The message behind Boris’s reshuffle
14 min listen
Politics
Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Thursday
Sajid Javid: Why I quit
After quitting as Chancellor earlier today, Sajid Javid has published his letter of resignation to Boris Johnson. Here’s what he wrote: Dear Prime Minister, It has been a privilege to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since being elected as the MP for Bromsgrove ten years ago I have had the huge honour of holding several ministerial roles – running five departments, including two of the Great Offices of State. I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment While I am grateful for your continued trust and offer to continue in this role, I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment.
Boris has tightened his iron grip on government
This is the LDC reshuffle: loyalty, discipline and competence. Number 10 wants to ensure this government is all singing from the same hymn sheet. The desire for a joint Number 10 / 11 operation is the product of that. Sajid Javid’s refusal to sign up to the scheme made Number 10 think he wasn’t on board with this, which led to his resignation. This joint Number 10 / 11 operation creates a very powerful force at the centre of government. Number 10, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office are now effectively yoked together. Under this set-up, no department will have any chance of resisting what the centre wants. Expect this new power
Watch: Sajid Javid takes a pop at Boris Johnson
Sajid Javid has just taken a pop at Boris Johnson following his departure from the cabinet earlier today. The ex-chancellor said no ‘self-respecting minister’ would have been able to accept the terms presented to him by the PM if he wanted to stay in the job. He told the BBC: ‘The conditions that were attached…I was unable to accept those conditions. I don’t believe any self respecting minister would accept such conditions, and therefore I felt the best thing to do, was to go…’ Javid also said that his successor as chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has his full support. Mr S isn’t convinced…
The BBC’s big problem is its obsession with itself
One reason people are disillusioned with the BBC is its obsession with itself. Here is the text of a question asked by the corporation’s deputy political editor, Norman Smith, at a speech last week by the minister responsible for broadcasting, the Culture Secretary, Lady Morgan: ‘You say the BBC needs to adapt to the new streaming era…What I’m not clear about is why you think decriminalising or moving to a civil enforcement scheme in any way assists the BBC in meeting that challenge. Because the view within the corporation is that it weakens the BBC to the tune of £200 million a year, quite possibly more. In other words, it
Sinn Fein’s success doesn’t make a united Ireland more likely
It is obviously true that Sinn Fein’s success in the Irish Republic will increase nationalist pressure for a united Ireland. It does not automatically follow, however, that such pressure will make a united Ireland more likely. A powerful Sinn Fein in the South is a strong recruiter for Unionism in the North. The possibility of nationalists in the North winning a border poll has just receded. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes, which appears in this week’s Spectator
Rebecca Long-Bailey came off badly in her Newsnight clash with Emily Thornberry
Labour’s leadership candidates were grilled by Newsnight’s Katie Razzall last night. Avuncular Sir Keir Starmer, with his greying thatch and bulky frame, looked like a body-builder gone to seed. He spoke in a bluff, commandeering tone that suggested the leadership is his already – and he knows it. His main rival, Rebecca Long-Bailey, seemed ill at ease. She’s an odd blend of qualities. She might have been named after a Jilly Cooper character but she has a Maoist habit of calling the voters ‘our communities.’ Her complexion is immaculate, her gaze unblinking, her blond hair perfect. ‘Pitiless’ is the only word for her dark, angular spectacles. She recently blundered by deploying
Why Sajid Javid quit
20 min listen
What will Rishi Sunak’s Budget look like?
Plenty of questions were already circulating about next month’s Budget, even before Sajid Javid’s dramatic resignation as Chancellor – and Rishi Sunak’s appointment as his replacement – this morning. With this shock change in Number 11, we know even less than we did: what are Sunak’s policy plans? How involved will Number 10 be in the process? And will financial plans already in the works be radically altered in the weeks to come? But the most pressing question of all is: what is Boris Johnson’s Government’s economic vision for the years to come? The process of building an economic legacy can take many twists and turns. When Margaret Thatcher first
Sajid Javid quits as No. 10 takes control
Boris Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle has been blown off course this lunchtime after Sajid Javid quit as Chancellor. Javid resigned after being presented with an ultimatum by the Prime Minister. After a fortnight of negative No.10/No.11 briefings, Javid was told he could stay in his post on the condition he agreed to a SpAd restructuring. This would have involved all of his special advisers bar one losing their job and a new special adviser unit being created between No. 10 and No. 11. Javid refused and as a result has left his position as Chancellor. This is a surprising turn. It’s been clear for some time that the relationship between No.
Why has Sajid Javid quit as Chancellor?
