London Playbook: Rishi vs. Keir — Suella of a lot
of trouble — Meet the new Cabinet
BY ELENI
COUREA
OCTOBER 26,
2022 8:07 AM
POLITICO
London Playbook
By ELENI
COUREA
Good
Wednesday morning. This is Eleni Courea, writing Playbook for the rest of the
week.
DRIVING THE
DAY
RISHI VS.
KEIR: Rishi Sunak becomes the latest No. 10 occupant to square up to Keir
Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions today after announcing a slate of largely
low-risk Cabinet appointments (with one notable exception) in his unity-first
reshuffle.
Less unity,
more continuity: Lined up behind the prime minister at noon will be his, err,
new-look Cabinet — which actually looks quite a lot like the last few Cabinets.
Liz Truss’ two original picks for the great offices of state have stayed, as
has backstop Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, while several of Boris Johnson’s ministers
have been restored to their positions. Read on for Playbook’s pen portraits of
the main appointees — and the row brewing over Suella Braverman’s return as
home secretary.
But first …
today’s diary: Sunak will chair the first meeting of his new Cabinet this
morning before heading to parliament for PMQs. He’ll carry on with the
reshuffle after that.
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PMQs
preview: No one expects today’s Sunak vs. Starmer show-down to be a hugely
exciting affair.“Short and serious,” one Labour adviser quipped, “and that’s
just the principals.” Expect a lot of energetic cheering from Tory MPs in the
chamber, half of whom feel they’ve got their party back and the other half
reckon that at least things should calm down a bit now.
The mood in
Westminster: Tory MPs wandering around the estate on Tuesday (and trying not to
check their phones too often) expressed a mixture of relief and apprehension.
“I’m not saying the next few months are going to be easy but at least I’m not
constantly embarrassed anymore,” one said to Playbook. “This is the first time
I’ve felt happy coming into work since the Owen Paterson scandal.”
Let’s
rewind the clock … to the last and (Playbook thinks) only time Sunak and
Starmer went head to head in the Commons, when the Labour leader responded to
the then-chancellor’s March 2021 budget. Playbook spent a bit of time yesterday
watching clips of that encounter (sadly it’s not riveting stuff). The Commons
was nearly empty because of COVID rules. Starmer wore reading glasses. “It’s
clear the chancellor is now betting on a recovery fueled by a consumer spending
blitz — and in fairness, if my next-door neighbor was spending tens of
thousands of pounds redecorating their flat, I’d probably do the same,” he
joked. We’ve come a long way since then. (Another fun fact: sitting across from
Sunak as he delivered his first budget in March 2020 was Jeremy Corbyn.)
Some
actually useful advice: One Labour source suggests to Playbook that Starmer
should make reference to this toe-curling leaked video from over the summer. In
it, Sunak tells Tory members in a garden in Tunbridge Wells that he had made
sure government funding going to deprived inner-city areas could be redirected
to places like theirs.
Labouring
away: The Guardian’s Jess Elgot reports that said clip will form a key part of
Labour’s attacks. She has a detailed piece on how Labour is preparing for this
new Sunak-shaped challenge, reporting that the party is planning highly
aggressive attacks on how the “ruthless” new PM “stabbed Boris Johnson in the
back when he thought he could get his job,” as well as his Partygate fine and
his defeat in the leadership contest by Truss, which Labour will paint as a
humiliation.
And some of
the wackier stuff: Elgot also reports that Labour advisers think they can draw
a character distinction between “weird guy” Sunak attempting to present himself
as slick and Starmer as, erm, a “reliable centrist dad.” Shadow ministers can
apparently be expected to allude to Sunak’s occasional struggles with
contactless card payments and refer to the fact his family buys multiple kinds
of bread. Might need a bit of work.
SUELLA OF A
LOT OF TROUBLE
LEAKY SUE?
Forget PMQs — the real fireworks are likely to come as a result of Suella
Braverman’s return to the Home Office, widely rumored to be the outcome of a
secret deal which saw her endorse him at a critical moment. By backing Sunak on
Sunday afternoon, Braverman effectively ended Boris Johnson’s attempted
comeback, making it clear that the Tory right weren’t going to support the
former PM en masse.
Alarm bells
ringing: It’s fair to say Braverman’s reappointment has drawn the ire of people
on opposite sides of the Tory Party. One Truss ally told Playbook last night
that Braverman was known in government as “leaky Sue,” and said: “Suella was
sacked less than a week ago for multiple breaches of the ministerial code. She
intentionally leaked OBR sensitive information and then lied to the prime
minister and the country about what happened. She did not, as she claims,
inform officials immediately, but was caught out because she cc’d the wrong
person who then informed the chief whip. She will be aggressively briefing
about the new PM from day one.” Another Tory source messaged: “You can’t leak
market sensitive information and be in charge of national security.”
On the
Case: Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is “livid” about Braverman’s speedy
reinstatement after she was sacked on his advice and has made his concerns
clear internally, the Times’ Matt Dathan and Steve Swinford report.
Not
everyone agrees: A Braverman ally told Playbook that “the fact that allies of
Liz Truss still want to give hostile briefings to journalists is very sad.
Suella supported Liz as prime minister since she was knocked out of the race.
This time she backed Rishi, and right now she’s focused on dealing with
immigration, security, the small boats crisis and policing.” Meanwhile, the
Telegraph leader welcomes Braverman’s chance “to prove her abilities” after she
was forced to resign “over a technicality.”
