Huhne issues blistering attack on Tory ‘tea party’
By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt
Chris Huhne offered a stark message to the Tory party's right-wing today, warning them against becoming a UK version of America's 'tea party' movement.
In a cleverly formulated attack, Mr Huhne argued that America's credit rating has been damaged by party-political infighting whereas Britain kept its ability to borrow money cheaply because of cooperation between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.
"The danger if you don't compromise is now clear from America," Mr Huhne told the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham.
"There the markets looked over the brink when the mad-cap Republican right in Congress would not compromise with the President.
"Let that be a warning to the Conservative right here: we need no tea party tendency in Britain," he continued.
"If you fail to compromise, if you fail to seek the common ground that unites us, if you insist that only you have the answers, if you keep beating the anti-European drum, if you slaver over tax cuts for the rich, then you will put in peril the most crucial achievement of this government."
By connecting Conservative backbencher's irritation with coalition to fiscal irresponsibility, Mr Huhne's attack linked their greatest exasperation to their most highly-prized political goal.
Conservative MP and secretary of the influential 1922 Committee Mark Pritchard rebuked to the energy secretary in a statement seemed to mock his leadership ambitions.
"After the next election, I suspect many senior Lib Dems will find time on their hands to hold their very own tea parties, drinking expensive yellow tea, a favourite of the Imperial Court," he said.
"By then, Tim Farron, more of a Tetley Tea man, would have been elected the new Lib Dem leader."
The Huhne speech will confirm to parliament observers that relations between the former leadership contender and his Conservative colleagues were irreparably damaged by the AV referendum, when he broke ranks to publicly criticise Tory ministers for their strategy.
"I for one thought that the vilification of Nick was appalling," he said of the Conservative 'no to AV' campaign today.
The energy secretary, who used to be an MEP, also expressed irritation with eurosceptics on the Tory benches.
"The European Union is key to our prosperity. The Eurozone takes nearly half our exports," he said.
"Being part of Europe is not a political choice. It is a geographical reality.
"It always was. And until the tectonic plates break up, it always will be," he added.
"We will not, as Liberal Democrats in government, weaken the ties that deliver our national interest through Europe."
The 'tea party' movement in the US is a loosely-knit collection of individuals who want radically reduced government taxes and only a bare minimum of government spending.
In European terms it would be considered politically toxic, but across the Atlantic the movement dragged the Republican party to the right and served to almost scupper talks in Washington on the debt ceiling – an event Standard and Poor's cited when reducing the country's credit rating.
