Confirmed: Julia Goldsworthy becomes Treasury spin doctor

At the usual huddle of lobby hacks after the Budget there was a familiar face lurking with a pile of papers - Julia Goldsworthy, ex-Lib Dem MP for Falmouth and Camborne who lost her seat at the election.

Her political reincarnation comes as special advisor to Danny Alexander, as I blogged last week.

An interesting time to join the team, starting "unofficially" last week but only officially confirmed yesterday.

You read it here first, as they say.

Is ex-MP Julia Goldsworthy about to become a spin doctor?

She complained a week or two ago in an interview with the WMN that there were too few women in the new politics.

But Lib Dem Julia Goldsworthy - who lost the Camborne and Redruth seat by 66 votes - could be about to change that... sort of.

Rumours persist in Westminster that she is about to be appointed a special advisor, possibly to new Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.

The pair know each other well as part of the youthful Lib Dem intake of 2005. They once did a joint "Big Breakfast meets PowerPoint" presentation at the Lib Dem conference, perched on bar stools if memory serves.

Julia also shadowed the treasury job at the same time as appearing on The Games in Channel 4. Could a similar move help Mr Alexander's profile? Anyone got a number for Davina McCall?

A Treasury spokesman could neither confirm nor deny the story but noted Mr Alexander already had one
Spad. His Labour predecessor Liam Byrne had two. David Laws only had one, but might not have had time to appoint a second...

Julia isn't returning calls. We await confirmation.

Sisterly row as Goldsworthy says Harman only acting leader after “kicking around” Labour party for years

Former Liberal Democrat MP Julia Goldsworthy has stepped into the debate on the dearth of women in coalition top jobs.

She was the subject/victim of the Saturday Interview in the Western Morning News (right), and warned it is “unacceptable” that her party now has fewer women MPs than before the election.

The new coalition government attracted criticism for only having three women in the Cabinet – all of them Conservative.

But in an apparent swipe at those who were over-looked, Julia said: “I think it’s a problem for all parties and I don’t think that with the options that they had before them I don’t think David Cameron and Nick Clegg could have done anything different really than what they have got.”

I think that’s called making the best of a bad job.

She also had some very un-sisterly comments to make about acting Labour leader Harriet Harman.

“If you look at the way the Labour party works, Harriet Harman is basically somebody who has been kicking around the Labour party and those organisations for a really long time and there probably aren’t that many women who have had that kind of experience.”

She blamed the “career break” that women have when having children for damaging the personal and professional relationships which help to get ahead in politics.

The 31-year-old, who lost the Camborne and Redruth seat by just 66 votes, said women MPs in fall into two categories – those “at the pre-child bearing phase… and then another lump at the other end whose children are a bit older and there’s not really anything in the middle”.

“I have changed my mind on all women shortlists because I think there’s a real danger that we will go backwards if we don’t do something. I wasn’t selected on an all-woman shortlist and for me that was really important because I wanted to be the best candidate.

“But the Lib Dems now have fewer women MPs than they did in 2005 and that’s not acceptable nothing should be rule out.”

The Lib Dems fielded women in three of the six seats in Cornwall at the election – and all were defeated by Tories.

The comments have provoked a bit of a spat with Julia’s Labour opponent in the election, Jude Robinson. (right)

She said on Twitter:

If you are as disgusted as I am at @jgoldsworthy 's bitchiness to Harriet Harman, here http://bit.ly/d9UjNn please register and comment.

Then later:

If @jgoldsworthy really concerned about women in politics, why so bitchy about @harrietharman? http://bit.ly/d9UjNn

Julia responded:

I have plenty of time for Harman - but far more men than women work their way through the pol/party machines - she's unusual

Provoking Jude:

Then an acknowledgment would have been appropriate, not dismissive comment

Worth remembering it is Clegg who would do the firing

Amazing story from the Telegraph today on David Laws paying £40,000 to his partner, with much of the furore focussing on the fact he has been “outed” as gay.

Certainly the “revelation” of Mr Laws’ sexuality is not much of a revelation to his Yeovil constituents, many of whom thought they’d “known” about it for years.

The question will be which way the argument falls on privacy vs expenses. Paul Waugh suggested this morning that, rather like the Ecclestone F1 affair early in New Labour’s honeymoon, Cameron and Clegg should be able to ride this one out.

But it is worth remembering that during the early days of the coalition, it was stressed that the hiring and firing of Lib Dem ministers was the job of the DPM aka Nick Clegg. Will the Orange Bookers rally round?

