Cameron meets backbenchers as hostility to coalition grows
By Ian Dunt
David Cameron will address the Tory backbenchers’ 1922 committee tonight, as hostility to the coalition increases.
The meeting comes after a week which revealed the true extent of many Tories’ irritation with the coalition leadership.
“[There is] a feeling that they have been taken for granted, a feeling that the Liberal Democrats are allowed to say what they like and do what they like,” former shadow home secretary David Davis told the BBC last week.
Tory MPs considering rebelling over the tuition fees issue received angry phone calls from universities minister David Willets and Mr Cameron in the run up to the vote. Liberal Democrat MPs, who had signed pledges promising to oppose a rise, were given the softly-softly approach as Nick Clegg tried to keep as many on side as possible.
There was also irritation at the way parliamentary private secretaries were treated, with Lib Dems allowed to ignore collective responsibility for the vote while Tories were forced to vote with the Cabinet, regardless of their view.
“All the Liberal Democrats are being cosseted while they decide whether to abstain or to vote against or vote for [tuition fees], while the Tories are being told: ‘Right, you don’t vote for this, your career is over,’ or: ‘You vote for this, you have got to resign as a PPS [parliamentary private secretary]’,” Mr Davis said.
Two more backbenchers revealed the depth of hostility to the coalition on the Today programme this morning. After several prominent Tory figures raised the prospect of the coalition continuing into the next election, the war of words suggests that the Tory party is increasingly split between its modernising and traditional wings on whether to form a deeper alliance with their coalition partners.
“Some of us feel very much as though too much has been given away to a few people to achieve too little,” Nadine Dorries said.
“There is an emerging trend in the party where people appear to have been strategically placed to talk about the idea of going forward into the next election as a coalition.
“You see that happening from some of the 2010 intake – Nick Boles writing his book – and from John Major. That’s almost strategic – someone new, someone old – and some of us are unhappy about this. We are not idiots, we know what’s happening and we don’t want that because there are Conservative issues that we see being subsumed by the coalition,” she continued.
“We have mainstream, core Conservative principles that for the good of the coalition and the country we are suppressing, but it wouldn’t be wise to think that that’s a position that we want to continue with in the long term.”
Peter Bone suggested the coalition should last only until the deficit reduction plan had been implemented, not until 2015, as specified in legislation setting out plans for fixed parliaments.
“I accept we need a coalition government until the economic crisis is over and we have dealt with it, but that might be done within the next two years,” he said.
“Then I see no point in the coalition government at all.”
Many backbench Tories believe Mr Cameron’s commitment to the coalition stems from his desire to drag the party to the centre ground on social issues.
But the Tory leader will need to keep his backbenchers on the 1922 committee, who are generally to the right of the leadership, happy if he is to maintain party unity.
The Tory rank-and-file are thought to tolerate the coalition due to the speed and scope of the deficit reduction plan but analysts expect tensions to rise once the plan is secured and underway.
