Issues of bribery and corruption scandals led to all-time low in Parliament and the main parties
“Many used the cash for influence scandal as an argument for the corruption of the Commonwealth system, but under the old system you could have seen un-elected lords taking personal payments. Whilst the acceptance of party political donations for influence is corrupt and deplorable, the kind of mass personal corruption we see in other western countries would be near impossible to pull off the Commonwealth.” - Frequently Asked Questions in Anti-Bribery and Corruption, David Lawler, (2012)
The “Cash for Influence” scandal was yet another corruption scandal within the Commonwealth, however instead of affecting Labour like the expenses scandal had, the coalition was at the receiving end of the scandal. Taguri’s confession resignation over a £6,000 donation was just the tip of the iceberg, senior Conservative aides Peter Cruddas and Sarah Southern were caught attempting to circumvent the Commonwealth’s strict donation rules, offering access to Michael Howard and George Osborne for as much as £100,000. The most high profile scandal involved David Laws, who was recorded boasting he could influence Government policy, in return for £2,000 a day donations.
With the departure of David Laws, the coalition had lost one of its strongest defenders
Eager to get ahead of the narrative Davey immediately fired Laws from the cabinet and suspended him from the party, replacing him instead with his ally Danny Alexander. The situation was difficult for the Lib Dems, they had always portrayed themselves as the anti-corruption parties, and above the “dirty tricks” of the two main parties, the scandal had firmly placed them as yet another party of the cosy Westminster elite.
The scandal came at the worst time, just when the Commonwealth needed stability, alongside increasing violence in Northern Ireland, there had been a string of incidents in England, including a mass shooting in Cumbria and knife attacks in inner London. Most notably of these was the Mayor of Newham Stephen Timms being stabbed at an event in Newham. Timms was approached by 21-year-old Roshonara Choudhry, during an event at in Beckton, East London. She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in his abdomen with a 6-inch kitchen knife, before a staffer disarmed her. Choudhry made "very full admissions" to the police. She said that Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaeda had influenced her through sermons. She said her attack was to punish Timms for supporting the Iraq War, and revenge for the Iraqi people. She said she attacked Timms "because I'm a Muslim and all Muslims are brothers and sisters". She confessed she was "trying to kill him", and said "I wasn't going to stop stabbing him until someone made me." Timms suffered life-threatening wounds: lacerations to the left lobe of his liver, and a perforation to his stomach. A senior police officer said he "was fortunate not to have been killed". He underwent emergency surgery at the Royal London Hospital.
The Chilcott inquiry had inflamed tensions over Iraq, especially in Muslim communities in Inner London. On Newham council Timms was supported by a coalition of Labour and Liberal Councillors, the Respect Party formed the official opposition. This led to controversy where a Respect Councillor refused to stand during a minute of reflection and prayer for Timms’ health.
“A student was today sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to stab to death a borough Mayor for supporting the Iraq war. Roshonara Choudhry was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years at the Old Bailey. The Judge convicted Choudhry, on three charges after a short trial. She ordered her team not to challenge the prosecution's case because she did not recognise the jurisdiction of the British court. The Old Bailey jury took 15 minutes to return unanimous verdicts on the attempted murder charge. Mr Justice Cooke, said she would continue to be a danger to members of parliament for the foreseeable future: "You said you ruined the rest of your life. You said it was worth it. You said you wanted to be a martyr." If Choudhry had succeeded in killing Timms, the judge would have given her a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never be released. Cooke added. "You intended to kill in a political cause and to strike at those in government by doing so. You did so as a matter of deliberate decision-making, however skewed your reasons." - Roshonara Choudhry jailed for life over MP attack, Vikram Dodd, The Guardian (2010)
CCTV of Choundhry before the attack
On a backdrop of violence, and a perception of the Government losing control, it fell to Vince Cable to prevent the coalition's second ever budget. Highlights included raising the personal allowance a further £1,500 to £10,0000, meaning 600,000 people would no longer have to pay income tax. This was paid for by lowering the threshold of the higher rate of tax from £35,000 to £33,000, bringing 800,000 people into the higher rate. Cable also raised national insurance employee contribution from 12% to 14%.
