Parliamentary Update

Brexit… There is a growing sense of palpable frustration within Government circles at the continued dominance of Brexit. Many somewhat naively thought that the referendum would settle the question, allowing politics to return to something approaching business as usual. Under such circumstances, the BEIS Secretary would be able to toddle off to Parliament, announce his flagship Industrial Strategy Consultation and successfully secure the kind of column inches that would make even the most reputable PR firm proud. Alas, such halcyon days are long gone and we live in a world where, no matter how substantial the document or far reaching the policy may be, nothing is quite big enough to topple Brexit off the top of the news agenda.

It’s particularly frustrating for those in Government circles given the verdict of the Supreme Court was both entirely predictable and almost certainly irrelevant. Nobody in Government seriously believed that prerogative powers would be sufficient to trigger Article 50…especially those who’d just spent decades or more proclaiming the importance of the sovereignty of parliament. I’m sure the requisite legislation to trigger Article 50 is already drafted and that it will be before the House by time this hits your inbox. Of far more interest however was the Supreme Court’s decision to use the legal judgement to comment on the scope of devolution. Whilst recognising the importance of the devolution process, the Supreme Court made it clear that Parliament continues to hold full powers, even in policy areas that have been devolved. In other words, what Parliament has giveth, Parliament can taketh away. In many respects, this commentary merely reaffirmed what many already knew…However, at a time when the First Minister has been threatening to dust down the independence campaign literature for another spin around the block, one suspects at least a handful of the 50 amendments the SNP claims to have ready to go when the A50 legislation is presented will seek clarity on precisely what the powers of Holyrood are!

Social Care Regular readers will know social care has long been flagged as one of the key domestic battlegrounds facing the Government. Surrey County Council has upped the ante by indicating its intention to put a 15% council tax increase to a referendum of its people. At this point an interest needs to be declared. Your humble author is one of the most humblest residents of Surrey. The decision will doubt be watched with interest by other councils seeking to make the sums add up and there is unquestionably a serious challenge that needs to be met in the delivery of social care. At PMQs, Mrs May remarked that additional funding is not the only way to tackle the problem. She’s right. But the decision of Surrey to seek extra funds does put the Government in a sticky spot given it’s a Conservative run council. Surrey parliamentarians Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove and Phillip Hammond unquestionably occupy the stickiest spots. Expect the “it’s up to the people of Surrey” line to be deployed with increasingly frequent regularity in the coming weeks. It’s when they deviate from that position that the fireworks begin.