament has said.

MPs on both sides of the vote want to see EU spending kept down as effectively as possible at a time of restraint and reductions at home. The only difference is about the tactics of doing so.

The Prime Minister has taken the toughest position of any Prime Minister in history – a freeze has never been achieved before – and when you realise 17 out 26 other countries are net gainers from the budget these will obviously be difficult negotiations.

The Prime Minister will continue to do everything possible to achieve the best deal we can deliver for the British taxpayer.

This is all in contrast to a Labour Party who never achieved a freeze, never even asked for freeze and allowed vast increases to British contributions to the EU budget. For them this has been about cheap politics rather than taking responsibility for how we get the best deal for Britain.

Licking the wounds…

Well said that man…

Via ITV

Hugh Grant tells tomorrow’s Spectator:

“Rupert Murdoch recently called me a scumbag. Harsh, but I see where he’s coming from.”

In a delicious twist of fate, the very man who introduced the minimum wage to Britain is facing a possible HMRC investigation into allegations he has broken minimum wage laws. Last week Guido picked up Graduate Fog‘s Tony Blair unpaid intern story, calculating that it would take the £20 million-a-year former PM just twenty minutes to earn enough to fund a three month minimum wage internship. The papers followed suit, and now it looks like Tone’s tightness could prove costly.

Evidence of the Office of Tony Blair’s alleged breach of minimum wage laws has been passed on to HMRC. Employers found to have broken the law can be forced to pay compensation of up to eighty times the minimum wage, in the case of Blair’s three month internships that makes almost a quarter of a million pounds per intern. That’s at least a couple of speeches…

Tempers are fraying in the run up to tonight’s vote. Guido hears that Cameron was at a drinks gathering for northern Tory MPs. Andrew Bingham was there and got the full Flashman treatment as a consequence of having signed the Reckless amendment. The Prime Minister is reported to have lambasted the Member for High Peak saying:

“What do you think you are doing? This isn’t some f**king sixth-form debating society.”

Temper, temper Dave…

UPDATE: Apologies to Andrew Bridgen whom we originally misreported getting the ear full.

UPDATE II: Bingham denies the story his colleagues report, yet the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was very mealy mouthed.

https://twitter.com/HighPeakAndrew/status/263679173166497792

Guido stuck his infamous cross-hairs on the face of Philip Hygate at the end of last week, and last night the loathed Chief Executive of the Isles of Scilly Council was suspended from his post. The allegations against him have been mounting up over the last few months, but it started with this story from May. Radio Scilly caught his departure:

The island’s tinpot dictator opened the floodgates by blocking the local school from becoming an academy, and now Hygate is not only facing an investigation into the circumstances behind that move, but a broader inquiry into his entire twenty year tenure. Starting with his alleged illegal surveillance of council staff and residents. Representing the very worst aspect of local government and vested interests, you have to wonder how many other Philip Hygates there are across the country…