Here is what some Westcountry politicians (past and present) have been saying this morning:

Julia Goldsworthy on Twitter:

“Judge politicians on how good they are, and allow them personal privacy. David Laws has intellect and integrity - this country needs him.”

Foreign office minister and Taunton MP Jeremy Browne on the Today programme:

"I've known David for about 15 years and can tell you categorically that this is a human story, it is not a financial story. He is a deeply private man and he has a personal wish not to have his life put up in lights.

"This is not about David being motivated by money. He gave up a very lucrative job to go into politics. He could have earned a lot more money that this.

"What it is about is him wanted to be a private person and I think he should be able to be that."

He referred to the row as "a massive distraction, motivated possibly by politics, to try and tear David down."

Hat tip Politics Home 

Lord Ashdown said:

"The central question is, what does a partnership actually mean...I don't believe you should be making a judgement about that.

"David has referred this to the parliamentary commissioner as he, as a man of integrity, would, and we must now wait for his judgement.

"His moral authority has only been damaged if what he has done is an act of wrongdoing. You and I do not know whether that is the case at the moment."

Hat tip Politics Home 

Kevin Davis, the Tory candidate in Yeovil, said:

“I actually think Mr Laws was doing a good job as Chief Secretary but I fear that he can only come to the conclusion that he must step down. I say this reluctantly because the coalition needs good people to work for it but the fact is that he has now undermined that coalition by raising again the problem of sleaze and expenses, just when we thought that matters had been cleared up and we could move on.”

Which Westcountry Lib Dems are heading for ministerial office?

Some might say it's early days, but we are hurtling towards the endgame so why not play at fantasy reshuffle.

Rumours are the Lib Dems will get six seats in a Cameron Cabinet, and according to some notes photographed on Nick Clegg's lap, they'll have a minister in every department.

So, who from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset could get a red box? This is my take (with their current job - at least at the time of writing) including their chances as I see it.

And crucially, as far as I am aware Lord Ashdown has not ruled out taking a government job. Brown famously offered him Northern Ireland after becoming PM. Could Paddy achieve what he set out to do 13 years ago, and get a seat at the top table?

Certain
Schools spokesman and negotiator David Laws (Yeovil)

LikelyDefence spokesman Nick Harvey (North Devon)
Treasury spokesman Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane)
Commons spokesman David Heath (Somerton and Frome)

Possible
Deputy chief whip Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Communities spokesman Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Paddy Ashdown???

Only just elected
Steve Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay)
Tessa Munt (Wells)

*Julia Goldsworthy would surely have been a shoe-in, had she not lost Camborne and Redruth by just 66 votes.

At last – those two defections to the Tories

More than a week ago, I sparked a bit of a flurry of interest by posting what I believed to be imminent news that two Lib Dems were jumping ship to the Tories. I can now reveal that the two defectors are long-standing Lib Dems, who had been sitting as Liberals for the last three years, after becoming increasing upset at the party.

Tony and Simon Inch, who currently sit as Liberal Councillors for Bideford South in Torridge District Council, are backing Conservative Geoffrey Cox (right) in his campaign for re-election in Torridge and West Devon.

Tony Inch, a former Mayor of Bideford and respected town and district councillor, said: “Simon and I have always had a good working relationship with Geoffrey.”

“We know how hard he works. He has always been friendly, approachable and supportive. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you have a problem he is your MP and that is all that counts.”

“We are both campaigning for Geoffrey to carry on being our MP. He is a true local constituency MP who works for the whole community first and foremost.”

The brothers left the Liberal Democrats in July 2007 in disgust after it emerged a colleague in the party was running a sex chat-line and advertising stripteases on the Internet.

Last night Mr Cox said: “I am proud to have won the support of Tony and Simon, whom I greatly respect as really good servants of our community. Their support shows that more and more people of traditional Liberal beliefs are increasingly seeing the modern Conservative Party as a congenial home.”

It marks a major move for the Inch brothers, and is a reflection on the way the Tory party is viewed in the Westcountry. I know of other long-standing Lib Dem supporters elsewhere in Devon and Cornwall, who come from the more traditional, Methodist history of the party, who are upset at the way the party has selected candidates and some of its campaigning methods.

However, it is not all one way traffic.Last week it emerged the former chairman of the Redruth Labour party Janet Brook had switched to back Lib-Dem Julia Goldsworthy in Camborne and Redruth. Mrs Brook said the Labour had changed, adding: “The Lib Dems are the only party standing up for ordinary working people”.

This defection clearly did not upset Labour's candidate Jude Robinson, who posted on Twitter:

The Lib Dems getting desperate in #Camborne. A 'switcher' that no-one has heard of and another who was last seen in 2001. #bestyoucando?