Politics News and Discussion

The former defence secretary Liam Fox has revealed that he hopes to return to government after taking “personal responsibility” for his mistakes.

In his first interview since resigning earlier this month, the North Somerset MP told BBC Radio Bristol that sitting on the backbenches would be interesting because he would be “freer to say what I want”.

But Fox made it clear that he does not believe the damage to his political career will prove fatal.

“I would certainly like to get back to the frontbench – how quickly is another matter and, for the moment, I will enjoy having a little bit of extra time,” he said.

“There are one or two projects that I want to get involved in on the charitable side, and to devote some time to things that I have wanted to do and been unable to.”

But Downing Street appeared to play down speculation of a Fox return to government. A spokeswoman said: “It is perhaps unsurprising that he has aspirations to return to the frontbench. He did good work while he was defence secretary, but he resigned only a few days ago.”

Fox quit after revelations about his links to close friend Adam Werritty and prior to the publication of a report from the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, which found he had breached the ministerial code.

The report revealed that Fox had blocked civil servants from attending key meetings alongside Werritty, had failed to tell his permanent secretary that he had solicited funds to bankroll Werritty, and had ignored private office requests to distance himself from him.

Asked about the events that led to his resignation, Fox said he had taken responsibility for what had happened.

He admitted it had been a mistake to meet a defence supplier in Dubai without a Ministry of Defence official present, even though someone from his private office had offered to attend.

“We were sitting in a coffee lounge in a hotel – it was hardly a high-security meeting,” he said.

“But nonetheless, given this was a potential defence supplier – not, as it turns out, an actual defence supplier – it still should have had somebody there. It’s very easy to be careless, but you pay a price for it.”

And he acknowledged that allowing Werritty, whom he met 40 times in the MoD and on trips abroad, to function as an independent adviser was a breach of the ministerial code, saying: “I should have kept a better separation there – with hindsight, it seems easy.”

He added: “You should be able to be at the highest level of government and say you have made a mistake.

“I take responsibility for it and I have always been very keen, all my political life, that people should shoulder personal responsibility. That is key to a decent society. If you say it, you should also be able to do it.”

Fox reiterated his criticism of elements of the media coverage of his situation, which he said had been “quite disconcerting” and had made it difficult for him to do his ministerial job.

“One of my nephews, who is aged 14, was being doorstepped – and that was unacceptable,” he said. “I do think that we need to understand that we have to have a free press … but a free press doesn’t mean the press can do what they want.”

He said he felt there was no rumour or innuendo that had not been written about him, but stressed he was only going to comment on “substantive issues”, explaining: “Gossip is for gossipers.”

He defended his practice of arranging “downtime” with Werritty and other friends during official visits overseas, saying: “I would finish ministerial work and then we would very regularly, in places like Dubai, meet up with friends in the region. So there wasn’t any lack of separation between ministerial and private time.

“Some of this coverage, you would think ministers weren’t allowed to have private time which is, of course, absurd.”

Asked whether he had embarrassed the government, Fox said: “Under this government, ministers make a mistake, ministers admit a mistake and ministers resign. That is quite different from clinging to office at all cost, which was what we saw under the previous government.”

Jim Murphy, shadow defence secretary, said important questions relating to Werritty remain “unanswered”.

“There’s no-one to blame for Liam Fox’s downfall but Liam Fox,” said Muprhy.

“There remain many unanswered questions about this murky business. Before this case can be considered closed the government must reveal the full facts.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/31/liam-fox-hopes-return-government

2.02pm: ConservativeHome has an important poll of Conservative members today. It suggests that, on the issue of Europe, there is a massive gap between David Cameron and the Tory grassroots.

The obvious split is on whether or not there should be a referendum. Some 77% of respondents said there should be one, and 75% said they backed the Tory MPs who defied the whip on this issue last week.

But another figure is perhaps even more worrying for Cameron. Cameron has suggested that he does want a major renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU, but that he does not want to demand one during the treaty change that will take place soon because the eurozone needs to change its rules. But 92% of those surveyed said Cameron should block the proposed eurozone treaty change unless it is accompanied by a wider renegotiation over the repatriation of powers to Britain.

1.10pm: Here’s a lunchtime summary.

• Nick Clegg has published a list of projects that will receive funding from a £950m payout from the regional growth fund today. The Department for Business said that around 37,000 jobs will be directly created or safeguarded as a result of these investments, and that more than 164,000 in the supply chain will be created or protected. That adds up to 201,000 jobs. On the Today programme this morning Clegg said 325,000 jobs would be created or safeguarded, but he may have been referring to all regional growth fund grants, not just the ones being announced today.

