:00:10. > :00:15.We have concluded there is sufficient evidence to bring
:00:15. > :00:25.criminal charges against both Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce for perverting
:00:25. > :00:55.
:00:55. > :00:59.Afternoon, folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. Chris Huhne and his
:00:59. > :01:02.ex-wife have been charged with perverting the course of justice
:01:02. > :01:07.over a nine-year-old speeding offence. Mr hymn denies the charge
:01:07. > :01:09.but has resigned from the Cabinet to fight his case. -- Huhne. He
:01:09. > :01:15.clashed with David Cameron and other Tories more than once across
:01:15. > :01:20.the Cabinet table, now he has gone and a reshuffle is under way. It
:01:20. > :01:24.looks like David Cameron has issued a wider reshuffle, making it a Lib
:01:24. > :01:33.Dem affair. Nick Clegg has returned to Westminster could to consider
:01:33. > :01:37.Over the next 60 minutes, we will analyse the political fall-out from
:01:37. > :01:42.the dramatic developments and bring you the latest on what we will now
:01:42. > :01:47.call the Clegg cabinet reshuffle. With me for the duration, Rachel
:01:47. > :01:52.Sylvester of the Times and Medhi Hasan of the New Statesman. Now, it
:01:52. > :01:55.has been a long time coming, but this morning at 9am Energy
:01:55. > :01:59.Secretary Chris Huhne was told by the Crown Prosecution Service that,
:01:59. > :02:03.along with his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, he was to be charged with
:02:03. > :02:09.perverting the course of justice. The crime carries a jail sentence.
:02:09. > :02:15.The CPS has concluded that Mr Owen did have his wife take the speeding
:02:15. > :02:22.points that he had incurred driving to London from Stansted airport one
:02:22. > :02:26.night in 2003. Ms Pryce is charged with being complicit. Mr Huhne has
:02:26. > :02:29.resigned from the Cabinet. Ms Pryce has said nothing about her guilt or
:02:30. > :02:34.innocence but is spending time with her family. The events unfolded
:02:34. > :02:38.when, at 10am, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions,
:02:38. > :02:47.took the unusual step of making a public statement to explain the
:02:47. > :02:52.decision. All the available evidence, including that, has now
:02:52. > :02:57.been carefully considered by the CPS. And we have concluded that
:02:57. > :03:03.there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against both
:03:03. > :03:11.Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce for perverting the course of justice.
:03:11. > :03:15.The essence of the charges is that, between March and May 2003, Mr
:03:15. > :03:20.Huhne, having allegedly committed a speeding offence, falsely informed
:03:20. > :03:23.the investigating authorities that Ms Pryce was the driver of the
:03:23. > :03:31.vehicle in question, and she falsely accepted that she was the
:03:31. > :03:36.driver. Accordingly, summonses against both parties have been
:03:36. > :03:40.obtained from Westminster magistrates court, and those
:03:41. > :03:48.summonses will now be served upon them. They are due to appear in
:03:48. > :03:51.court on the 16th February this Within the hour, a defiant Mr in-
:03:51. > :03:57.off made his resignation statement from outside his home in central
:03:57. > :04:02.London. -- Mr Wood. I have a short statement. The CPS decision today
:04:02. > :04:06.is deeply regrettable. An innocent of these charges, and I intend to
:04:06. > :04:11.fight this in the courts, and I am confident that a jury will agree.
:04:11. > :04:17.So has to avoid any distraction to either my official duties for my
:04:17. > :04:21.trial defence, I am standing down, resigning as energy and Climate
:04:21. > :04:26.Change Secretary. I will, of course, continue to serve my constituents
:04:26. > :04:36.in Eastleigh. Thank you, that is all I want to say today. And that
:04:36. > :04:49.
:04:49. > :04:53.was all he did say. His ex-wife, So that is the statements of the
:04:53. > :04:59.two people who have been charged. We are joined by Lembit Opik and
:04:59. > :05:03.the editor of the liberal magazine. Let me come to you first, give me
:05:03. > :05:11.your initial reaction to these events. I think it was expected by
:05:11. > :05:14.of the Liberal Democrats. Chris Huhne is one of the first Lib Dem
:05:14. > :05:18.Cabinet ministers since the war, these five Cabinet ministers, and
:05:18. > :05:23.they have lost Jay already in less than two years. That is not good
:05:23. > :05:26.for the Liberal Democrats. For Chris Huhne, it is a personal
:05:27. > :05:30.tragedy, because he was an ambitious man, a high-flyer.
:05:30. > :05:36.Regardless of the outcome of the court case, it is difficult to see
:05:36. > :05:40.him coming back to frontline politics. He was on the verge of
:05:40. > :05:45.leading his party. Something that he actually won the election.
:05:45. > :05:47.to the personal tragedy of this. This was a speeding offence, not
:05:47. > :05:52.personal corruption, money in brown envelopes or ministerial
:05:52. > :05:56.incompetence. The view is that he was a pretty good minister, and it
:05:56. > :06:02.is a real shame he has had to stand down over something so long ago
:06:02. > :06:07.that seems so minor. It is the Watergate principle, not the actual
:06:07. > :06:12.original crime or offence that is the issue. It is, quote, the cover
:06:12. > :06:16.up, which the CPS think there has been. No, exactly, it is very sad
:06:16. > :06:19.for him, and I think you're right that it is bad for the Liberal
:06:19. > :06:26.Democrats. He was a strong voice for them in the Cabinet, and
:06:26. > :06:32.putting them on to the backbenches, they will feel one of their biggest
:06:32. > :06:35.Representatives has gone. Emma may not be a bad thing for the earth --
:06:35. > :06:39.it may not be a bad thing for the Liberal Democrats, I will explain
:06:39. > :06:43.why in a minute. There is a political dynamic it, a public
:06:43. > :06:46.dynamic and a legal one. The still innocent until proven guilty, and
:06:46. > :06:52.it is dangerous for us to give the impression that he has been found
:06:52. > :06:58.guilty. We are not doing that. just emphasising that. Let's get to
:06:58. > :07:02.the politics of it, I want to talk about the politics. The people can
:07:02. > :07:05.see the difference between what has happened to Chris Huhne as an
:07:05. > :07:09.individual and the party as a whole. Lib Dems have got all kinds of
:07:09. > :07:14.problems, but this is not one of them. What will it do to the Lib
:07:14. > :07:17.Dems? It could lead to readjustment. If he is found innocent, he becomes
:07:17. > :07:22.a different powerbase within the party. That could be an interesting
:07:22. > :07:26.dynamic between him and Nick Clegg. To be found innocent, in a sense,
:07:26. > :07:31.is Nick Clegg's worst political nightmare, because Mr Huhne then
:07:31. > :07:35.goes to the backbenches, remains MP for Eastleigh, and he becomes the
:07:35. > :07:41.rallying cry for the 8th Left opposition inside the party to the
:07:41. > :07:45.coalition. I would say it has been hit by a day for the Liberal
:07:45. > :07:50.Democrats because he headed what is possibly the most successful
:07:50. > :07:54.ministerial party -- ministerial role for the party, which is key to
:07:54. > :07:59.the grassroots. If he comes back, he will be a figurehead for
:07:59. > :08:04.opposition at the left of the party. What he secured at the ministry was
:08:04. > :08:08.considerable, a pledge against many of the protests of the
:08:08. > :08:11.Conservatives to cut emissions by half by 2025. That really does
:08:11. > :08:15.appeal to left-leaning Lib Dem grass roots. It is why the Tories
:08:15. > :08:20.are very happy this morning. They are happy, and that is why Nick
