2017: A year of Firings and Fury in the Conservative Government
The sheer volume of senior personnel that have been chewed through by the Trump Presidency (including, of course, Mr S Bannon) has been stunning. But if you think back, there has been a very British version of this chaos. Inspired by Michael Wolff, I have compiled a gazetteer of gloom – a list of the people of the checked out, chucked out and flounced out during a brutal year in British politics.
JANUARY
Sir Ivan Rogers: The Mandarin’s resignation
We were only three days into 2017 before Sir Ivan Rogers quit as UK’s ambo to the EU. In a characteristically well-crafted memo to staff he said: ‘I hope that you will support each other in those difficult moments where you have to deliver messages that are disagreeable to those who need to hear them’. This remark was thought to be directed to at senior Brexiteers, and probably the PM and her top advisers.
Impact: Rogers’ resignation caused huge fuss. Anxious Remainers saw ominous signs of a purge in the Civil Service, while Brexiteers cheered his departure. When Sir Tim Barrow, a respected Foreign Office stalwart, was appointed as his replacement, things calmed down and life went on. The loss of Rogers’ expertise and experience was regrettable though it wasn't really tenable for him to continue in post. It was an early indication of the serious tensions building between Theresa May’s government and the civil service machine…
APRIL
In April, Theresa May called a snap election to be held in June…
Osborne out
Having recently taken on the editorship of the Evening Standard (it doesn’t get any less weird writing that…) there was no way the former Chancellor could campaign and hold down his editorship. So he quit Parliament.
Impact: Osbo’s departure has allowed him to pursue his feud with Theresa May from the pages of the Standard with alacrity. This will not be helpful for Tories fighting local elections in London in May. Some speculation that the former Chancellor wants to edit the Daily Mail in due course, using it as a vehicle to reclaim the centre ground in politics.
Katie Perrior: The Spinner’s departure
Katie Perrior, No 10 Director of Comms, left saying that she didn’t want to work another election campaign. But many people didn’t buy it. There were growing reports of conflict in the No 10 team and it wasn’t clear whether she had jumped or been pushed.
Impact: At the time, fairly minimal. However, there was a sting in the tail to Perrior’s departure...
JUNE
…the election didn’t go well. Tory acrimony following June’s underperformance was almost worthy of the Trump White House.
Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy: The joint resignations
The knives quickly came out for the PM’s Chiefs of Staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill. Free of the constraints of working in Downing Street, Perrior wrote an excoriating attack on the duo in The Times, accusing them of being arrogant and abrasive. Slighted ministers briefed heavily against the joint chiefs. Timothy and Hill, described widely as Theresa May’s brains, resigned on June 10.
Impact: This was the Government close to its nadir. Gavin Barwell, who lost his seat in the election, took the Chief of Staff role. Nick Timothy became a newspaper columnist, Fiona Hill seems to have left politics entirely. The change in personnel at Number 10 since has almost certainly allowed space for a more gradualist approach to Brexit, and a less confrontational approach to relations between No 10 and the rest of Government.
David Jones and George Bridges: The Brexit Exits
David Jones was fired as a Brexit minister. David Davis was reportedly unaware of this and the reasons for his firing were never made clear. Another Brexit minister, Lord Bridges, quit after a bust-up with the PM. Half the ministers in the Brexit Department gone. No one really remembers this now.
Impact: The DExEU ministers were quickly replaced (by Steve Baker and Baroness Anelay), but questions about the ability of the department to deal with the Brexit deluge persist.
SEPTEMBER
Boris Johnson: The non-resignation
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has at several moments been close to resigning according to his friends, most notably in the lead-up to the PM’s crucial Florence speech in September, where he felt he had not been consulted. He did not resign.
Impact: Boris remains in position.
NOVEMBER
November was a month of total mayhem…
Sir Michael Fallon: The Weinstein effect (1)
Michael Fallon’s resignation as Defence Secretary in the midst of the Westminster harassment scandal in October left unanswered questions about precisely what he had done that had fallen short of the standards expected. A weekly gossip email had some scurrilous suggestions which are not appropriate for a family newsletter like this. Fallon, an old pro, resigned quickly and without fuss – rapidly drawing a line under the story.
Impact: The loss of one of Cabinet’s most experienced figures – he had served under Thatcher - should have made a bigger impact than it did. However, his departure was soon driven out of the news by some good old Blue on Blue fire. Chief Whip Gavin Williamson got Fallon’s coveted role, leading to much sniping from colleagues about his lack of experience.
Priti Patel: The Flight Radar firing
The higher you climb, the further you fall
Within a week, International Development Secretary Priti Patel was busted for not being entirely straight with the PM about the nature of a protocol-busting visit she had made to Israel. Summoned back from an official visit in Africa by the PM to be fired, political anoraks worked out which Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to London she would be on. Thousands tracked the Boeing 787s progress on the Flight Radar app.
Flight Radar’s blog said: The most unexpectedly popular flight this year was Kenya Airways flight KQ100 from Nairobi to London on 8 November…The flight was viewed 250,000 times as she was summoned back to the UK.
Impact: Patel was replaced by fellow Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt. Patel has used her new freedom to press for a hard Brexit from the outside. She may fancy herself a future leadership contender.
David Davis: Another non-resignation.
Another periodic non-resignation has been that of David Davis. At various times he has reportedly been ‘frustrated’ and considering stepping down because he has been sidelined or sidestepped.
Impact: He remains in post and enjoys the PM’s full support: a Downing Street spox said cheekily that Davis had the role for ‘as long as he wanted it’.
DECEMBER
Damian Green: The Weinstein effect (2)
PM: I have accepted the resignation I asked you to make...
A cloud had hung over Damian Green, the de facto Deputy Prime Minister, since it was announced he was under investigation by the Cabinet Office head of ethics, Sue Gray over accusations over his conduct towards Kate Maltby, a Tory activist and journalist. Then a couple of retired Police officers said that they had found inappropriate images on his Parliamentary computer, excavating a story dating back some years.
Green’s account of what he had known and when in relation to some of the accusations that had been made were found to be ‘inaccurate and misleading’. This cost him his job.
Impact: The back story – retired coppers with a score to settle, dodgy images on a workplace computer, text messages about corsetry and the such made this the most multi-layered resignation of the year. It will complicate tricky relations between the Government and the police. The PM clearly regrets having lost an ally, especially under such circumstances. The vacancy has not been filled, giving the PM an opportunity to exercise her powers of patronage without having to upset a very delicately balanced and Cabinet.
Lord Adonis: most predictable resignation
2017 ended as it began with a resignation over Brexit. Labour peer Lord Adonis quit as Head of the National Infrastructure Commission, apparently after a experiencing a moment of clarity in a church in the Austrian Alps. An honourable mention for the venom of his resignation letter which said ‘Brexit is a populist and nationalist spasm worthy of Donald Trump’. He accused Theresa May of leading a UKIP-inspired government. He has vowed to fight the Withdrawal Bill tooth and nail in the Lords. Amongst the most strident of the Brexit reversalists, he seems not to have a problem with the abject lack of clarity of his own party’s position on Brexit.
Impact: Lord Adonis now has more time to spend with his Twitter account.
This was just a list from the top of my head…Are there any I’ve missed?