The dawn of a new government sparks a search amongst journalists for the flashpoints and tensions within it which are likely to bubble over. Just weeks after Theresa May walked into Downing Street, the source of that potential turmoil in her Government already seems clear. And if the revelation of the Prime Minister’s intervention between Liam Fox and Boris Johnson is anything to go on, it looks like tension between the two may cause some trouble for the Prime Minister over the months and years ahead. Liam Fox sent a letter to Boris (copying in the PM) in which he made a power grab for some of the Foreign Office’s remit to be transferred over to his Department for International Trade. But his request that Britain’s future foreign policy becomes his responsibility was flatly rejected by Boris. It also resulted in a terse intervention from the PM – safely in neutral territory on holiday – who said she was ‘unimpressed with this sort of carrying on’.
The first thing to say about Fox’s demand is that it’s not out of character. Since being appointed to the Cabinet, he has shown, for right or wrong, that he wants to hit the ground running. But his approach has already caused some tension. After over-hyping his negotiations with the Canadians, for instance, he was promptly slapped down by the country’s opposite number. Yet whilst this latest turmoil is at least, in part, due to the characters involved (neither Fox or Boris are the retiring types), it’s not wholly the fault of the ministers themselves. Theresa May might not sound impressed by what has happened, yet it’s fair to say she’s unlikely to be surprised either. In fact, it could be said, tensions like this were meant to happen.
Under Theresa May, Boris at the Foreign Office, Fox at the Department for International Trade and David Davis, as ‘Minister for Brexit’ was always going to end up in a situation whereby the trio jostled for position. Whitehall departments have traditionally operated as their own fiefdoms which jealously guard and protect their individual remits. But the restructuring in the wake of Brexit has changed that – with the inevitable consequences now playing out.
It’s difficult to know Theresa May’s exact intentions in appointing such feisty characters to key posts where they are likely to clash. But it is possible to speculate that keeping the tension within the Brexit camp itself, and thus avoiding making herself the enemy, is a key element of her approach. So far, that strategy appears to be working and it seems a canny approach to dealing with the tensions there from the start amongst prominent ‘Leavers’ like Boris and Fox. Yet there is, too, an element of her playing with fire. And an ongoing Whitehall ‘turf war’, which doesn’t seem like an unlikely prospect, won’t be good for anyone. When it emerged that Boris, Liam Fox and David Davis would be sharing the Foreign Secretary’s official country residence at Chevening, it was the source of much amusement. Now we’re seeing that the predictions of tension between the trio wasn’t only based on speculation.
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