:08:20. > :08:26.Clegg is concerned, because further to what you said, if he is
:08:26. > :08:30.acquitted, he will be a figurehead of dissent. I think there is a
:08:30. > :08:37.danger of exaggerating his left the nest. He would say that of most
:08:37. > :08:39.people! I would say especially about Chris Huhne, because I was
:08:39. > :08:43.sympathetic to him before the election. In the coalition
:08:43. > :08:46.negotiations, talk to the Labour members, he was one of the most
:08:46. > :08:50.zealous advocates of a coalition with the Tories. He did a joint
:08:50. > :08:54.press conference with the Tories, a party political conference in 2010
:08:54. > :08:58.attacking Labour, and a lot of people who thought of him as a
:08:58. > :09:04.fellow traveller thought, wait a minute, he has gone native, too! He
:09:04. > :09:08.has made lots of noises about AV. Is a very savvy politician. He is a
:09:08. > :09:11.pragmatist and very ambitious. If he gets cleared, the existing
:09:11. > :09:16.leadership is going to be very concerned. Their minds they are
:09:16. > :09:20.both part of the Orange Book corpus, the caucus that runs the party, so
:09:20. > :09:23.I do not think they are very different politically, but he is
:09:23. > :09:31.very ambitious, and it is a nightmare coming home to roost it
:09:31. > :09:35.is and isn't. There is no love lost between Mr Huhne and Mr Clegg. He
:09:35. > :09:40.depicted him as A calamity Clegg during the leadership campaign, and
:09:40. > :09:46.Mr Clegg made jokes about there being nobody better than him for
:09:46. > :09:50.getting his points over. They were rivals for the leadership. I was
:09:50. > :09:53.there when he said it! They were friends and rivals in the European
:09:53. > :09:58.Parliament, then they were friends and rivals in parliament, rivals
:09:58. > :10:03.for the leadership, but since then they have served in the cabinets
:10:03. > :10:06.together, and if anything, Chris Huhne has been standing up more to
:10:06. > :10:10.David Cameron than to Nick Clegg. That is where the rivalry has
:10:10. > :10:15.developed. The smallest of violins will be being played in Number Ten,
:10:15. > :10:20.let's be honest, they did not like Mr Huhne. They like Ed Davey, who
:10:20. > :10:26.is being tipped as his replacement. Chris Huhne was a contributor to
:10:26. > :10:34.the Orange Book. So was Vince Cable! It was quite a broad colour.
:10:34. > :10:38.He is not seen as an honorary camera and, as Ed Davey is. This
:10:38. > :10:42.David Laws comes back, that is good for George Osborne and David
:10:42. > :10:46.Cameron. They will be pleased by that. You say it is not bad for the
:10:46. > :10:51.Lib Dems, but the point that you have got five Cabinet ministers for
:10:51. > :10:57.the first time since Lloyd George out of war. And you have lost 40%
:10:57. > :11:00.of them! As I say in my book, which comes out at the end of the month,
:11:00. > :11:04.it allows me to analyse this. The loss of David Laws was catastrophic
:11:04. > :11:08.in the sense that he was the architect of the Orange Book
:11:08. > :11:13.corkers. He is an Orange Book person. He basically designed it.
:11:13. > :11:17.So why is it not a disaster? With Chris Huhne, he was not the
:11:17. > :11:22.architect, as you have said. He was not seen as the core progenitor of
:11:22. > :11:28.the Orange Book. That does not mean, you have lost 40% of your Cabinet
:11:28. > :11:31.ministers, and you have not had any since Lloyd George! If the Lib Dems
:11:31. > :11:38.strategy is all about differentiation, you lose the best
:11:38. > :11:42.advocates of that in the Cabinet. No problem making himself ethernet
:11:42. > :11:48.-- a different at the Cabinet table! That is the underlying
:11:48. > :11:51.problem that the party has, a lack of differentiation. You are close
:11:51. > :11:54.to the grassroots, you have got this magazine and all the rest of
:11:54. > :11:59.it. How do you think this will play? I think that many grassroots
:11:59. > :12:04.members will be disappointed that such a key post, environment, one
:12:04. > :12:07.of the few where the Lib Dems seem to have stood up, drew a line, and
:12:08. > :12:11.they were getting... I mean, in terms of fighting with George
:12:11. > :12:15.Osborne, as Chris Huhne was what to do on economic issues, saying we
:12:15. > :12:19.are not going to allow environmental targets to be watered
:12:19. > :12:25.down because of the economic crisis, this was a real line in the sand,
:12:25. > :12:29.and when the Lib Dems have given up so much, VAT, tuition fees,
:12:29. > :12:33.spending cuts, all of that, I think that this is not the final straw,
:12:33. > :12:39.but it is totemic for the party. I think many grassroots will be very
:12:39. > :12:43.upset. A bad day for windmill manufactures! We will have a
:12:44. > :12:46.moment's silence for them. Not very silent, we will just move on. How
:12:46. > :12:50.will the news changed the composition of the government? As
:12:50. > :12:54.you have heard, Chris Huhne has exited stage left for now. The
:12:54. > :13:00.rumour mill suggests he will be replaced as Secretary of State for
:13:00. > :13:05.Energy and climate change by this man, Ed Davey, the MP for Kingston
:13:05. > :13:08.and Surbiton in London. He is currently a junior minister in the
:13:09. > :13:11.Department for business with responsibility for employment
:13:11. > :13:17.relations and consumer affairs. Speculation is that if Mr Davey is
:13:17. > :13:19.promoted, his portfolio will go to Norman Lamb, Nick Clegg's
:13:19. > :13:24.parliamentary private secretary and chief political adviser, very close
:13:24. > :13:27.to Mr Clegg. And if he does move into that official government job,
:13:27. > :13:33.some people in the village are suggesting that his new
:13:33. > :13:38.parliamentary aide could be, well, a familiar face! Yes, David Laws,
:13:38. > :13:44.who was the last Lib Dem to resign from the Cabinet. We are joined now
:13:44. > :13:48.by Adam Fleming. The Cabinet reshuffle is still being cooked,
:13:48. > :13:52.but my sense is that it is actually done and dusted and just needs to
:13:52. > :13:57.be announced. They have quite cleverly, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg,
:13:57. > :14:00.let the media know what is going to happen. This is one we baked
:14:00. > :14:05.earlier, that is what they are telling us. Yes, a prix BECTA
:14:05. > :14:08.reshuffle, that is the hint that is being dropped behind the scenes. A
:14:08. > :14:12.huge frenzy are speculation about how the reshuffle will work out,
:14:12. > :14:16.but speculation much more limited than it used to be in the old days
:14:16. > :14:19.of 2005, when you have one party in government. The issue is now, with
:14:19. > :14:24.coalition, there is a deal about how many cabinet ministers each
:14:24. > :14:27.party gets around the top table of government. As our guests have been
:14:27. > :14:31.saying, the Liberal Democrats get five, so that means today's
:14:31. > :14:34.reshuffle is limited to Liberal Democrats only. In the past, the
:14:34. > :14:38.Prime Minister would have been able to pick and choose who we wanted
:14:38. > :14:41.and put people into positions. As you said, the speculation this
:14:41. > :14:45.morning is that Ed Davey, the junior business minister, will step
:14:45. > :14:49.up to join the Cabinet to take over from Chris Huhne, which means that
:14:49. > :14:53.Norman Lamb, a close adviser of Nick Clegg, will take that job,
:14:53. > :14:56.working with Vince Cable in the business department. As he said,
:14:56. > :15:00.the big question mark over David Laws, is he going to get his chance
:15:00. > :15:10.to return to government after he had to quit just three weeks into
:15:10. > :15:12.