• Ed Miliband has said that Britain is in the midst of an economic “perfect storm”. In a speech this morning he said that in his Labour conference speech he warned about the need for “profound change” in the economy.

Since then, we have seen the perfect storm of events showing what I was talking about: unemployment and inflation both on the rise; the energy companies making record profits on each customer; top pay out of control, while the middle get squeezed

Every day that goes by and the government sticks doggedly to its course is another day when people up and down the country are suffering.

We have an argument with the government about what they are doing now in the British economy.

But the questions we face as a country go deeper than that. How do we tackle the squeeze on living standards in the middle, the gross inequality between those at the top and everyone else, the sense that we were too exposed as an economy before the financial crisis?

• David Cameron has announced plans to use league tables and the threat of takeover by a rival authority to get councils to increase the number of children put up for adoption. “It is shocking that of the 3,600 children under the age of one in care, only sixty were adopted last year – this is clearly not good enough,” he said. (See 9.43am.)

• Clegg has suggested that the EU treaty changes demanded by Tory Eurosceptics would damage Britain because they would leave it isolated. In an interview on the Today programme, he said that he supported calls for EU reform and for the repatriation of certain powers. But he signalled his opposition to a big treaty change. “We should not tie ourselves up in knots having arcane debates about article this or article that about a treaty that may or may not change when we have an urgent overriding national priority to promote jobs and growth,” he said. (See 8.31am.)

• Liam Fox has said that he would like to return to the frontbench. In an interview with BBC Radio Bristol he said: “I would certainly like to get back to the frontbench – how quickly is another matter and, for the moment, I will enjoy having a little bit of extra time.” Downing Street suggested he may have to wait quite some time. “It is perhaps unsurprising that he has aspirations to return to the front bench,” a spokeswoman for the prime minister said. “He did good work while he was defence secretary. But he resigned only a few days ago.”

• The Department for Energy has announced plans to halve subsidies for household solar energy. As the Press Association reports, the widely-expected cut, which ministers say is necessary to make small-scale renewable subsidies sustainable but which the industry warns could seriously damage growth and jobs, would come in for panels installed from December 12. Bigger schemes would also see their rates reduced under the changes to the feed-in tariffs programme, which pays people for the electricity they generate from small-scale renewable technology.

• Natascha Engel, the Labour MP who chairs the backbench business committee, has hinted that there will be a Commons debate on cutting fuel prices. More than 100,000 people have already signed an e-petition on this issue. Speaking on the Daily Politics show, Engel said: “This is such an important issue. I represent a rural constituency as this is one of my number one postbag issues. I would say that it has a very, very high chance of being debated.”

• The Office for National Statistics has confirmed that poorer families pay more in VAT as a proportion of their disposable income than richer families. Owen Smith, a shadow Treasury minister, said: “This independent report confirms what Labour has always argued but which out of touch ministers continue to deny: VAT is a regressive tax which hits the poorest harder than the richest.” (See 10.18am.)

• Ken Livingstone has criticised Boris Johnson’s handling of the protests at St Paul’s. Labour’s candidate for mayor put out a statement.

This has been a peaceful protest, and it should be approached on that basis. City Hall has a duty to accommodate those who wish to protest in London and ensure their safety whilst ensuring the London does not grind to a halt …

The mayor of London’s office has wildly misjudged this issue, making the Occupy movement the enemy but failing to act on public concerns about jobs and growth. Conservative London actually stands for more unfairness, demanding a lower top rate of tax for the richest. That’s not surprising in a city where the mayor meets bankers more than the police.

The City must give more back to the wider London community that hosts it. Demands for charitable donations from bankers are inadequate. They have not addressed London’s deep inequalities and the need to get a balanced economy.

• Lord Sugar has urged politicians to embrace social media. He made his comments in a post on the Lords of the Blog website.

I know many politicians, across all parties have taken up the challenge of using social media to communicate their work very well, with Labour Leader Ed Miliband topping the number of followers for any UK politician at over 100,000 but none of them have reached the numbers that I or Sarah Brown or even Piers Morgan have – showing there is still more work to do.

