The row over pre-election access to the civil service for the SNP rumbles on in the Herald. The paper yesterday revealed that Sir Jeremy Heywood had written to the Scottish First Minister confirming David Cameron "does not want to extend the offer" of access to senior officials to discuss policy priorities "more widely".
At yesterday's lobby briefing, a Downing Street spokesperson said the offer of access only applied to "principal opposition parties", which has got the SNP's Angus Robertson up in arms. He slams the decision as "the height of hypocrisy" given that Cameron wants the smaller parties included in televised election debates.
But it's worth pointing out that Cameron authorised discussions with Labour from October 2014, while the SNP call was only made last month. As the Cabinet secretary stated in his letter, Cameron "does not want now to re-open that decision" with just under a month to go until the dissolution of Parliament. And as the Cabinet Manual does not specify what is meant by 'opposition parties', it is very much open to the PM to decide.
Interesting, PASC has already called for a firming up of the rules around pre-election access to try and stop this ambiguity. They urged formalised timings for the talks, removing the prerogative of the PM to decide when they begin, and suggested allowing access from the European and local elections onwards. The IfG, which described the rules around pre-election contact as having been "devised in a different era when departments were monolithic and hierarchical", went further, saying talks should "automatically start three and a half years after the previous general election". The government didn't agree.
Defensive maneuvers?
The Ministry of Defence's budget is in the spotlight again, with The Times reporting on a potential Conservative rebellion next week over defence spending. A "senior Whitehall insider" tells the paper the Treasury is planning to hand the MoD a "flat cash" settlement of around £36bn a year during the next Parliament.
Under the deal agreed with HMT in 2013, the MoD's equipment budget currently gets a 1% annual real-terms increase, but the rest of its budget stays flat. As Jon Thompson told the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, if the Treasury deal is not repeated, the MoD would have to "cut the equipment plan, or the people, or the estate".
Banking on a sale?
UK Financial Investments may soon have more time on its hands, if George Osborne's interview with the Financial Times is anything to go by. The Chancellor tells the paper he wants to sell the government's stake in RBS - bailed out at the height of the financial crisis - "as quickly as we can" after the general election.
While Osborne acknowledged that the size of the taxpayer's 79% stake meant it could take a long time to dispose of entirely, he told the paper: "It’s certainly something I would want to get moving on in the summer after the election. I would want to see a review on a plan for disposal."