:15:12. > :15:18.It is interesting to look back at what happened when Liam Fox quit
:15:18. > :15:23.last year. It was a Tory any reshuffle with the movement of Tory
:15:23. > :15:27.ministers and junior ministers and nothing wider than that. This is
:15:27. > :15:31.new for us and is a consequence of coalition government that the
:15:31. > :15:38.decision by David Cameron not to have a wide-ranging reshuffle but
:15:38. > :15:43.too narrow the damage, it means in effect it is not a Cameron
:15:43. > :15:47.reshuffle, it is a Clegg reshuffle. We expect Nick Clegg to make a
:15:47. > :15:52.statement in the next half an hour so we will hopefully be able to get
:15:52. > :15:59.it live on the programme. There is speculation about whether he will
:15:59. > :16:02.use that statement finance these new ministerial appointments. Will
:16:02. > :16:08.the Prime Minister announced the appointments from Downing Street? I
:16:08. > :16:13.suspect it will be Nick Clegg. The whole thing behind the scenes is
:16:13. > :16:19.that the parties covered up between themselves. It is not like the old
:16:19. > :16:26.days when the whole Cabinet would be moved around. We had problems
:16:26. > :16:31.when Tony Blair did it. We are always being told by sources close
:16:31. > :16:35.to David Cameron behind the scenes that he is not a big fan of
:16:35. > :16:40.reshuffles, having seen how they go disastrously wrong. We are told he
:16:40. > :16:46.does not want to have a big revamp of the Cabinet in his first couple
:16:46. > :16:51.of years. If the reshuffle happens while we are on air, we will bring
:16:51. > :17:01.it to live. They have handled this quite well, have they not? They put
:17:01. > :17:01.
:17:02. > :17:08.in place the pan to make it seem less. Mr Clegg would make -- take
:17:08. > :17:12.the initiative. What is fascinating is how coalition is limiting
:17:12. > :17:18.reshuffles. You're not getting huge shake-up so of the Government.
:17:18. > :17:23.There have been a lot of mutterings within Number 10 about people not
:17:23. > :17:28.liking Ken Clarke or Andrew and spree. If it were not a coalition
:17:28. > :17:34.government, you would have had a much wider reshuffle with people
:17:34. > :17:39.from all departments. Because it is a coalition, room is limited.
:17:39. > :17:47.have three Cabinet ministers who have gone. All went for personal
:17:47. > :17:52.problems. None of them have gone for policy. The real resignation is
:17:52. > :17:59.they Andrew Lansley resignation. Why do you think that? Will he
:17:59. > :18:04.resign or will he be kicked out? will be asked to resign, I suspect,
:18:04. > :18:09.before the end of the year. That is the big one. That will be about
:18:09. > :18:15.government policy. If the reports are right, they have chosen not to
:18:15. > :18:21.do the wider reshuffle which has been discussed, at this point.
:18:21. > :18:27.will it play outside this Westminster village to the idea?
:18:27. > :18:30.People are quite sensitive about this. Chris Huhne has to resign
:18:30. > :18:34.because there are criminal charges against him. As part of the
:18:34. > :18:40.reshuffle that follows, if you bring back David Laws, who had to
:18:40. > :18:46.resign because of malpractice with his expenses. Plain folk will think,
:18:46. > :18:53.how does that work? It does not play well at all. Nick Clegg wanted
:18:53. > :18:58.to bring back David Laws much sooner. It is interesting with the
:18:58. > :19:04.introduction of a Davies. He is very loyal to the circle of Nick
:19:04. > :19:09.Clegg. He is a curiously modern politician. He does not stick his
:19:09. > :19:15.ideological colours to the mask. Many people are curious about where
:19:15. > :19:21.he stands on many things. He moves in a circle with performers. It is
:19:21. > :19:25.not sure where he will be. It was catastrophic you had the architect
:19:25. > :19:29.thrown out for whatever reason. Bringing him back may be costly in
:19:29. > :19:32.public relations but it is important strategically. If there
:19:33. > :19:38.is one thing that will harm the Lib Dems, it is the feeling that
:19:38. > :19:43.something bad has happened in the party. You are all referring to the
:19:44. > :19:47.Orange Book. That was written by a number of senior Liberals. It was
:19:47. > :19:55.called the Orange but because it was coloured orange and it was
:19:55. > :20:02.liberals who tended to come from more market orientated than
:20:02. > :20:08.collectivist wing. I have a book. It is by my bed, particularly when
:20:08. > :20:16.I cannot get to sleep. I use it quite a lot. It is an interesting
:20:16. > :20:21.book. The Treasury was beginning to take on climate change policies. Mr
:20:21. > :20:25.Osborne referred to that at the Tory conference, in his speech.
:20:25. > :20:35.Behind the scenes there have been even more. Mr Hume was a strong
:20:35. > :20:38.
:20:38. > :20:46.figure in his own right, he was across his brood -- breach. During
:20:46. > :20:52.the baby referendum, there was the infamous moment when Chris Huhne
:20:52. > :20:58.asked if he would resign. Areas that personal link. I think the
:20:58. > :21:02.Treasury made it clear in its conference. They were under
:21:02. > :21:12.pressure from the Daily Mail wing of the media. There were barriers
:21:12. > :21:12.
:21:12. > :21:17.to growth. Get rid of the factions. Will he stand up to that? He was
:21:17. > :21:24.therefore a -- he was there from the start. It does not seem to be a
:21:24. > :21:30.big issue. How will it go down if, as he may be entitled, he gets
:21:30. > :21:35.�17,000 in redundancy for leaving the Cabinet? That is not a big
:21:35. > :21:45.issue. Do you think he should take it? Politicians have been there a
:21:45. > :21:55.keen to get Mr Heston not take his bonus. Chris Huhne, like David Laws,
:21:55. > :21:56.
