The grey suits were out in force today at the launch of the official history of the 1922 Committee’s first centenary. Knights, grandees and peers of the realm all crammed into Committee Room G of the Palace of Westminster to hail the release of Philip Norton’s updated book. As one quote on the blurb put it: ‘The 1922 is probably the most significant body in British politics that almost no one knows anything about – and what they do think they know is probably wrong.’ Reflecting on the Committee’s history, Norton remarked that:
When they started, there was quite a high turnover [in chairmen] but not a high turnover in leaders. Nowadays it’s the other way round. So we had leaders who would see several chairs of the 1922 Committee. Now we’ve got chairs of the 1922 Committee who see several leaders.
It fell to Sir Graham Brady, the longest-serving chairman of that august body to congratulate Norton on his updated history: ‘We’ve worked very hard to promote your book. We spent last year raising the profile of the committee considerably.’ He quipped that ‘the moment in which you realise that you are officially history is when you are in an official history’ before casting his mind back to his election as 1922 chair in 2010:
When I was elected as chairman, I received a lovely letter from a constituent enclosing a photograph of Alexander Erskine-Hill, the chairman of the ’22 Committee during the Second World War with Winston Churchill. And he said, “Dear, dear Graham, many congratulations on becoming chairman of the 1922 Committee at a time of coalition government, as did my Grandpapa Alexander Erskine-Hill.” And he went on to explain the difficulties of dealing with coalition government and so on. He said, “Please find enclosed this photograph of my grandfather with Winston Churchill. He went on to say, Winston, of course, couldn’t bear my grandfather, who he thought to be obsessed with the interests of party rather than country, he said, but given the result of the 1945 general election, perhaps grandpapa had a point as well.”’
Brady was then asked by Lord McLoughlin as to his own reflections on the recent Tory leadership elections over which he has presided. Sir Graham told the room that ‘In an ideal world, I would say that when the party is in government, the parliamentary party will make the decision’ before adding:
A very strong conclusion that I’ve come to, that I hope my successors in this office will adhere to is that I think once we reach a final two in the parliamentary party, I think we should always hold an indicative ballot. At that point, it may be the party members in the country would say, “Well, they’re all wrong”, and that’s fine, but at least they would make a judgement based on the facts and full knowledge of the levels of support in the parliamentary party.
Food for thought, perhaps, for those who plan to serve in future parliaments. Sir Graham though, intends to stand down at the next election. Perhaps then he can publish those memoirs he keeps threatening to write: Steerpike will be first in line for a signed copy…
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