More ministerial resignations are underway and the day has barely begun in Westminster. Will Quince, who had the humiliating job of answering questions about what Johnson knew and when on the Monday broadcast round, has quit. He’s an education minister and writes in his letter that the Prime Minister last night apologised to him for ‘the briefings I received from No. 10 ahead of Monday’s media round, which we now know to be inaccurate.’
The timing meant that Nadhim Zahawi had to spend his first interview in the job reacting to more bits falling off the government
Quince had tried to distance himself as much as possible from those briefings, telling each broadcaster that he had asked No. 10 very ‘firmly and clearly’ for assurances about what had happened. He didn’t want to suggest that he was in any way endorsing what he’d been told.
His resignation landed at around the same time as Laura Trott’s from her post as a parliamentary private secretary. Trott posted on Facebook that ‘trust in politics is – and must always be – of the upmost importance, but sadly in recent months this has been lost.’ The timing meant that the new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi had to spend his first interview in the job reacting in real time to more bits falling off the government.
Zahawi tried to claim that the Prime Minister had been showing ‘leadership’ in his handling of the Pincher row because he had apologised for appointing him to deputy chief whip ‘at warp speed’. He said Johnson had told him he wanted to focus on ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’, and that he would ‘review everything’, including the tax burden. But when confronted with the latest resignations, he said: ‘I’m sorry to lose any Conservative, of course I’m sad to lose a talented member of parliament like Laura Trott. What I would say to her is the way you deliver trust is by delivering outcomes for people.’ Then on Quince, he said: ‘What I would say to colleagues is people don’t vote for divided teams.’
The new Chancellor’s basic pitch is that he is going to make things better and that this government is going to deliver lots of good things. But it is frankly impossible to see how that is going to happen. Even if Boris Johnson makes it to the summer recess, he will be entirely focused on his survival, not on good and sensible policymaking. This government is revolving around keeping the Prime Minister in place, not on the boring and lengthy task of delivery.
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