• The Commons procedure committee has said in a report that there should be a debate in the Commons on whether or not MPs should be allowed to vote in secret on keeping the Speaker in post at the start of a new parliament. Under the current procedure the Commons normally agrees unanimously to let the Speaker stay on and, if any MP forces a division, the Commons votes openly in the normal way. The committee says a secret ballot would allow MPs to register a protest vote “without fear of the impact that would have on their chance to be called to speak in the future” and that MPs should vote before 2015 on whether to change the rules. A vote in favour of secret ballots would be seen as a threat to John Bercow, who is unpopular with some MPs.

12.25pm: Nick Clegg has visited the Sheffield Forgemasters plant to mark the fact that it will be getting money from the regional growth fund. (See 12.12pm.)

Sheffield Forgemasters, which is getting money from the regional growth fund. Photograph: John Giles/PA

The government’s decision to cancel to Sheffield Forgemasters loan last year apparently had a terrible impact on Clegg’s popularity in the city, where he is one of the local MPs. This is what he said about it this morning.

Last year we came into government and the outgoing Labour government wrote a little note – the chief secretary to the Treasury – saying there is no money. We had to take some incredibly difficult decisions and we’d inherited a decision from Labour for a loan to Forgemasters which in that context immediately after the general election was judged to be unaffordable. We also said we would provide more support to Forgemasters as we got on top of the chaos in Labour’s finances and as we straightened things out.

What we did was I oversaw the creation of a big pot of money – £1.4 billion – for companies like Forgemasters … Forgemasters is an absolutely brilliant example of how you can get behind a successful company so that they, not politicians, not bureaucrats, not a government department, so they create the jobs of the future.

12.23pm: Mortgage lending is going down, according to figures from the Bank of England. Here’s the top of the Press Association story about this.

The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases fell in September for the first time in six months, according to official figures released today.
Loan approvals decreased 2.6% to just under 51,000 between August and September, in its first fall since April, figures from the Bank of England showed.
Meanwhile, the amount people borrowed on credit cards rose by £200 million, after falling slightly the previous month.
Economists said the lending trends were evidence of the pain being felt by consumers as wages fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

12.12pm: Here’s the full list of projects that will get money from the regional growth fund as part of the £950m investment being announced today. One of the firms on the list is Sheffield Forgemasters, which controversially had a government loan cancelled soon after the coalition was formed.

And here’s an excerpt from the Department for Business’s news release about the announcement.

[The regional growth fund] will support 119 bids from businesses and local partnerships with projects to expand their operations, create new jobs and attract private investment. Discussions are ongoing with a further 10 bidders about their projects.

Of the 201,000 jobs created or protected, around 37,000 will be directly created jobs, and more than 164,000 will be in the supply chain. The government investment will support nearly £6 billion of private investment secured by the successful projects.

11.37am: What did we learn at the 11am lobby? Here’s a summary.

• Downing Street said the number of ministers in government was determined “by need”. Today the Commons public administration committee has published a report criticising the government for refusing to accept that the number of ministers in government should be cut. In response, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said the government had already “acted decisively” to reduce the cost of ministers by cutting their salaries by 5%. On numbers she said: “The number of ministers should be decided by need.”

• Downing Street said parliamentary protocol was responsible for the fact that, as revealed by the Guardian today, ministers have to get permission from the Prince of Wales if they want to pass legislation affecting the Duchy of Cornwall or some of his other private interests. The prime minister’s spokeswoman read out the relevant passage in Erskine May describing the arrangement. Asked if David Cameron had any plans to reform this process, she said she was not aware of any.

• The prime minister’s spokeswoman sidestepped questions about whether today’s ONS report about VAT (see 10.18am) undermined the government’s claim that austerity measures were being imposed fairly. She said that “difficult decisions” had to be taken and she outlined a number of measures the government is taking to help poor families, such as taking low earners out of income tax.

• Downing Street played down the prospects of Liam Fox returning to cabinet any time soon. Fox has said this morning that he would like to make a comeback. (See 9.32am.) But, when asked about this, the prime minister’s spokeswoman replied: “He did only resign a few days ago.”

• The prime minister’s spoksewoman said the OECD’s decision to downgrade its eurozone growth forecast today “reflects the ongoing uncertainty in the global economy”.

• Cameron spent £10 on his poppy this morning.

11.36am: There’s not much to report from the lobby. But, having walked all the way over to the briefing and back, I’ll report it anyway. Full summary coming up in a moment.

10.45am: You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here.

As for the rest of the papers, I’ve already mentioned David Cameron’s interview in the Times on adoption. Here are some other stories that are interesting.