:21:56. > :22:02.has a reputation problem. He has nine houses, or conveniently priced
:22:02. > :22:10.under 2 million. David Laws, as an ex banker, they have our
:22:10. > :22:14.expectation issues. If the Liberal -- bear our expectation issues. If
:22:14. > :22:22.the Liberal Democrats were to use - - lose this along with other
:22:22. > :22:26.policies and ideological points they had given in, political and
:22:26. > :22:34.ecological, I do think there will be problems. Nick Clegg has to bear
:22:34. > :22:39.that in mind. Maybe by bringing David Laws in, it will strengthen
:22:39. > :22:44.him. They are super loyal. He is stronger now but for the reasons
:22:44. > :22:48.you have just said. If the environment begins to slip off the
:22:48. > :22:53.agenda, the Lib Dems will have trouble at the back of the ranch
:22:53. > :22:59.quite even if the public is not so concerned about that. Should he
:22:59. > :23:05.have resigned? What would he have been designing for? He is claiming
:23:05. > :23:11.his innocence. We will find out in a few weeks' time what happens.
:23:11. > :23:16.Should he have resigned the England captaincy? It is the same. He has
:23:17. > :23:23.had to resign for something that was off-pitch. It has the strange
:23:23. > :23:28.and agree. A good day for Ed Miliband to do a speech. Eastleigh
:23:28. > :23:35.is the constituency that Chris Huhne represents on the south coast
:23:35. > :23:42.of England. It looks on to the Isle of Wight, which touches the sea. He
:23:42. > :23:46.has shied of just 20,000 votes. The Conservative have just over 21,000
:23:47. > :23:52.votes. There was a majority of 4000. The Labour vote was clearly squeeze
:23:52. > :23:56.because Labour people voted for Chris Huhne, to keep out the Tories.
:23:56. > :24:04.There would have to be a by- election if he is found guilty.
:24:04. > :24:11.he is found guilty, the game is up for him. He is the first Cabinet
:24:11. > :24:18.minister in more than 200 years to be charged with a criminal offence.
:24:18. > :24:23.I read back somewhere. You need to be lucky in politics. Chris Huhne
:24:23. > :24:29.only narrowly lost in the battle to lead the party. He might have been
:24:29. > :24:34.Deputy Prime Minister but for a few votes in the leadership election.
:24:34. > :24:39.It would be a global story today if it were the Deputy Prime Minister
:24:39. > :24:44.facing criminal charges having to resign. Instead it is the Energy
:24:44. > :24:49.Secretary. His political career is potentially in tatters. It has
:24:50. > :24:54.certainly changed. Now we look back at the Korea. He has been a
:24:54. > :24:59.journalist and an MEP. He is a millionaire and reported --
:24:59. > :25:03.reportedly the owner of eight properties. He is the second Lib
:25:03. > :25:08.Dem to leave the Cabinet. He won Eastleigh in Hampshire for the Lib
:25:08. > :25:12.Dems in the 2005 general election. He ran for the leadership of his
:25:12. > :25:16.party, losing out to Menzies Campbell. A year after that he lost
:25:16. > :25:21.out to Nick Clegg - just - in a further leadership contest, which
:25:21. > :25:26.became fairly bad-tempered. Why had he issued a briefing document
:25:26. > :25:32.called Calamity Clegg? I have not. This came from your office on
:25:32. > :25:36.Friday to the Politics Show. I am sorry. I did not see it. Do not
:25:36. > :25:40.know what goes out of your office? It is impossible to check
:25:40. > :25:44.everything that goes out of the office. It is a large campaign
:25:44. > :25:48.going right the way across the country. It has not had my
:25:48. > :25:54.authorisation. He was authorised to negotiate the coalition agreement
:25:54. > :25:57.with the Tories. The climate change Secretary was one of five Lib Dems
:25:57. > :26:03.in the Cabinet. He often caused tension around the table,
:26:03. > :26:06.especially during the referendum on changing the voting system when he
:26:06. > :26:11.confronted the Prime Minister over the conduct of the no campaign.
:26:11. > :26:16.have never come across an election campaign of this nature in all my
:26:16. > :26:21.years involved in campaigning back to the early 1980s, where we have
:26:21. > :26:25.had and -- a repeated untruth may buy the other side in this way. It
:26:25. > :26:30.is a new low in British politics. At the same time his family life
:26:30. > :26:34.became big news. His marriage to Bickley price collapsed, leading to
:26:34. > :26:40.the claims about speeding. He said he was in a new relationship with
:26:40. > :26:45.his press adviser, who was seen by his side on election night. What
:26:45. > :26:48.was personal became deeply political. We're joined now from
:26:48. > :26:55.Salford by the Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies who worked side by side with
:26:55. > :26:57.Chris Huhne for many years in the European parliament. He was
:26:58. > :27:01.returning from the European Parliament on the fateful night
:27:01. > :27:06.when the speeding took place and the whole argument about who took
:27:06. > :27:12.the points has led to today's events. Chris Huhne is very smart.
:27:12. > :27:19.He is tough, he is a fighter. How will he be feeling this morning?
:27:19. > :27:24.How would you feel? I would be devastated. Absolutely. I do not
:27:24. > :27:30.think he can be anything other than that. It is not just one career
:27:30. > :27:35.that has been hugely damaged, it is the key price as well. She is a
:27:35. > :27:39.hugely talented woman was that they have both been brought down by this.
:27:39. > :27:45.Was he popular among Lib Dems question that he had an ability to
:27:45. > :27:52.rub people up the wrong way. -- among Lib Dems? The vast majority
:27:52. > :27:57.of MEPs voted for Nick Clegg. That is not because they thought Chris
:27:57. > :28:06.Huhne had less ability. He does have an ability to rub people up
:28:06. > :28:14.the wrong way. He is very self- confident, very ambitious. He is
:28:14. > :28:19.pugnacious. Less easy to have dinner with. If you look at the
:28:19. > :28:24.coalition post, let's assume the stuff we are being fed by the
:28:24. > :28:30.Government machine is accurate, it may not be but we are being fed it.
