Questions over Theresa May’s new government
While some sit nervously awaiting the call up, for the losers in this change of administration, ministers and their teams, there have been tears shed, drink taken and no shortage of bad feeling. And we are only into day one of a new government that will probably take two more days at least to get all the jobs in government filled.
Nicky Morgan is said to have been shocked by her sacking as Education Secretary. She had clashed with Theresa May in Cabinet Committee and may be wondering now if that was wise.
It sounds as though Theresa May’s meeting with George Osborne was one of the shorter ones ever known in this sort of setting.
Michael Gove, friends say, left feeling that he’d had a rather moralistic lecture. “She told him there wasn’t enough room in her Cabinet,” an ally said. “She said she’d spoken to colleagues and the importance of loyalty had been impressed upon her. She said a stint on the backbenches could help to demonstrate that loyalty.” On Gove ally said it all felt like a correctional sentence, another said it “was like Profumo serving penance in Toynbee Hall” (a reference to the Macmillan era defence minister who served out his active life in social work after being felled in a sex scandal).
“There is now an awful lot of talent on the backbenches,” one Cameron supporter in parliament said. “It’s not a unity government, it’s a vendetta,” said another. One member of the Cameron’s political and social circle said: “She doesn’t have a mandate.” Another said: “Looking at the team, this might not last long.”
Lord Maude said it looked like Theresa May had been a bit too personal in her decisions on ministerial jobs.
Theresa Villiers was offered a Home Office Minister of State job and didn’t feel that was very appealing having served in Cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary.
Stephen Crabb walked the Downing Street camera-strewn route reserved for people who were getting new jobs or keeping their old ones only to walk out without a Cabinet job. He said he was resigning as DWP Secretary for the sake of family life.
When David Cameron thought, like many on the Leave side, that he would win the referendum, there were jokes made about the unity/revenge reshuffle that could put Leave supporters into jobs they might not entirely like. The idea of sending Priti Patel, an MP who’d spoken out against DIFID’s existence and who represents a seat where the 0.7% aid commitment is thought to be particularly unpopular, to be Secretary of State for International Development was a particular favourite idea of political torture. Strangely, that’s exactly what Theresa May has done.