Postpublished at 16:27 GMT 15 December
Iain Watson
Political correspondent
The prime minister is usually
well-prepared for the liaison committees, which in truth rarely turn
the heat on him.
But the political temperature
was raised by one of his own MPs – Cat Smith.
Representing a partly rural
constituency in Lancashire, she tore in to the imposition of inheritance tax
when farms are passed on from next April.
She said he had pulled “the
rug from under family farms”; that those who had voted Labour felt “misled” and
some farmers with terminal diagnoses were trying to “expedite” their own deaths
so they could pass on their farms before April.
She said the PM had “admirably” changed course on other issues (think winter fuel and welfare) and
asked him to think again.
Although he appeared
uncomfortable her questioning – and similar criticism from the Lib Dem MP
Alistair Carmichael – he defended the policy and didn’t signal a U-turn.
More predictably when asked
by the Conservative MP Simon Hoare how gutted he was at the resident doctors’
strike on a scale of one to 10, he agreed it was “10 out of 10”.
He asserted that the BMA were
losing the support of other health workers and the wider public.
Perhaps one of his more
telling responses was to the committee chair Dame Meg Hillier who asked if
there had been enough preparation for government.
He expressed his “frustration” and that he had encountered “a thicket of reasons why you can’t
do something”.
He bemoaned too many “consultations, regulations, arms-length bodies” which will slowing down his
plan for change.
Given his own and his party’s
far-from-stellar standing in the polls, it would appear his frustration is
shared by a significant section of the electorate.