:28:30. > :28:34.It is Ed Davey, Norman Lamb and David Laws coming in almost as a
:28:34. > :28:40.political adviser to Nick Clegg. Does it change the coalition very
:28:40. > :28:45.much? I do not think it changes the policy in any sense. I doubt
:28:45. > :28:50.whether we will find anyone around the Cabinet table laying down his
:28:50. > :28:54.fist right -- quite in the way that Chris Huhne has done. Many Liberal
:28:54. > :28:58.Democrats like the idea we have a minister who is prepared to blow
:28:58. > :29:03.his top and let off a jet of steam in the direction of the
:29:03. > :29:09.Conservatives from time to time. One bigger thing which is not being
:29:09. > :29:17.looked at the moment is his role on the European stage. He has just
:29:17. > :29:24.come from the climate change conference in Durban. They managed
:29:24. > :29:28.to bring in India and China into what we hope will prove the next
:29:28. > :29:34.stage of aggressive climate change negotiations, leading to a binding
:29:34. > :29:42.treaty. He will be sorely missed among climate change people. Chris
:29:42. > :29:47.Huhne is not personally popular among Lib Dem activists... No, no,
:29:47. > :29:54.he almost beat Nick Clegg so you cannot say that. A bit like going
:29:54. > :30:02.back to the old days, he is the Pardoe and Nick Clegg is the David
:30:02. > :30:06.Steel. My emphasis was about personal popularity. He stood for
:30:06. > :30:11.policies that were popular with Lib Dem at this and they will regret
:30:11. > :30:16.his departure. I do not think you could put a paper between Nick
:30:16. > :30:21.Clegg and Chris Huhne when it comes to policy. It is style. I am sure
:30:21. > :30:28.you know that, behind the scenes, Nick Clegg is doing an incredible
:30:28. > :30:30.job in dealing with the whole work of government, trying to make sure
:30:30. > :30:40.that Liberal Democrats can live with what is coming out of a
:30:40. > :30:40.
:30:41. > :30:46.coalition where we are outnumbered four to one. It is a difference in
:30:46. > :30:50.style. You seek Nick Clegg on the green benches trying to keep his
:30:50. > :30:54.face expressionless when the Prime Minister is saying this or that.
:30:54. > :30:58.Chris Huhne has a harder job at doing that. Liberal Democrat
:30:58. > :31:03.activist do not feel cut well being in coalition with the Conservatives.
:31:03. > :31:07.That is a fact of life. You say you cannot put a cigarette paper
:31:07. > :31:17.between the two on policy. You're not trying to tell us we're bosom
:31:17. > :31:23.No, and that rivalry became better during the leadership contest. It
:31:23. > :31:27.goes back further than that. Chris is ambitious and self-confident and
:31:27. > :31:32.pushy, and that is what you wanted a minister, I do not deny that by
:31:32. > :31:35.second, but remember that Chris, after he had only been in
:31:35. > :31:39.Parliament for a year or two, stood against Ming Campbell to be leader.
:31:39. > :31:44.Nick Clegg could have done so, too, but he thought they had an
:31:44. > :31:48.arrangement not to do it. You know, there is no question that Chris is
:31:48. > :31:53.capable of running Nick Clegg up the wrong way, and yet I suspect
:31:53. > :31:58.that not for a second would Nick have wanted this to happen. He
:31:58. > :32:03.wanted Chris Huhne alongside him, because he added to the team.
:32:03. > :32:10.to see Salford so resplendent behind you there! What you make of
:32:10. > :32:13.that? Suspect, in a scheme of things, obviously a Lib Dem leader
:32:13. > :32:17.does not want resignations from his ranks, but as Lembit Opik pointed
:32:17. > :32:22.out, it is good for Nick Clegg in the long run. It strengthens his
:32:23. > :32:27.and Borders. There is no challenger to his leadership now. -- his
:32:28. > :32:31.supporters. Even outside of the Cabinet, Tim Farron is not a
:32:32. > :32:35.serious challenger. If he is found innocent, returns to the
:32:35. > :32:40.backbenches and become a lightning rod for the Social Liberals, it
:32:40. > :32:43.could be a problem. At the moment, Clegg is secured and the
:32:43. > :32:47.relationship in cabinet his mother. Clegg himself is now trying to
:32:47. > :32:51.differentiate more than the Conservatives, and it would have
:32:51. > :32:57.helped him to have more differentiate us alongside him,
:32:57. > :33:01.which Chris Huhne would have been. We will return to that story later
:33:01. > :33:05.in the programme, particularly if we get the Clegg cabinet reshuffle,
:33:05. > :33:09.as we are calling it, but Stephen Hester turned down his bonus, Fred
:33:09. > :33:14.Goodwin lost his knighthood, but for Ed Miliband this is only the
:33:14. > :33:19.start. He wants to see wholesale reform of the banking system. He
:33:19. > :33:23.calls it responsible capitalism. And that was is the money spoke to
:33:23. > :33:27.an audience in the City of London this morning. -- his theme when he
:33:27. > :33:32.spoke. In my view, we need to learn the most important lesson of this
:33:32. > :33:37.week, which is that the banking sector cannot be divorced from the
:33:37. > :33:45.rest of the economy and the rest of society. As a country, we succeed
:33:45. > :33:50.or fail together. It is not about the politics of envy. It is about a
:33:50. > :33:55.culture of responsibility. It is why we need what I call one-nation
:33:55. > :34:00.banking in this country. So this is a call for banking to recognise
:34:00. > :34:07.that continuing on its current path will lead to further isolation from
:34:07. > :34:12.society, greater public anger and more years in which banking is a
:34:12. > :34:17.subject of lurid newspaper headlines. This is a call on
:34:17. > :34:21.banking to recognise that it needs to find a different path. To
:34:21. > :34:25.recognise, above all, it is not isolated from the economy or
:34:25. > :34:30.society, to recognise that we succeed or fail to get up. We are
:34:30. > :34:33.joined now by Labour's shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna,
:34:33. > :34:40.who joins me from Berlin with the Brandenburg gate behind him, it
:34:40. > :34:47.looks almost as nice as Salford! Your leader says... Hi, Andrew, it
:34:47. > :34:50.is very cold here, I can tell you! Mr Miliband says banks cannot be
:34:50. > :34:56.isolated, segregated economically, geographically and socially. Isn't
:34:56. > :34:59.that what happened under the Blair- Browne years? Well, look, we have
:34:59. > :35:03.had issues grow with our financial services sector of the last three
:35:03. > :35:07.decades, but the question is how you reform and change it. The point
:35:07. > :35:11.that Ed was making is that we depend on each other in the sense
:35:11. > :35:15.of, of course, the financial services sector benefits from an
:35:15. > :35:18.implicit tax they guarantee, it relies on society to provide it
:35:18. > :35:23.with the talent and skills to run our big banks, but also we rely on
:35:23. > :35:27.it not just to provide a social utility function, which is
:35:27. > :35:33.important to us as individuals, somewhere we can store harmonies,
:35:33. > :35:35.but also our small and medium-sized businesses are massively reliant on
:35:35. > :35:39.financial services for funding. That is one of the reasons I am
:35:39. > :35:45.here in Germany, to find out how the banking sector here, among
:35:45. > :35:48.other things, supports their small and medium-sized businesses here,
:35:48. > :35:54.and I think there's quite a lot we can learn, in particular from the
:35:54. > :35:59.savings banksia, which have a much better, if you like, relationship
:35:59. > :36:02.with their businesses. The people here, their business and banking
:36:02. > :36:07.structure is very low court in its native. The people running local
:36:07. > :36:10.banks get to know the businesses. They are any good position to
:36:10. > :36:15.assess risk and provide support. We have not seen that so much in the
:36:15. > :36:20.UK. This is part of the overall transformation that we need to see
:36:20. > :36:24.so that the sector does what we need to do but also so that we can
:36:24. > :36:27.re-establish trust in it, because that is very important. You are
:36:27. > :36:31.treading a well-trodden path. Labour politicians have been going
:36:32. > :36:37.to Germany to study that since Hugh Gaitskell, and you were not even a
:36:37. > :36:39.glint in your father's eye when he was around! Are you really saying
:36:40. > :36:46.there is any possibility that a Labour government is going to
:36:46. > :36:49.promise to bring in the German system of supervisory boards and
:36:49. > :36:54.floorboards and so on? A total revolution in corporate board
:36:54. > :36:59.structure? It may be right or wrong, but is there any possibility what
:36:59. > :37:04.promised to do that? Well, we have already said... Well, what we need
:37:04. > :37:08.to do is look at the international examples of good practice that have
:37:08. > :37:11.worked and then work out, figure out how to transpose that where
:37:12. > :37:16.appropriate to a UK context. We have not only be looking at Germany.
