October 19th 2022.
If a writer was to pitch the current events to a BBC commissioning editor as political mystery series it would be given short shrift as it possessing not a shred of reality.
Today saw the “resignation” of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman after a mere 40 days in office. Details are slow to emerge but it involves breaches of the ministerial code of conduct which in turn could involve major security issues. There were two breaches and they involved sending government information from her personal email account. This apparently disclosed policy matters on immigration which hadn’t yet been agreed as policy! She has just been replaced by Grant Shapps who is from the Rishi Sunak wing of the Conservative party.
In a break with tradition, she issued a longer-than-usual letter of resignation, which displayed conflict over policy matters. The third paragraph is the clue.
Letter of resignation.
It would appear that she was actually given the boot over policy disagreements, some of which are hinted at in the third paragraph.
She had a strong base of supporters in the party, but it looks as though Liz Truss (and/or) her handlers are trying to impose some internal discipline on the cabinet and also make a comparion between the treatment of breaches of the ministerial code by her administration and the treatment of offenders by the Johnson regime.
As a weird aside, and for lovers of conspiracy theories, on the 19th October 1922, exactly 100 years ago, the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George got the boot. At a meeting at the Carlton Club, ostensibly to discuss the coalition and the upcoming elections Lloyd George came under attack. The main attack came from Stanley Baldwin, then President of the Board of Trade, who spoke of Lloyd George as a “dynamic force” who would break the Conservative Party.
In the face of such opposition, Lloyd George went to see the King later that day and tendered his resignation.
It seems that the Conservative party has a long-standing history of internal dissent.
As of today, there is a debate in the house this evening on fracking, which is a cornerstone of Truss’s de-greening of the power policy. It is widely tipped that she will lose the vote on this. The roller coaster continues.
October 20th 2022.
It is difficult to pen letters to BFD without being overtaken by events. As fast as I write something, the quicker it is overtaken by U-Turns and as Harold McMillan said “events, dear boy”.
Last night (Wednesday) there was a vote in Parliament on fracking. The Conservative MPs were whipped and told it was a confidence vote and they must vote for the government. Then a Minister from number 10 said that it wasn’t a confidence vote. The chief whip and her deputy then resigned then 3 hours later denied that they had resigned. Chaos ruled all around.
Conservative MPs were being physically manhandled into the voting lobby with punches and shoves being exchanged.
More chaos ensued in the House of Commons last night when Ms Truss appeared to make a last-minute reversal on an earlier decision to make a fracking vote a confidence motion in her Government.
With confusion reigning in the Commons voting lobbies – and claims both the Tory chief whip and deputy chief whip had quit – there were allegations of Conservative MPs being shouted at by Cabinet ministers and physically dragged through the voting lobbies.
It appeared to be these scenes of complete disarray that led many Tory MPs to decide Ms Truss’s administration was no longer functioning.
Source Daily Mail 19 October 2022.
In the photo can be seen “chunky” Health Secretary, Therese Coffey and “Toff” Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, allegedly the main perpetrators of the bullying. In a comment in line with the spirit of the occasion, one of the recipients of the alleged bullying said that he was physically approached, but the bully backed off when he “said that if he was touched, he would deck him”.
As I write this at, 1-35pm Thursday, Liz Truss has just come out from Downing Street and announced her resignation.
There will be a week-long election process and horror of horrors Boris Johnson is eligible to stand. By adjusting the rules, the election will only be amongst the MPs and will not go to the Conservative party membership.
The only bright light is that Jeremy Hunt, as Chancellor, has stabilised the economic and fiscal issues that were ruining the country. Paradoxically, that may have ruined his chances of becoming PM as MPs may not want to move a success from his post.
1-48pm Hunt has just announced that he will not stand in the contest to become the leader. At least there’s one grown-up who can read the room!
Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, said that the new PM would be in place before the release of the fiscal statement on 31st October.
There have been so many changes amongst the Prime Ministers and senior ministers that it’s almost like being in Australia.
After the resignation, the Financial Times reported that the markets showed little change. The gilts remained unaffected with the yield on the 10-year UK bond dropping slightly from 4-02 to 3.83 by the afternoon. Sterling remained higher, up 0.9% at $1.132 . This is a reflection of the stabilising efforts of Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor.
The runners and riders
Rishi Sunak
Penny Mordaunt
Boris Johnson (yes, Chutzpah!)
Suella Braverman
Kemi Badenoch
Sajid Javid
Grant Shapps
Ben Wallace
Confirmed as not running:
Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove
And they are already up and running. All set for a fascinating few days.