• David Cameron tells the Financial Times (subscription) in an article that politicians should stop talking down the economy.

David Cameron has urged colleagues to stop talking down the economy as he tries to drown out a growing chorus of doomsayers with a resolutely upbeat assessment of the nation’s prospects.

The prime minister, writing in the Financial Times before what are expected to be gloomy quarterly growth figures, said it was important to remain optimistic.

“Above all, at home and abroad, we must counsel against the pessimism and fear that can become self-fulfilling prophecies in global markets,” Mr Cameron writes.

“Whatever the obstacles to growth today, we still boast some of the best universities in the world, the most favourable timezone in the world, and the world’s first language. I passionately believe that the global economy is presenting us with opportunities, not threats – and we must seize them.”

• Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, the government’s spy listening centre, tells the Times (paywall) in an article that cyber attacks on the government, the public and industry have reached “disturbing” levels.

Iain Lobban, who runs the Government’s listening centre, GCHQ, writes in an article in The Times today that the situation is so serious that the “UK’s continued economic wellbeing” is under threat.

He reveals a “significant” attack on computer systems at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the summer as well as attempts to steal information from defence contractors. His disclosure comes as the Government admits that officials are tackling an “exponential rise” in the number of incidents, with systems such as the welfare and tax databases “liable to attack”.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has revealed that the details of credit card users are being traded on illegal websites for as little as 70p.

In one foiled operation it was discovered that a million stolen identities were being circulated. “Before the First World War a new type of battleship came out every ten years or so, but in this race new techniques are adopted every day,” Mr Hague said.

• Jason Groves and Tim Shipman in the Daily Mail say Cameron is under pressure to slap down Nick Clegg over Europe.

Tory Peter Bone even suggested Mr Clegg should be sacked over his comments.

He said: ‘I don’t understand how the Deputy Prime Minister even remains in his post tonight when his comments implicitly criticise the Prime Minister.

‘The Prime Minister wants powers back from Europe. Yet it seems to be Mr Clegg and a few Lib Dems dictating policy – it is outrageous. ‘

Tory MP Julian Lewis added: ‘I am a conservative Conservative: if I had wanted to be a Liberal, I would have joined the Liberal Democrat party, and if the country had wanted the Liberals to be having as much influence as they have got, they’d have voted for them in rather larger numbers.’

• Nigel Morris in the Independent says Labour will abandon its support for a third runway at Heathrow.

The Labour leader Ed Miliband had opposed its construction when he was in Government, but failed to persuade Gordon Brown to drop the party’s commitment to expand Britain’s largest airport.

Maria Eagle, the shadow Transport Secretary, will confirm the move today in a speech to the Airport Operators Association, saying that “the local environmental impact means this is off the agenda”.

Ms Eagle will challenge ministers to take the politics out of aviation by working on a cross-party consensus on the issue.

I’m off to the Number 10 lobby briefing now. I’ll post again after 11.30am.

10.18am: The government’s decision to put VAT up to 20% was particularly controversial because, in proportional terms, VAT hits poorer families harder than richer families. But the exact nature of this impact is subject to debate. Today the Office for National Statistics has published a paper (pdf) that sheds some light on the issue. It says poorer families do pay more in VAT as a proportion of their disposable income than richer families partly because spending patterns have changed over the last 15 years. Here’s an extract from the news release.

Research published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) examines the relationship between the equivalised disposable income of the richest and poorest UK households and the VAT spent by those households. Overall, the data shows the poorest fifth of households in the UK pay more in VAT as a percentage of their disposable income than the richest fifth.

However, the analysis highlights changing spending patterns. Poorer households in 1986 spent a smaller proportion of their expenditure, than poorer households in 2009/10, on discretionary items which attracted VAT. For example, after taking into account changes in prices, the poorest fifth of households spent, on average, around 250 per cent more on new cars, holidays abroad, meals out, audio/visual goods (including TVs) and photographic equipment combined in 2009/10 than in 1986. This is compared with an increase of 20 per cent for the richest households.

The analysis reveals that in 1986, the poorest fifth of households spent 55 per cent of their weekly expenditure on non-VATable items, compared with 45 per cent on VATable items. However, in 2001/02, this pattern had reversed. The poorest fifth of households spent, on average, 42 per cent on items which did not have any VAT levy compared with 58 per cent on items which did.

9.43am: David Cameron has published details of his adoption inititative on the Number 10 website. And here’s the Guardian story explaining his plans to ensure that councils will have their adoption responsibilities taken over by another authority if they fail to meet certain standards.