:37:16. > :37:18.I was in the United States, looking at the Small Business
:37:18. > :37:23.Administration in particular, the small business investment company
:37:23. > :37:27.scheme, which gets money going to businesses over there. We have also
:37:27. > :37:30.been to Singapore, too. If you look at the current debate on executive
:37:31. > :37:34.pay and remuneration, one of the things that they do here which we
:37:34. > :37:37.have suggested and can be quite easily implemented in the UK is to
:37:37. > :37:41.have an employee on the remuneration committees of boards
:37:41. > :37:46.which set pay. John Lewis have that kind of model in their business. I
:37:46. > :37:49.would not say that it is a case that we can just take things in
:37:49. > :37:54.Germany or the US and literally implant it exactly the same in the
:37:54. > :37:58.same form in the UK, but we can take the principles, we can look at
:37:58. > :38:03.how they do things and how we could transpose those across to a UK
:38:03. > :38:08.setting, which is more appropriate to us. But what is clear that after
:38:08. > :38:13.the crash, the status quo is not good enough for the country and our
:38:13. > :38:23.businesses. We have not got too much time, and I want to move on.
:38:23. > :38:27.Mr Miliband said that MPs, he will ask MPs to end on the bonus culture,
:38:27. > :38:32.and it will not be legislation, it will not be binding. In other words,
:38:32. > :38:35.it is just grandstanding. I do nothing that is fair at all,
:38:35. > :38:38.because look, there has obviously been a very big public debate that
:38:38. > :38:42.has occurred over the last couple of weeks, and really Parliament has
:38:42. > :38:45.not had a chance on behalf of the people... The reason that
:38:45. > :38:49.politicians have been talking about excessive pay and rewards for
:38:49. > :38:52.failure is because, Andrew, people raise it with us all the time in
:38:52. > :38:56.the constituencies. This is a chance for us to give life to the
:38:56. > :39:00.debate that is happening outside Parliament so that it is inside
:39:00. > :39:05.Parliament and Parliament can express a view. That is part of our
:39:05. > :39:12.constitutional function. Will you call a debate for Bob Diamond's
:39:12. > :39:17.bonus at Barclays? No, because this is not about a fatwa against... It
:39:17. > :39:21.is not an aim to go against a particular individuals. He went
:39:21. > :39:26.against Mr Hester, why not Bob Diamond? His bonus will be 10 times
:39:26. > :39:32.bigger! Yes, and of course this is one of the reasons that the vote
:39:32. > :39:35.will be about the reintroduction of a bank bonus tax, which will impact
:39:35. > :39:40.on people like Mr Diamond and many others who are earning very large
:39:40. > :39:46.sums of money in the financial services sector at the same time as
:39:46. > :39:51.performances falling. What about... As I said... Andrew, as I said the
:39:51. > :39:55.purpose... There is going to be a RBS bonus pool of �500 million.
:39:55. > :39:59.That is about to be paid out, and it does not include Stephen Hester.
:39:59. > :40:02.Mr Hester is not the best-paid person at RBS, there are several
:40:02. > :40:09.people paid much more than him. What is Labour going to do about
:40:09. > :40:12.that? When you call a vote in a house on that? Well, the vote is on
:40:12. > :40:16.the reintroduction of the bank bonus tax, at the bank bonus tax
:40:16. > :40:21.applies to the bonus pools in the different banks, so that would
:40:21. > :40:25.impact on all the people that you have just spoken about. OK, but I
:40:25. > :40:33.see that is not a vote. Thank you for joining us from Berlin. Well,
:40:33. > :40:37.it is a vote, as I said. Your reaction to Mr Wood's resignation.
:40:37. > :40:41.Well, of course, it is regrettable for him, but it is very important
:40:41. > :40:44.that the course of justice is allowed to follow this course, and
:40:44. > :40:48.I do not think it would be proper for me to comment on the
:40:48. > :40:52.particulars of the case now that a full criminal legal proceeding is
:40:52. > :40:55.in process. What is important is that justice is done and seen to be
:40:55. > :41:02.done, and that well before the courts to decide in terms of they
:41:02. > :41:06.will make findings of fact and make a decision and judgment upon that.
:41:06. > :41:10.D-pawn in Berlin, keep your coat on when you get back here, because I'm
:41:10. > :41:13.not sure you will notice much of a difference! We have got Eastern
:41:13. > :41:16.European temperatures here at the moment. Thank you for joining us.
:41:16. > :41:23.While we were speaking to the Chateau Business Secretary, we
:41:23. > :41:26.learnt that Ed Davey IS the new Energy Secretary. We caught for a
:41:26. > :41:32.second that Mr Clegg was going to make an announcement that. It is
:41:32. > :41:35.confirmed, yes, the DPM coming out. This is his Cabinet reshuffle, and
:41:35. > :41:42.it is going to be limited to Lib Dems. The Prime Minister deciding
:41:42. > :41:44.not to have a wider one. understand and respect why Chris
:41:44. > :41:49.Huhne has stood down from his position in government to clear his
:41:49. > :41:56.name. Chris Huhne is a good friend and a close colleague writing has
:41:56. > :41:59.done an outstanding job as a Secretary of State for the
:41:59. > :42:02.Environment, for energy and climate change. He has really been a
:42:02. > :42:06.pioneer in ground-breaking policies which I believe will stand the test
:42:06. > :42:11.of time, and if he clears his name, as he wishes to, I have made it
:42:11. > :42:16.clear to him that I would like to see him back in government in a key
:42:16. > :42:23.position. I am pleased that Ed Davey has agreed to take up the
:42:23. > :42:26.post as the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Ed
:42:26. > :42:30.As a lifelong commitment to the environment, to green issues. He
:42:30. > :42:36.has shown as a minister a formidable grasp of the details of
:42:36. > :42:40.government policy, and I think he is the right man for the job, to
:42:40. > :42:44.take up from where Chris has left off, to provide sustainable
:42:44. > :42:48.solutions to the long-term energy needs of this country. And I will
:42:48. > :42:58.be meeting Ed shortly so that he can make an early start in that
:42:58. > :42:59.
