Why the exodus of Remainers will give Boris Johnson the ‘do or die’ Government and sense of collective responsibility he needs to deliver Brexit
THE champagne will have to stay on ice for a while. The celebration party will have to be delayed. The new Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will inherit from Theresa May a savagely tough legacy. He immediately has the formidable task of trying to deliver Brexit without a Commons majority, in the face of blind […]
THE champagne will have to stay on ice for a while. The celebration party will have to be delayed.
The new Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will inherit from Theresa May a savagely tough legacy.
He immediately has the formidable task of trying to deliver Brexit without a Commons majority, in the face of blind intransigence from Brussels, bitter divisions in his own party, cynical opportunism from the Labour, and procedural antics from the Speaker John Bercow, who has proved himself only too keen to facilitate the Remain cause in Parliament.
The colossal nature of the challenge was emphasised again earlier this week by the resignation of the Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan, a long-standing critic of Johnson, whom he once accused of being nothing more than “a circus act”.
Duncan’s exit from the Government could just be the start of a lengthy catalogue of Ministerial resignations during Johnson’s first hours in Downing Street.
At the weekend, on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the Chancellor Philip Hammond – who has increasingly become the Tory champion of the Remainers in recent months – explained with relish how he was not “going to be sacked because I am going to resign before we get to that point,” adding that he could never “sign up to no deal.”
The same course is proposed by at least ten other ministers, headed by the Justice Secretary David Gauke.
Because of him, this group of potential rebels is known as “the Gaukeward Squad”.
Their number includes several members of the Cabinet, like Business Secretary Greg Clark, leadership contender Rory Stewart, Northern Ireland boss Karen Bradley and David Lidington, who was effectively May’s Deputy Prime Minister.
At first glance, this exodus of senior Tory figures should be a disastrous setback for Johnson, yet the picture is not as bleak as it initially appears.
Can’t claim moral high ground
Through their resignations, the Remainer ex-Ministers could end up doing the Boris Government a favour. For a start, many of them are not as principled as they claim.
Too often, they are seeking to turn political failure into a badge of virtue, given that most of them were on the way out anyway.
They cannot claim the moral high ground, just because they decided to jump before they were pushed.
In the case of Sir Alan Duncan, who loves to lecture Boris about his failings, it was reported that in 2016 he tried to join the board of the Vote Leave campaign.
Having been rebuffed, he then decided to support Remain.
Dead wood to be stripped
Others are dead wood that should be removed. Karen Bradley has been a woeful Northern Irish Secretary, hopelessly out of her depth, ignorant about the province’s politics and incapable of breaking the stalemate over devolved rule.
The greatest skill of ineffectual Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington lies in mouthing emollient platitudes rather than driving government through Parliament.
Nor has Ann Milton, another rumoured quitter, impressed as Skills Minister, despite the importance of apprenticeships to economic growth.
And the leader of the Gaukeward squad, the Justice Secretary David Gauke, peddles the softly-softly approach on prisons and sentencing that has badly undermined the fight against crime.
Far more cohesion and collective responsibility
Just as importantly, the absence of the Remainers could bring a new sense of unity and purpose to the Cabinet.
One of the terminal weaknesses of Theresa May’s Government was that its members were pulling in different directions, with the Prime Minister unable to exert her authority.
That problem was seen at its worst in Hammond’s refusal to provide the resources for proper no deal preparations, something that grievously weakened the Government’s leverage in negotiations with the EU.
But with the Remainers gone, there will be far more cohesion under Boris.
There will also be a return to collective responsibility within the Government.
This convention, which holds that Cabinet decisions are binding on all Ministers, developed in the 18th century when the Monarchy still wielded real political power.
By speaking in public and to the sovereign with one united voice, whatever the private disagreements, Ministers felt they could prevent attempts by the Crown to undermine Parliamentary accountability.
By the 19th century, as representative democracy arrived, collective responsibility had become a pillar of the Parliamentary system of governance, which is partly why Britain functioned so well.
On rare occasions in the 20th century, collective responsibility was suspended to allow Ministers to air publicly their differences, most notably by the National Government in 1932 over tariffs and Harold Wilson’s Labour Government of 1975 over the Common Market referendum.
But generally any Minister who strongly disagreed with a certain policy has had to resign, as Robin Cook did in 2003 in protest at the invasion of Iraq.
In the last decade, however, the concept of Cabinet solidarity has collapsed, first through the Tory-Liberal Democrat Coalition, which allowed Ministers wide leeway to criticise policies they disliked, then the through the chronic dysfunction of Theresa May’s Government, where the Prime Minister lost all her authority.
As we have seen in several recent Parliamentary votes, Remainer Cabinet Ministers, even the Chancellor, have been able to defy the Tory whip without any consequences.
A more united Cabinet will end this self-destructive anarchy.
Real Brexiteers can step up
By clearing out the Remainers, Boris will have the opportunity to promote real Brexiteers into the highest ranks of Government.
Currently Defence Secretary, Penny Mordaunt would make an effective Foreign Secretary, while the experienced Michael Fallon could be an assured Deputy Prime Minister.
Esther McVey, who resigned over May’s Withdrawal Agreement, might come back as party chairman, championing the interests of the working-class.
There is also talk that stalwart Leave campaigner Priti Patel might be Home Secretary under Boris, just as Owen Patersonn, through his good relations with the DUP and expertise on the Irish border question, could be elevated to the Cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary.
Promotions are also on the cards for Michael Gove, one of the architects of the referendum victory, now reconciled to Boris, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who may become Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
It would be, not so much a Ministry of All the Talents as a Ministry of the Faithful, exactly what is needed at this hour when democracy is in danger.
most read in opinion
The broad-based approach, accommodating every viewpoint, has been tried and found badly wanting.
For the last three years, the desperate quest for compromise has resulted only in paralysis and despair.
A bolder, more resolute stance is needed to implement the referendum decision, its spirit embodied in Boris’s pledge to “do or die”.
The battle against the unscrupulous Remain lobby will be hard, but with a harmonious, pro-Brexit Government, it can still be won.