It’s now been over a year since the former Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, over the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and the ‘purge’ of 21 Tory MPs who voted against the government. After standing down in 2019, Rudd has since left frontline politics.
Could the former frontbencher still be smarting over her departure though? Rudd certainly seemed to give that impression in an interview with the think tank, the Institute for Government. In the ‘ministers reflect’ session, Rudd took some well-aimed pot-shots at the Prime Minister, suggesting his style of governing had forced her to leave her post, saying:
‘But I would have stayed – and wanted to stay – because I felt that there was important work to be done at DWP, and I regret not being able to continue that work. But it was Boris Johnson’s style of government, really. It was the way he treated other people and his determination to deliver Brexit, whatever the cost in terms of the economy and – I thought – the consequences to people’s lives.’
But Mr S was most struck by Rudd’s dig at Boris Johnson’s establishment credentials. According to Rudd, the old-boy’s club is alive and well in Parliament, and things are going backwards at the moment. The former minister suggested that there was a tendency for women not to be promoted as equals, and:
‘I see that in Boris Johnson, I’m afraid. Even though I don’t dislike him at all. He’s come from that establishment group. And also, he has that sort of language, which he’s – quite rightly – nervous of using in front of women.’
Ouch. Mr S isn’t quite sure if Rudd is the best person to knock someone’s establishment credentials, mind, considering she’s the daughter of a millionaire stock-broker and a former ‘aristocracy coordinator’ on the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Still, it’s good to see that politicians, past and present, are still finding the time to settle old grudges.
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