:42:59. > :43:04.very important work. Thanks very OK, a short statement there. That
:43:04. > :43:09.looks like Admiralty House, was it not? It was not Downing Street that
:43:09. > :43:14.he was in. I think that is where it was, just off Whitehall. He is
:43:14. > :43:18.being followed in by some schoolchildren, looking for a job!
:43:18. > :43:22.So the Ed Davey announcement, we would get the others very shortly,
:43:22. > :43:26.but we can confirm that Ed Davey is the new Energy Secretary. I want to
:43:26. > :43:31.come back to Chuka Umunna in a minute, but let's just stick with
:43:31. > :43:36.this story as it develops. It is interesting that Nick Clegg, whose
:43:36. > :43:41.back really was against the wall as his coalition began to find its
:43:41. > :43:45.feet, and he was deeply unpopular, even unpopular in Sheffield, he has
:43:45. > :43:50.emerged from this and other developments in a pretty
:43:50. > :43:55.unassailable position. It is in a very strong personal position.
:43:55. > :43:58.Whether Lib Dems strategy at the next election is helped by losing
:43:58. > :44:02.Huhne is a different question, but doing things like that helps.
:44:02. > :44:06.Coming out and announcing things, very grand, very strong, it is a
:44:06. > :44:10.new age of coalition politics, how often you see a DPM career at a
:44:10. > :44:14.reshuffle which is the prerogative of the Prime Minister under our
:44:14. > :44:18.system? It is new for us! It is interesting that he said he would
:44:18. > :44:22.like to see him come back to a key position. David Cameron, in his
:44:22. > :44:27.letter, hold that out in the same way that he did to David Laws.
:44:27. > :44:32.the way it works, if it turns out he is not guilty, he keeps his seat,
:44:32. > :44:36.he goes on to the backbenchers, but he cannot be brought back under the
:44:36. > :44:41.system unless you make room for him, because all the positions will be
:44:41. > :44:47.taken. And we would have another reshuffle, which is why David Laws
:44:47. > :44:51.has had to wait of his time. Get in line behind David Laws! Just to
:44:51. > :44:55.confirm that the Queen has been pleased to approve the following
:44:55. > :44:57.ministerial appointments, we are being told, Ed Davey is to become
:44:57. > :45:03.the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, taking
:45:03. > :45:05.over from Chris Huhne. Norman Lamb, as was widely leaked, is to become
:45:05. > :45:10.a parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for
:45:10. > :45:13.business, taking over the Ed Davey position. But Jenny Willott is to
:45:13. > :45:19.become an assistant government whip, I am not sure of the significance
:45:19. > :45:24.of that. But no word of David Laws taking the Norman Lamb... And not
:45:24. > :45:28.sure if Jenny Willott is taking the Norman Lamb position or the David
:45:28. > :45:34.Laws is still under way. The Queen would not sign off on a PPS
:45:34. > :45:38.position for Nick Clegg. We already knew all of this. You think this of
:45:39. > :45:43.elite from Buckingham Palace? I think you might be right! The what
:45:43. > :45:46.is interesting, of course, on a side note, still no diversity in
:45:46. > :45:51.the Cabinet. We have got another male Cabinet minister because the
:45:51. > :46:01.Lib Dems do not have many women to offer, let alone a non-white faces.
:46:01. > :46:02.
:46:02. > :46:07.The Lib Dem contingent is still The more they talk about diversity,
:46:07. > :46:12.the less diverse they seem to be. Labour clearly thinks it is on to a
:46:12. > :46:18.winner with the bonus business. I get the impression they are not
:46:18. > :46:22.entirely sure where to go from here. Ed Miliband has made all the
:46:22. > :46:30.running. He'd told to about moral capitalism in his conference speech
:46:30. > :46:34.was up he had the prejudice discussions in his speech at
:46:34. > :46:38.conference. He is not getting any credit. It is partly because
:46:38. > :46:43.somehow Labour has not come up with a policy that really cuts through -
:46:44. > :46:48.an idea that exemplified this better than either of the other
:46:48. > :46:57.parties. The most memorable thing in all of this has been stripping
:46:57. > :47:02.Fred the Shed of his knighthood. It cuts through. People notice. It is
:47:02. > :47:06.symbolic. The bonus tax is very important. Labour brought in as a
:47:06. > :47:12.temporary one-year tax. It was the most popular thing Gordon Brown
:47:12. > :47:19.ever did. This government got rid of it. Bonuses are not going of way
:47:19. > :47:23.in this Parliament. You mentioned RBS. He will get a bonus of �6
:47:23. > :47:28.million was that he is in the investment banking division at RBS.
:47:28. > :47:36.The ailing investment banking division! If Chuka Umunna is
:47:36. > :47:41.willing to go on about bankers, that is a big issue. People are
:47:41. > :47:48.very angry about the crisis. how which you rate the Labour
:47:48. > :47:56.performance on this to date? Perhaps the timing of Ed Miliband
:47:56. > :48:02.and his speech is a problem. They have stopped and started the stock
:48:02. > :48:07.when Ilott -- when Ed Miliband picks on an issue they like, he
:48:07. > :48:11.seems to lose momentum and David Cameron squads on that ground.
:48:11. > :48:16.Banking is not the territory that David Cameron wants to be on. He is
:48:16. > :48:23.not going to support employees on remuneration committees. That is
:48:23. > :48:31.why Labour should keep going on about it. It is a live issue. Pick
:48:31. > :48:36.one or two issues. Sticks to that. You will not get hurt -- heard on
:48:36. > :48:44.anything else. We are in a breaking news situation. Vince Cable has
:48:44. > :48:47.something to say on the events this morning. I am very sad. He is very
:48:47. > :48:52.good and very effective as a colleague in government. I'm sure
:48:52. > :48:57.he will clear his name and we would like to see him back. Do you think
:48:57. > :49:03.he will come back? It is not for me to comment on legal processes. He
:49:03. > :49:07.has been a good colleague and achieved a great deal. He has been
:49:07. > :49:13.an effective member of the coalition. What effect has this had
:49:13. > :49:18.on the party and the coalition? have strength in depth. We have
:49:18. > :49:27.other colleagues who will step up to the plate. It is a tragedy for
:49:27. > :49:31.him. Will feel for him and wish him luck. What has can he say?
:49:31. > :49:34.thing the Liberal Democrats do not have his strength in depth. That is
:49:34. > :49:40.shown in the reshuffles at the moment with the ministers they have
:49:40. > :49:50.in government. It was either going to be a Davey or Jeremy Brown. We
:49:50. > :49:54.
:49:54. > :49:59.He still thought he had Enrique to be leader of the Lib Dems. Chris
:49:59. > :50:04.Huhne has been sidelined for the foreseeable future. It is quite
:50:04. > :50:10.good for Vince Cable, is it not? A mite too Machiavellian? I think it
:50:10. > :50:18.is better for the younger generation. -- am I to
:50:18. > :50:25.Machiavellian? It is great for David. He is the younger generation.