The most controversial part of the budget was a slashing of corporation tax from 28% to 19%, one of the largest cuts to corporation tax in recent memory. All in all the coalition had cut £75 billion of taxes during a global financial crisis. Labour leader David Miliband was critical of the Chancellor on the cuts to corporation tax, saying: "An enterprise zone proposal dusted off from the 1980s cannot undo the damage of a deficit plan that goes too far and too fast. It didn't work then, it won't work now." Milliband's objection wasn't to spending and tax cuts, which he broadly supported. Instead he criticised the Government for being too aggressive with cuts. Miliband's tacit support of tax cuts was a gift to the Greens and SNP and further enraged the Labour left.
Yorkshire Senator Jon Trickett led the Labour-Left's opposition to the tax cuts
The budget represented the strain in the coalition, Lib Dem grassroots were chomping for concessions from the Tories, Cable got this through agreements to take the lowest earners out of tax. Many Liberal Democrat members were still displeased, the corporation tax cuts were a typical Tory move, many activists worried the party was on the brink of collapse, the BBC’s “poll of polls” in June had them on just 14%, or only 90 seats, below the 100 seat “danger zone”.
“In the coalition negotiations in 2008, David Willetts is reported to have told his wife: "I've killed the Liberal Democrats." The parties signed off the final agreement in 2008. It seems the fate of the Liberal Democrats might have been sealed. After two years in coalition, the party's poll rating had fallen by 5%. Three months on and three weeks before Lord Browne's report on Higher Education and Student Finance, it had nearly halved to 11%. There is evidence that the electorate may have already made up its mind. In some polls the party had ratings as low as 8% by the close of 2010. The Liberal Democrats had surrendered their mantle as the party of protest and were now the main focus of public anger and distrust. Over the first years of the coalition the party's poll rating remained static with little sign of it ever reaching the dizzy heights of 20%. Rather than fighting Labour for third-party status like in 2008, they were battling UKIP for third place in England and Wales. While in Scotland the "Unionist Pact" caused the SNP to eclipse the Liberal Democrats.” - From Coalition to Catastrophe, Andrew Russell (2015)
The Liberal Democrats needed a way to reclaim their radicalism, after months of negotiations with Osborne and Howard the Lib Dems threw down the gauntlet, Foreign Secretary Chris Huhne demanded the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan before the 2014 Presidential Election. If the Conservatives refused, the Lib Dems would walk. Howard was sympathetic to the demands, although he supported the war, he was generally an isolationist, their role in Afghanistan had been to defeat the Taliban, the Taliban were defeated and thus should come home. Osborne was more weary, naturally a humanitarian interventionist, Osborne was concerned about a vacuum in Afghanistan, and the reaction of the US and other British allies. However the Lib Dems were unwilling to budge, polling showed Labour now had a narrow lead of 4 points, if Osborne went to the polls he would risk being one of Britain's shortest lived Prime Ministers. Eventually he made his decision...
“Defence Secretary Simon Hughes has described the Commonwealth's defence budget as "chaotic and disorganised". In a Daily Telegraph interview, Mr Hughes blames the previous Labour government for what he calls the "horrendous" situation at the MoD. The remarks follow a disagreement between Osborne and Hughes over cuts to defence spending and Afghanistan withdrawal. Mr Hughes said defence was the "most chaotic, most disorganised, most over-committed" budget he had seen. He told the Telegraph: "We are going to have a bunch of kit that makes us well prepared to fight the Russians on the north German plain. That's not a war we are likely to face." The Defence Secretary said there was little the coalition could do about the situation. "We are bound into contracts and that's just a fact of life," he said. The Defence Secretary has entered this tense debate, and warned it could bring an end to the coalition.” - Defence Budget Chaotic, BBC (2010)
Trident renewal was coming soon, another chink in the coalition's armour
How and why did the Liberal Democrats take a more interventionist approach to Foreign Policy between 2005-2010? (30 Marks) - A Level Politics Exam (2019)