When Boris Johnson announced he was running to be Tory leader in July 2019, few were more vociferous in their support than Johnny Mercer. The former Royal Artillery captain claimed at the time that ‘Boris is the man of the moment’ and ‘a much deeper thinker than people assess him to be’, being rewarded with a post as a junior defence minister.
Fast forward nearly two years and Mercer has now left his post over the treatment of veterans who served in Northern Ireland after they were excluded from the amnesty in the Overseas Operations Bill. In a Times Radio interview this afternoon, Mercer let rip his frustrations, claiming that his spell in Whitehall was ‘the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in’ – quite a statement from a Helmand veteran. He said:
Looking solemn at Armistice Day is not just good enough anymore. We have to deliver for these people. We have a huge challenge looking after the Afghan and Iraq cohort. We have to get this right. And I will do everything right to ensure that we can.
Mercer largely refrained from criticism of Johnson himself claiming that:
I think Boris Johnson is deeply committed to this agenda. I think he wants to deliver it. He recognises the injustice of it. But the truth is that nothing has been done.
But he went on damn the prime minister by implication, claiming that if you refrain from taking action on such difficult issues ‘inherently you are, of course, a coward.’ Mercer’s main criticisms though were reserved for the Westminster village itself and how his departure was handled. The Plymouth MP claimed he wanted to resign today from the dispatch box after giving No. 10 a suitable notice period of prior warning – an opportunity denied to him after an indelicate sacking.
Mercer claimed that most of politics is ‘a bit of a cesspit’ and that ‘almost nobody tells the truth is what I’ve worked out over the last 36 hours.’ He went on to argue that ‘what I’d done was give them notice, I didn’t want to ambush anyone’ with his voice cracking as he said he wanted to do so at the dispatch box because ‘I’m accountable to these veterans.’
Asked about government sources quotes in Politico this morning which claimed No. 10 had spoiled his resignation plans, Mercer shot back at the ‘lot of children running around Westminster who are frankly unemployable elsewhere’ and that ‘it’s never about me and at some point people will realise that.’ Ooft.
Just minutes after the interview aired, an interview with the Daily Telegraph was published in which Mercer accused Boris Johnson of surrounding himself with ‘cowards’ and ‘desperately weak’ advisers who had ‘betrayed’ veterans of the Northern Ireland conflict, adding that he had been treated ‘like shit throughout’ his two year stint at the Ministry of Defence.
Mr S suspects this is one ex-minister who won’t be returning to government any time soon.
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