The week in Westminster
Gordon Brown’s 10p income tax U-turn has been dominating proceedings in Westminster.
The prime minister’s humiliating U-turn on compensation for those negatively affected by the scrapping of the 10p income tax starting rate provided parliamentary theatre at its best on Wednesday.
PMQs was dominated by the news, which broke only minutes beforehand, that the prime minister had conceded to the demands of leading rebel Frank Field.
Our analysis shows how, unsurprisingly, David Cameron seized the opportunity with a withering attacking on the “pathetic” Mr Brown.
The prime minister may have tried to robustly explain how his position was not an embarrassing climbdown, but George Osborne took on the Tory attacking mantle in Thursday’s Treasury questions.
Other Westminster news
Ukip’s first MP
Former Conservative backbencher Bob Spink became Ukip’s first MP on Tuesday. Speaking two days after the news broke, Mr Spink gave politics.co.uk his no-holds-barred opinion of Mr Cameron.
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Bank rescue plan
Mr Darling appeared before the Commons to prop up Britain’s struggling banking system. He unveiled the Bank of England’s special liquidity scheme to a cautious welcome from the opposition benches.
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Govt defeated on data protection
Thursday evening saw more bad news for the government, as a Liberal Democrat amendment in the Lords on data protection narrowly scraped home.
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