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By Sam Macrory - 11th February 2011
One smell is dominating British politics, and it is not the government’s scent of choice. The political week just passed has been thick with the pungent aroma of rebellion, and it may yet cause the coalition’s leaders to choke.
Nick Clegg has found his rebels making as much noise as they could. Tuesday saw the dramatic resignation/sacking of Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokseman whose patience ran out over the government’s stance against the banks.
The following day, over 90 Lib Dem councillors, including the leaders of 17 local authorities, publically register their anger over the pace and scale of government cuts.
For David Cameron, the grumblings are a little more subtle. On Wednesday a century of rebellions against the government was notched up. This time it was on a piece of legislation which will hardly have registered in the public’s mind: a vote on the EU’s introduction of a Financial Stabilisation Mechanism. No, me neither. The usual suspects lined up to vote against the government, with the likes of Peter Bone, Bill Cash, Philip Davies, and Douglas Carswell filing through the No lobby.
There are another 15 or so MPs of their ilk, right-leaning, independent-minded, and disinterested in the greasy pole of politics. In this crowd you can find, amongst others, Christopher Chope, Edward Leigh, and Philip Hollobone. MPs who are unhappy with Cameron’s need to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and largely of an age – or mentality – where they have long since worried about whether they may yet be promoted to the ministerial ranks.
To this list add David Davis, who on Tuesday joined Carswell in being one of two Tory backbenchers unafraid to confront George Osborne with a difficult question – Davis on “sweetheart deals” for HM Revenue and Customs and big companies and Carswell on bailing out the euro – at Treasury Questions.
The chancellor looked a little annoyed on both occasions but, as with the rump of the right, Davis and Carswell are not troubled by the prospect of being in bad odour with the government whips office. Surprised by all this? Not in the slightest.
And nor will David Cameron have been either. He should be concerned though. This dissenting group may be small in number, but as Thursday’s huge vote against prisoners having the right to vote showed, their sentiments run deep through the party.
The PM has further cause for concern, with pressure now being applied from a second distinct group. At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday a string of Conservative MPs caused problems for the prime minister.
Chope was amongst them, as was the predictable figure of Julian Lewis, but to huge Labour cheers new MPs Priti Patel and David Nuttal – both of the 2010 intake - also aired their concerns and grievances with the prime minister. Someone – read chief whip Patrick McCloughlin – had not been doing their whipping properly.
And just this morning, Sarah Wollaston, another of the new intake, has written of the pointlessness of seeking lowly ministerial office. “How could I have looked them in the eye if I had signed away the ability to speak about the very subject for which I was elected,” Wollaston asks. Her generation is not afraid to speak out.
The three distinct pressure groups are unlikely to ease up any time soon. Barring an unlikely change to the government’s economic policy, the cuts will continue at the pace and scale which so upset the Lib Democrat local government contingent.
At the same time Cameron is far more concerned with keeping the coalition’s 57 Liberal Democrat MPs onside than he is the 20 or so members of the grumbling Tory right.: a compromise on nuclear deterrents or prison policy is worth more to the coalition than keeping the likes of Hollobone and Lewis from making public outbursts.
And the new intake shows no sign of being tamed. Free-spirits like Wollaston are hardly likely to be reined in – Cameron’s pre-election attempts to widen the Conservative Party’s pool of candidates is biting back – while the need to appoint Liberal Democrats to government has shut down career avenues for those more inclined to toe the government line.
The two party leaders have worked hard to keep the coalition together, and in doing so they have succeeded expectations. Bookies offering odds on the first Liberal Democrat to quit or walk from office have been left in pocket: Norman Baker seems happy at the Department for Transport, and Vince Cable, though looking permanently downbeat, remains in side the government tent. Oakeshott aside, and his is not a resignation to either overly worry the Lib Dem leadership or register with the outside world, internal tensions remains just that – internal.
Step outside the confines of government, however, and the week just passed shows that rebellious instincts are appearing at every corner for the leaders of the coalition government
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