:50:25. > :50:30.If Nick Clegg were to fall under a bus tomorrow, he would be in prime
:50:30. > :50:36.position to as a young, dynamic Cabinet minister doing climate
:50:36. > :50:41.change. It did not hand -- hamper Ed Miliband doing that portfolio.
:50:41. > :50:46.The central issue there still faces this country is the economy. Almost
:50:46. > :50:51.everything has been tried by his coalition. We have had the lowest
:50:52. > :50:57.interest rate on record. Quantitative easing and the
:50:57. > :51:02.devaluation of the pound. We are running a budget deficit. We're
:51:02. > :51:08.heading for 1.5 trillion pounds in debt and there is still no growth.
:51:08. > :51:13.In programmes like this, we talk about the knighthood of Fred the
:51:13. > :51:18.Shed. This is the problem for Ed Miliband that he has not got
:51:18. > :51:23.credibility on the economy. He has not moved on on the deficit. All
:51:23. > :51:33.this talk of bonuses and responsible capitalism, unless he
:51:33. > :51:38.can get back creditability on that, he will not win. I think, come 2015,
:51:38. > :51:43.he will be in a very good position to do a Ronald Reagan saying, do
:51:43. > :51:52.you feel better off? What have this block given you? For the Lib Dems,
:51:53. > :52:02.people have gone on for ages and nothing has changed. I met Ronald
:52:03. > :52:03.
:52:03. > :52:13.Reagan. I do not seek Ed Miliband as being like Ronald Reagan.
:52:13. > :52:16.
:52:16. > :52:22.invaded Grenada. That was a good recollection. It has been a busy
:52:22. > :52:30.week in politics. Time to look back at the other big stories of the
:52:30. > :52:33.last seven days. The week started badly for Stephen Hester, the chief
:52:33. > :52:39.executive of RBS was almost �1 million poorer after bowing to
:52:39. > :52:43.pressure and giving up his bonus. He was faring better than his
:52:43. > :52:49.predecessor, who is now plain old Fred Goodwin, after his knighthood
:52:49. > :52:53.were shredded after his role in the collapse of RBS. On Tuesday,
:52:53. > :52:58.Theresa May also lost something on Downing Street. Last year David
:52:58. > :53:02.Cameron threatened to stop other European countries from using EU
:53:02. > :53:05.institutions like its court to force the treaty to be vetoed. On
:53:05. > :53:10.Monday he appeared to back down, prompting some to ask what the
:53:10. > :53:16.point of the veto was in the first place. With this Prime Minister,
:53:16. > :53:22.veto is not for life, it is just for Christmas. Meanwhile, it was
:53:22. > :53:32.back to school for Michael Gove. He was their well-behaved in the
:53:32. > :53:33.
:53:33. > :53:40.Commons Education Select Committee. Will you excuse me for a second?
:53:40. > :53:48.There we go. A middling Cabinet reshuffle and not a word from the
:53:48. > :53:54.Prime Minister. Coalition politics is very different from what went
:53:54. > :54:00.before. It enabled him to do other things, having a Deputy Prime
:54:00. > :54:09.Minister. If he wants to watch what happens in coalition politics, it
:54:09. > :54:17.is Borgen. That is about running a coalition. Let's get back to the
:54:17. > :54:21.politics of it. It has been a dreadful time for Ed Miliband. He
:54:21. > :54:31.is regarded by his own side as having terrible performances in the
:54:31. > :54:32.
:54:32. > :54:38.Commons was up his brother will not shut up. He keeps writing articles.
:54:38. > :54:46.Are we seeing a turning point? He has not had won a good week, he has
:54:46. > :54:51.two of bid weeks. -- one. He seems to be saying the right things but
:54:51. > :54:55.the message is not getting through. Is a person who can get through to
:54:56. > :55:01.the voters? That is called the big test. Will people seriously
:55:01. > :55:09.consider him on the steps of Number 10? It is hard to do anything about
:55:09. > :55:13.that. Is it a danger that he is in a position where people were
:55:13. > :55:17.presented with a set of policies and they rather like the policies
:55:17. > :55:23.and then they were told, they were Conservative policies, and they
:55:23. > :55:30.were not so sure. That is a problem. It is the case when it is put to
:55:30. > :55:36.people. Labour were in office for 13 years. They left to and were
:55:36. > :55:40.unpopular. That is hard to shake off in 21 months. The leader is
:55:40. > :55:47.trying to bring the party back to government in one term. No party
:55:47. > :55:52.leader has ever done that. It is a big challenge. Do people see him on
:55:52. > :56:01.the steps of Downing Street? Only time will tell. It is easier for
:56:01. > :56:09.him than William Hague and Michael Howard. He has a lot less MPs. He
:56:09. > :56:15.is up against the most elect jury of -- electorally unsuccessful
:56:15. > :56:19.Prime Minister. The attention of the media is in the dynamics of the
:56:19. > :56:24.coalition. We will see how that holds up we are back into double-
:56:24. > :56:28.dip recession. I suspect again, the economic message will be less easy
:56:28. > :56:34.for the coalition to blame Labour and said his all the fault of the
:56:34. > :56:39.Labour Party, as we get further away from 2010. It was because Nick
:56:39. > :56:44.Clegg was seen to veto in Europe. I tried to get Michael Portillo last
:56:44. > :56:54.night to tell me what this veto a man to two. I'm still waiting to
:56:54. > :56:54.
:56:54. > :57:00.hear. That made do some damage. -- amounted to. It may be wishful
:57:00. > :57:07.thinking on your part, Army at a turning point? Is the worst over
:57:07. > :57:14.Port Edgar Miliband? -- are we at a turning point? I think they have
:57:14. > :57:18.their ups and downs. If the election is in May, 2015, will Ed
:57:19. > :57:23.Miliband have had a long enough period of quiet? We talked about
:57:23. > :57:27.the intervention of David Miliband in the New Statesman yesterday.
:57:27. > :57:30.That is an important part of British politics and leadership.
:57:30. > :57:37.Nick Clegg is feeling more comfortable with his position,
:57:37. > :57:44.which we think he is, and if Ed Davey is less abrasive than Chris
:57:44. > :57:48.Huhne, what has happened - personal tragedy for Chris Huhne - may be
:57:48. > :57:53.quite good... It may smooths the dynamics of the coalition. If it is
:57:53. > :57:58.hard to see the coalition breaking up before 2015. I think it will
:57:59. > :58:03.last the course. It is not in the interests of either party to end it
:58:03. > :58:09.when the economic uncertainty is so great at the moment. How it clear
:58:09. > :58:15.they would want the economy to be improving. We will leave it there
:58:15. > :58:20.on a Daily Politics on the morning where Chris Huhne has resigned as
:58:20. > :58:25.energy secretary after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that
:58:25. > :58:30.he was to be charged over the speeding points. The Crown
:58:30. > :58:35.Prosecution Service that concluding after its investigation it would be
:58:35. > :58:38.their case against him that he did get his wife to take his speeding
:58:38. > :58:43.points and thereby not lose his licence. Chris Huhne will fight
:58:43. > :58:51.that all away. When the trial starts, you will hear it first on