Chequers Tory summit

David Cameron’s lunch party from hell has broken up. Tory colleagues he spends a lot of his life avoiding are not trundling through the Buckinghamshire landscape after a tour of the building, a good lunch and a pretty consensual chat.

The 7am Friday morning Downing Street promise that English reforms would come at the same pace as Scottish ones began the peacemaking with his own side. Some of the briefing inflamed Scottish opinion. As the dust settles we can see a little more of what is involved.

Clarity needed

Having praised the McKay proposals in earlier interviews, Tory MPs leaving Chequers today came away with the impression that their leader had got the message that they wanted something a bit more decisive than that. So instead of a vote by English MPs on English matters followed by a vote of all UK MPs (but with no power to over-ride amendments from English MPs) today’s lunch table was talking about English MPs only voting on English only matters. “Clarity” was needed for the voters, one MP said.

The inflammatory language about conditionality has been dropped, but MPs were left in no doubt that after a general election the two measures – a bill for Scotland, changes to standing orders for the English – were expected to happen at the same time.

The tour for MPs  included a mention of the “prison room” in Chequers where Lady Jane Grey was kept for some time. The lunch guests included some of David Cameron’s most acerbic critics but all are reported to have escaped with their liberty intact.