David Cameron. Photograph: Tony Ashby/AP

Here’s the key quote from Cameron’s Number 10 statement.

It is shocking that of the 3,600 children under the age of one in care, only sixty were adopted last year – this is clearly not good enough. So we will publish data on how every local authority is performing to ensure they are working quickly enough to provide the safe and secure family environment every child deserves.

He’s also given an interview to the Times (paywall) on this subject because the Times has been campaigning for adoption to be made easier. Interestingly, in his interview Cameron says judges are partly to blame for children being left in care homes when it would be better for them to be adopted.

Figures for court cases are chilling. Some judges are looking for evidential standards that just don’t exist. That is certainly the story I get anecdotally. The judge has a huge responsibility, but endless calls for more information and more reports to try and close off every avenue of concern means the longer children are left in care, the worse the outcomes get. I know it is a cliché, but don’t let the best be the enemy of the good.

There is an element of judgment that is required. We’ve got to give people the sense of discretion and judgment, rather than thinking you can reduce to percentage zero any risk.

(His comment about judges looking for “evidential standards that just don’t exist” sounds slightly similar to the comment about the Hillsborough relatives that got him into trouble last week.)

9.32am: Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, has given an interview to Radio Bristol. According to PoliticsHome, he said that he would be working on charitable projects, but he also made it clear that he wanted to return to the frontbench.

I would certainly like to get back to the front bench. How quickly is another matter, and for the moment I will enjoy having a little bit of extra time. There are one or two projects that I want to get involved in on the charitable side, and to devote some time to things that I have wanted to do and been unable to.

He also repeated the attack he launched on some parts of the press in his resignation statement in the Commons. Journalists were not free to do what they liked, he said.

Relatives are phoning up because they are upset – even to the point where one of my nephews who is 14 was being doorstepped and that was unacceptable.

I’ve been told by a colleague that the full interview is being played on BBC Bristol at 10am.

8.31am: Are we any clearer about Nick Clegg‘s views on Europe after his Today interview? Having listened to the tape again, and transcribed the key quotes, the answer is – a bit.

Nick Clegg. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

Clegg said that he was in favour of the repatriation of some EU powers to the UK. (Although he did not use the term “repatriation”. The Lib Dems prefer to talk about “rebalancing”.) But he insisted that the government was doing this already and that the it did not require a big treaty renegotiation. And he also insisted that anything that left Britain isolated in Europe would be very damaging to Britain’s economic interests.

Here are the key points.

• Clegg said that isolation in Europe would be very damaging to Britain.

I’m strongly in favour of reform of the European Union. Reform yes, isolation no. Why? Because isolation cost people’s livelihoods. People need to be careful what they wish for.

This was because membership of the EU was good for Britain economically, he said.

I don’t support the European Union and Britain’s role in it for its own sake. I think it’s absolutely essential for jobs and growth in this country. There are 3m of our fellow citizens whose jobs rely directly on our participation and role and place in what is, after all, the world’s largest borderless single market.

• He said that he was in favour of some EU powers being returned to member states.

I for years have thought the common fisheries policy is far too centralised. We should have greater regional variation on that. Some of the detailed directives are far too fiddly.

• He played down the need for a big renegotiation of the EU treaties.

You can argue for reform every day of the week. You don’t need to wait for some great treaty change that may or may not happen.

He said that, in response to British pressure, the EU had already agreed a blueprint for reform of the common fisheries policy. And he said that he had personally been involved in another EU initiative to cut red tape.

I assembled a number of trade ministers from a range of European Union countries together in a meeting in London recently and we’ve actually succeeded to get a commitment to reduce European red tape and to get agreement, for instance, for something that we’ve been campaigning for as a country for years, which patent protection for British companies within the European single market.

• He claimed that the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives agreed on the need to extend the single market within the EU.

Of course Liberal Democrats and Conservatives come at this from different directions … Where we actually are united is that what we must do is defend British national interests and promote the kind of open, liberal European economy without which we will not get growth and we will not create jobs in this country.

• He claimed that getting obsessed with “arcane” treaty changes would damage the national interest. He actually used the word “arcane” twice.