Why has Sajid Javid quit as Chancellor? Because he wanted his political advisers to be his own courtiers and servants, as is the tradition, and not those of Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief aide. To the contrary, Johnson agreed with Cummings that Javid’s current special advisers should be dismissed and replaced with new advisers who would answer and report to Cummings. The PM and Cummings believe the success of the government in these challenging times require Downing Street and the Treasury to act, as far as possible, as one seamless unit. According to one of Johnson’s close colleagues, the current Prime Minister admires how Cameron and Osborne acted as
What Sajid Javid’s departure tells us about Boris Johnson’s plan
Boris Johnson had been getting increasingly irritated by the number of unhelpful stories in newspapers quoting a ‘senior Treasury source’. Number 10 didn’t blame Sajid Javid for them, but – rightly or wrongly – his team. It all reinforced Boris Johnson’s desire for a joint Number 10/ 11 operation. He wanted a relationship between the two political teams akin to that between Cameron and Osborne’s; indeed, what Number 10 is doing is exactly what Cameron and Osborne would have done if they had won a majority in 2010. So when Sajid Javid went to see Boris Johnson this morning, Johnson told Javid that he wanted a joint operation and that
Cabinet reshuffle live blog: Sajid Javid quits as Chancellor
Boris Johnson’s much-lauded Cabinet reshuffle has arrived. The sackings are now finished and the new hirings are underway. The biggest news by far is the loss of Sajid Javid. This is how things currently stand: Sackings and resignations: Sajid Javid – Chancellor of the Exchequer Julian Smith – Northern Ireland secretary Geoffrey Cox QC – Attorney General Andrea Leadsom – BEIS Theresa Villiers – DEFRA Esther McVey – housing minister Chris Skidmore – universities minister Nusrat Ghani – transport minister George Freeman – transport minister Promotions: Rishi Sunak – Chancellor of the Exchequer Alok Sharma – BEIS Anne-Marie Trevelyan – DFID Oliver Dowden – DCMS Suella Braverman – Attorney General
Wednesday
Lisa Nandy is the best of a bad bunch
If Labour had chosen Liz Kendall instead of Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, she’d be prime minister by now. She was young. She had ideas. Inevitably, she got 4.5 per cent of the vote. It is therefore my solemn duty to inform Lisa Nandy that I consider her the best candidate for Labour leader. On balance, she seems to have the surest chance of saving the party. Not, of course, that Labour deserves to be saved. But it is in the country’s interest that the party that emerges over the next few years is the least extreme and least anti-Semitic one possible. Like anyone of good sense, I endeavoured to avoid
Corbyn scored a lasting triumph at PMQs
Things got pretty tasty at PMQs. Jeremy Corbyn was well prepared and emerged, messily, as the victor. It started badly for the Labour leader. Ironic cheers rang out when his name was called. Up he stood. But instead of building to a joyous climax, the cheers dropped to nothing. Stark silence followed. This seemed amusing and was greeted by facetious guffaws. Poor Jezza. Even his pauses are laughing at him. He brought up the 17 foreign-born criminals deported to Jamaica. A tricky case has emerged. A boy who arrived in Britain aged five, was coerced into peddling drugs and was given a jail-term. But since his release he hasn’t re-offended.
Is the Labour leadership contest already a done deal?
Labour’s leadership contest has been attracting less and less media interest as it goes on. Despite this, Jeremy Corbyn’s successor won’t be announced until April so there’s still over a month of the contest to go. Part of the reason for the lack of excitement is a growing sense that it isn’t really a contest anymore; barring a major upset, Keir Starmer will be the victor. Starmer has a significant lead on Constituency Labour party nominations at 280, to Rebecca Long-Bailey’s 132 (as of the weekend). And he even won in Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington constituency. His main rival Long-Bailey’s campaign is yet to achieve the levels of excitement that Corbyn’s
Do Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner have a problem with trans people like me?
Jo Swinson’s dismal election campaign was unlikely to have been helped by her inability to define the word woman. But if there are any lessons from Swinson’s ability to alienate people on the subject of gender, it seems Labour is determined not to learn them. Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner are vying to become leader and deputy leader of the Labour party. Yet like Swinson before them, both seem oblivious that the public has little time for extreme transgender ideology. As a result, Labour is lurching towards a crisis brought on by transgender campaigners whose demand for compliance is total. By creating a narrative that trans people like me are
The Pope rebuffs his liberal supporters by rejecting married priests
Pope Francis today issued his official response to October’s ‘Amazon Synod’, which discussed a plan to ordain married men in the region. He was expected to endorse it and thus open the door for the ordination of married men throughout the whole Catholic Church. (It’s already permitted in Eastern-rite Churches.) Instead, his apostolic exhortation ignores the subject. The Pope has ‘rejected the proposal’, reports CNN disapprovingly. It adds: ‘The lack of an opening for married priests, or women deacons, is expected to disappoint the Pope’s liberal supporters, particularly in the Americas and Europe.“People are starting to adjust their expectations,” said Massimo Faggioli, a church historian at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Geoffrey Cox hedges his bets on the eve of the reshuffle
A good barrister will always keep his options open. And the Attorney General, Sir Geoffrey Cox, has the letters Q and C at the end of his name, so he must be a good barrister. During an event this morning Cox laid out the case both for his continuation as Attorney General, while also hyping himself up as a potential chair of the government’s upcoming constitutional review. He told the crowd: Have I had enough of the job [of AG]? let me make plain, absolutely not. This has been one of the greatest – in fact, thegreatest – honour of my political life… If you gave me the opportunity to