The Sunday Telegraph leads with an exclusive inside look at the forthcoming Queen’s Speech.
The paper clearly underlines that it is looking at a genuine late draft, and not some pritt stick album combining snippets from last month’s manifestos. That means someone either left a copy of a highly sensitive (probably market sensitive, possibly even officially classified) document on a photocopier outside of Whitehall.
Alternatively, and far more likely, someone high up in Government thought up the idea to leak it; someone near the very top authorised it; and someone senior passed the document on.
Whenever the Labour Government leaked plans, Conservative Shadows created a furore. Theresa May as Shadow Leader of the House was just one of many, now in ministerial positions, who were justifiably livid whenever Labour spin doctors briefed the press before Parliament was told.
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If this is indeed a leak, sanctioned at the highest level, it just confirms prejudices many ordinary voters will have about one politician or political party being as bad as another. So much for a new broom for politics.
It will also confirm suspicions that the Conservative upper echelons do not take Parliament seriously, but consider the democratic institution to be nothing more than a nuisance. First the 55% rule; then the 1922 Committee; and now this.
Bad precedent does not justify the continuation of a bad action. The Speaker would be bang within his rights to summon a very senior Tory to the Despatch Box on Monday to make an emergency statement on this leak. If that is what it takes to forestall an odious practice from expanding under the Conservatives, so be it.