We should not tie ourselves up in knots having arcane debates about article this or article that about a treaty that may or may not change when we have an urgent overriding national priority to promote jobs and growth. And we do that by being in the centre of the argument, not out on the fringes of the argument in Europe …

Where [the Lib Dems and the Conservatives] actually are united is that what we must do is defend British national interests and promote the kind of open, liberal European economy without which we will not get growth and we will not create jobs in this country. If instead we rush headlong down a cul-de-sac of increasingly arcane, legalistic arguments about changes to treaties that may or may not be open to renegotiation in the future – because, let’s remember, that is in large part dependent also on what other countries in the European Union thinks – then I think that would be a form of displacement activity from our overriding national duty, which we all share in government, whatever our views on Europe, which is a simple, common sense belief we’ve got to get the best out of the European Union, not seek to get out of the European Union.

In this second passage Clegg was making a point about the Lib Dems and the Conservatives being united. But actually, in the next sentence, he went on to highlight the key area where they differ. David Cameron has been hinting to his MPs that he wants a big, Lisbon-style treaty renegotiation (although not now) because it would give Britain the chance to repatriate powers from the EU. Clegg’s comments suggest that he is not in favour of such a renegotiation at any point in the future.

• Clegg said that the regional growth fund would create or safeguard 325,000 jobs. For every pound invested by the government, the private sector would invest another £6, he claimed.

8.24am: The interview’s over. And I’m not sure that we learnt a great deal about the splits between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats over Europe, partly because he was attacking people demanding “arcane” changes to the EU treaties while at the same time saying that he was in favour of the repatriation of powers in certain areas, such at the common fisheries policy. (And if the common fisheries policy isn’t arcane, I don’t know what is.) I’ll post a full summary in a moment.

8.20am: Naughtie is still asking about Europe.

Q: But what do you do about the fact that coalition backbenchers do not accept what you are saying about Europe?

Clegg says “of course Liberal Democrats and Conservatives come at this from different directions”. But the government must defend the open economy.

He again says it would be a mistake to get into “arcane” arguments about particular directives. That would be a form of displacement activity, he says.

Q: And you think the government could end up like the Major government?

Clegg says Britain has always been best when it has been “an open, trading economy”.

8.14am: Clegg says the government is trying to “rewire” the economy so it is less reliant on the City.

Q: But the money for this is coming from the local government budget. Do you accept that you have less money?

Clegg says Liam Byrne, Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, actually himself said there was no money left.

Manufacturing is “the lifeblood of the British economy”, he says.

Naughtie turns to Europe. Clegg says he expected him to ask about this. Naughtie says it’s relevant to growth. In his Observer article, Clegg said moving away from Europe would be economic suicide.

Q: The Tories want a relationship with Europe that would, in your terms, leave Britain marginalised. And they have a large chunk of public opinion on their side.

Clegg says 3m jobs depend on the EU. He is strongly in favour of reform of the EU.

I’m in favour of reform, yes. Isolation, no.

If you move to the margins of Europe, that will hit jobs.

Q: Coalition backbenchers want powers clawed back. How far can you go in doing that, without producing isolation?

Clegg says you can argue for reform every day of the week.

He thinks the common fisheries policy is too centralised. There should be more regional variation. It is being reformed, he says.

Some directives go too far, he says. He recently secured an agreement to cut red tape.

Clegg says it would be wrong to have arcane debates about particular directives.

8.10am: The Nick Clegg interview is starting. Jim Naughtie is asking the questions.

Naughtie quotes the Observer article. But he starts with growth.

Q: What effect will the regional growth fund money have?

Clegg says parts of the country were over-reliant on public money from Whitehall. The government is trying to invest public money into companies “that create jobs that last”. Every pound invested by the fund will attract about £6 of private money. It should safeguard or create 325,000 jobs, he says.

Q: Businesses are saying it has taken too long for the money to come through.

Clegg says some regional development agencies did good work. Others had a more patchy record.

Companies have already started investing on the basis that the money will be coming through. This has happened in more than half of the cases where companies are getting money from the fund, he says.

8.06am: Nick Clegg will be on the Today programme at 8.10am. Today he’s announcing which firms will benefit from the regional growth fund, but he’s also bound to be asked about Europe. In the light of his article in the Observer on the subject yesterday, the Daily Mirror is now claiming that he’s at war with David Cameron on the issue.

Cameron himself is launching national adoption week with a proposal to take action against firms that do not arrange adoptions quickly. Ed Miliband is giving a speech on the economy. And Eric Pickles is announcing changes to the council tax regime. I have not got times for these events yet, but I know Justine Greening, the new transport secretary, is speaking at an aviation conference. at 10.30am.

As usual, I’ll be be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm.