Gerri Peev: Green baits Jacqui

IF the Home Secretary returns to her constituency home to find a horses' head in her bed, she can rest assured that it won't be some cable-inspired fetish of her husband's for once.

The phrase employed by Damian Green could hold some clues to this.

Green, the shadow immigration minister who was cuffed and fingerprinted last November over his role in publicising Home Office leaks, has been cleared of any conspiracy by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

After having his home and parliamentary office turned over, he is still - understandably - a little angry.

Smith should beware. At a briefing of Lobby hacks, Green was asked where he thought responsibility for the misguided police probe lay. Sporting a Camorra-esque glint in his eye, he said: "I prescribe to the old Italian proverb - fish stink from the head down."

The government is not off the hook on this one.

Hamish Macdonell - Pressure on Smith

IF the old adage hat bookmakers never lose money is true, than maybe Home Secretary Jacqui Smith should start packing up in both her houses.
According to William Hill, Jacqui Smith is now odds-on to cease to be Home Secretary during 2009. Hills now offer 4/6 that she will leave office THIS year - and 11/10 that she is still Home Secretary on January 1, 2010.
And Hills have also made her odds-on to lose her seat in Redditch at the next General Election - making her 11/8 to retain the seat, with the Tories 8/15 to win it.
'Ms Smith's travails refuse to go away and she now risks embarrassing the Government, which has plenty of other controversies to deal with. Gordon Brfown may well feel that he needs to resolve the issue and that he can best do so by dumping her' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.
The Conservatives are now 1/7 favourites to win the next General Election with Labour 4/1 - respectively the shortest and longest odds they have been since Margaret Thatcher was in power.
ends

Ross Lydall: Home Sweet Home Secretary as Swinson fails to deliver

So, did Jo Swinson come up with the goods? Alas not. Rather than daring to quiz Jacqui Smith on her expenses (see previous post), Ms Swinson tried to open up a new flank on alleged wrongdoings in the House of Lords.

Last week, her Lib-Dem chum Chris Huhne (the party's Home Affairs spokesman) wrote to the Met police to ask it to investigate whether there were grounds to press bribery charges against four peers named in a second round of allegations in the Sunday Times "cash for amendments" row.

So, for that reason, Ms Swinson asked Ms Smith: "Will she tell the House what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues and the police about whether the police currently have adequate powers to investigate Members of either House of Parliament who are suspected of the common law offence of bribery?"

A relieved Ms Smith quickly replied: "No, I have not had any discussions with police colleagues about that." End of story. Ms Swinson may not get such a good chance of doing some political point-scoring for quite some time.

Ross Lydall: David Cameron's non-answer on an independence referendum

A few interesting lines from David Cameron's monthly press conference, which was held this morning. He wants the bankers to "wake up and smell the coffee" with regard to bonuses, and understand that they wouldn't be in jobs - never mind thinking about how to spend their bonuses - if it wasn't for taxpayer support.

However he focused his wrath on top executives - saying he had no wish to deprive the "woman who runs the branch at Auchtermuchty" from receiving a top-up to her basic wage.
Any bonuses that are issued should not be in cash but in shares that could only be redeemed when any taxpayer-funded loans are repaid, he added.

He dodged yet another question about suspicions that Tory donor Lord Ashcroft remains a tax exile: "Someone's tax status is a matter between them and the Inland Revenue."
However he did indicate support for Lib-Dem peer Lord Oakeshott's private member's bill that is currently proceeding through Parliament, which would ban donations from donors not registered in the UK for tax: "I think that is not a bad idea. I'm very happy to see that bill progress."

And he did just enough to increase the pressure on Jacqui Smith when he declared that "she may have some questions to answer" over her decision to claim up to £24,006 a year in parliamentary allowances by living with her sister in south London rather than a "grace and favour" property normally used by the Home Secretary.

Finally, one for the conspiracy theorists. Asked whether, if he became Prime Minister, he would consider an early referendum on Scottish independence to "shoot the SNP's fox", Mr Cameron steered clear of repeating the R-word.

Instead, in reply to the question, (from Conservative Home's Jonathan Isaby) he pledged to "do whatever it takes" to maintain the Union (note the irony in the number of Scottish seats he expects to win).

For completeness, here's what Mr Cameron said: "If we win the election and if, by some miracle, we don't have 25 seats in Scotland and have slightly fewer, then I would be a Prime Minister who would want to govern in the interests of everyone in Scotland.
"I would recognise the shortage of mandate, if you like, in Scotland by getting straight up there and meeting the First Minister and saying, look, anyone who wants to try to work with me, I will work with them. I will make sure my ministers go to Holyrood and listen to committees there. Likewise, Scottish ministers should come to Westminster and engage with the committees here.
"I would do whatever it takes to govern in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom and to try to make sure, that over time, that we can strengthen that United Kingdom. I would be prepared to consider anything to enable us to do that."