Maria Miller quits, leaving PM weakened by sleaze row

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/09/maria-miller-quits-pm-sleaze

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David Cameron will launch the Conservatives' European election campaign on Thursday hoping that the painful resignation of the culture secretary, Maria Miller, and the revived stench of sleaze, will not see his party driven into third place in the May poll, prompting a wider panic among Tory MPs in crucial marginal seats.

Cameron's authority appeared weakened at Westminster as backbench MPs questioned his ability to read the public mood in supporting Miller for six days after she had been found guilty of wrongly claiming £5,800 in expenses.

The prime minister put on a show of discipline last night by sacking the Tory vice-chairman Michael Fabricant for some injudicious tweets, including one welcoming Miller's departure.

Cameron also knows that the Commons standards committee met yesterday to decide how severely to admonish a Tory former shadow minister, Patrick Mercer, for breaking parliamentary rules, raising the spectre of more sleaze to come.

Miller resigned early on Wednesday morning, shattered emotionally by the scale of the week-long media and public attack on her expenses claims. She believed she had been the victim of a media witch-hunt that made it impossible to secure a public hearing for the fact that the standards committee had acquitted her of the main charges against her. Struggling to control herself, she said in a brief interview: "It is not right that I am distracting from the incredible achievements of the government."

Downing Street insisted that the resignation was entirely her decision, but officials refused to deny that an emissary from No 10 – believed to be the chief whip, Sir George Young – went to see her to discuss the absence of support among the public and on the backbenches.

Miller herself said she took "full responsibility" for her decision to resign.

Conservatives including the education secretary, Michael Gove, acknowledged that public anger with the political class over the expenses issue remained more raw than his party had recognised.

Labour also privately conceded that the immediate beneficiary of the past week in the European election is likely to be Ukip as the party of the outsider. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, rushed to Miller's constituency in Basingstoke, Hampshire, last night to call for a proper law allowing voters to recall MPs, such as Miller, found guilty of serious misconduct.

Hoping to come first in the popular vote in the European elections, he said: "All along you will find people in every political party who do things that are wrong. The question is what you do about it. The issue for the prime minister is he supported her all along."

In a snap Comres/ITV poll an overwhelming majority of 88% said Miller was right to resign, while 82% said she should have resigned as soon as it emerged she overclaimed on expenses. This included 88% of Tory voters who agree she was right to resign. Almost two-thirds of those polled (63%) believe Cameron has handled the issue badly.

With Miller announcing her departure only four hours before prime minister's questions, Ed Miliband used the occasion to accuse Cameron of "a terrible error of judgment" in keeping her, and more generally of not understanding the public's anger. He said: "If it had happened in any other business, there would have been no question about her staying in her job. Why were you the last person in the country to realise her position was untenable?"

Cameron accused Miliband of playing party politics and took the risky step of defending parliament's reputation as full of "good and honest" MPs. He said to get rid of someone "at the first sign of trouble" would have been a sign of weakness, not leadership. He added: "I hope the one lesson that won't be learnt is that the right thing to do as soon as someone has to answer allegations is to instantly remove them rather than give them a chance to clear their name and get on with job."

But the prime minister acknowledged that the row showed public feeling about MPs' expenses was still raw and needed to be acted on. He offered cross-party talks on the regulation of MPs, but seems to have few ideas to advance.

Miller was replaced as culture secretary by Sajid Javid, the Treasury financial secretary, reducing the number of women in the cabinet to three, the lowest figure since 1992. A bus driver's son and former banker only elected an MP in 2010, Javid's life story is an extraordinary tale of upward mobility, even if his cultural hinterland remains little known.

The rapidity of his promotion led to a classic Whitehall muddle over how to handle Miller's additional brief of equalities and women's minister. It was announced that Nicky Morgan, the new financial secretary to the Treasury, would attend cabinet as the women's minister.

No 10 said it would split the equalities and women's ministerial posts – handing the first to the new culture secretary, Javid – because Morgan had voted against legalising gay marriage. It also said since the women's brief fits within the "over-arching" equalities portfolio, Morgan would report to Javid – making her the first women's minister to report to a man. No 10 later said, however, that she would report directly to Cameron over women's issues, while on issues such as equal pay, or women in the boardroom, Morgan and Javid would work as a team.

The jumpy mood over MPs' behaviour was heightened when Fabricant was suddenly sacked for a series of injudicious tweets, including one saying it was about time Miller was sacked. Cameron is determined that the Miller episode does not lead to an outbreak of indiscipline, the last thing he needs in the European elections after weeks trying to bring some of the most prominent rebels back into the fold.

But he is facing further embarrassment over sleaze allegations. The Guardian understands that Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, has completed a highly critical report into Patrick Mercer, who allegedly failed to declare thousands of pounds paid to him by a fake lobbying company set up by a BBC journalist.

The report was sent earlier this week to the Commons standards committee, which is expected to release it with very few amendments in the near future. Sources have told the Guardian that the report will criticise Mercer for his conduct.

Mercer, Tory MP for Newark, Nottinghamshire, stepped down from the party's whip after accepting £4,000 from undercover reporters posing as lobbyists. He reported himself to the commissioner for standards after being accused of failing to declare £2,000 of the money within parliamentary rules and appeared to offer to secure a Westminster security pass for the lobbyist.