To
understand what happened … It’s worth looking back at Tim Shipman’s Sunday
Times read over the weekend. An aggressive briefing and counter-briefing
operation kicked off on Wednesday after it emerged Braverman had forwarded
confidential papers to her private Gmail account and then onto veteran
backbencher John Hayes, copying in someone she thought was Hayes’s wife — but
was actually a staffer to Tory MP Andrew Percy. “She doesn’t make any decision
without consulting John Hayes,” a No. 10 source told Shipman, who reports Hayes
was frequently seen in the Home Office and that concerns had been raised before
that Braverman might have been sharing restricted government documents with
people she shouldn’t have.
Watch this
space: Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said yesterday that “our
national security and public safety are too important for this kind of chaos.”
A Labour source said the party was pursuing all channels to question the
appointment, given the “security lapses” which triggered her resignation a week
ago. One avenue the party could try to pursue is seeking an urgent question in
the Commons.
On the
attack: Playbook’s Angela Rayner told Playbook last night: “This reshuffle
looks like Rishi Sunak making good on the IOUs he doled out in exchange for
support because he was too weak to face his own party. The new prime minister’s
priority is party management over governing in the national interest, even if
it means reappointing as home secretary a minister who just last week was
forced to resign for security lapses.”
And
finally: A Lib Dem source said: “Glad to see the Home Office now believes in the
rehabilitation of offenders.”
THE
RI-SHUFFLE
OR IS IT A
HE-SHUFFLE? There were whispers that yesterday’s Cabinet refresh would be a
pretty laddish affair, and so it was. Just seven of the ministers attending the
new Cabinet are women — with three times as many men. “Looks like Rishi has a
woman problem. It’s like Boris’s cabinet, without Boris,” an insider tells the
Sun.
Something
to watch: There is a question mark over how the relationship between Sunak and
his chancellor will shape up. The Guardian splash notes the pair “irritated
each other” during the pandemic, with Hunt arguing for big COVID interventions
as health committee chairman while Sunak was making the case for reopening the
economy. The FT similarly suggests that “some Tory MPs believe that Sunak will
want to replace him eventually with someone who is politically closer to him.”
Question 1:
Will the next fiscal event now take place on October 31 as planned? The Times’
Oli Wright reports Sunak is considering delaying it by a couple of days or
until later next month to “get under the bonnet” of the Treasury’s plans and
will meet Hunt to discuss them today. The Mail’s Jason Groves reports there
were talks last night.
Also
raising questions: Dominic Raab’s reappointment to justice secretary, with
supporters of Brandon Lewis arguing he did a better job in that department. One
Whitehall insider pointed out: “They solved the barristers’ strike about five
minutes after he left.”
BEST OF
LUCK TO … Gillian Keegan, who has become the fifth person to serve as U.K.
education secretary in 114 days, giving recent occupants of the post the
average lifespan of a housefly.
Good luck
also to … Ex-Transport Secretary Anne Marie Trevelyan, whose political fate was
left unclear last night after she was replaced in that role by Mark Harper.
WHAT THE
PAPERS ARE SAYING: The reshuffle is widely praised in right-leaning papers,
whose leader-writers appear palpably relieved to disembark the emotional
rollercoaster that has been Truss’ premiership. The Sun says Sunak “kept the
best performers and sacked duds for far better options” (but questions the
return of Williamson and Mitchell). The Times — the only paper to back Sunak in
the summer — says most of his ministers have “shown ability in office” and that
his first day “conveys a sense of seriousness.” The Mail describes Sunak’s
performance as “statesmanlike and eloquent” and says this is the “calm after
the storm — we hope.” The Telegraph welcomes the return of Raab and Gove and
re-appointments of Cleverly and Wallace but warns of “a risk that the new
government will be associated with the very mistakes that led us to the present
situation.”
NOW READ
THIS: If his top appointments are any indication, the Sunak era of government
in Britain could actually be quite boring, my POLITICO colleague Emilio
Casalicchio writes in his sum-up of the Cabinet appointments. Boris Johnson
supporter Michael Fabricant; a Cabinet minister who didn’t back Sunak in either
leadership race; and One Nation grandee Nicky Morgan all told Emilio the
reshuffle looked like a bid for unity from a PM who looks serious about
delivering.
But but
but: There was some eyebrow raising not just at the ruthless sackings the
reshuffle began with, but also the demotions and other decisions that looked
like slaps on the wrists of non-supporters — the most notable being the failure
to promote his former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt. She kept her job as
leader of the House of Commons, but the move was seen in some quarters of
Westminster as a snub, after her allies had briefed that she was in line for a
major promotion.
Soft
revenge: One former Cabinet minister argued the failure to promote Mordaunt
looked like “an act of revenge or small-mindedness” after she refused to pull
out of the leadership race until it was clear she was unable to make the
ballot. Yet even some Sunak critics argued not sacking her outright was an
olive branch, while one person familiar with the discussions on her appointment
said she had been offered a different role but refused it. One of Mordaunt’s
allies said she was pleased to keep her existing brief and believes continuity
on a tight legislative program is vital.
THE BOTTOM
LINE: In his analysis for the Times, Henry Zeffman examines the calculations
behind Sunak’s decisions to keep Cleverly and Braverman in post while sacking
Kit Malthouse and Simon Clarke to make space for his own allies. “He has
decided that retaining so many of Johnson and Truss’s people is the most direct
route to asserting his authority over a feuding party. However if he succeeds
in taking control, he may want to carry out a more radical reshuffle before
long,” he concludes.
CABINET PEN
PORTRAITS
JEREMY
HUNT: Stays put as chancellor. Veteran Cabinet minister of the David Cameron
and Theresa May years. Lost his chance to be prime minister in the 2019 race
against Boris Johnson. Ran again this summer and got just 19 backers. Now
forever indebted to Liz Truss for resurrecting his political career. Got mixed
up once while in China and said his Chinese wife was Japanese. Star of a
popular meme.
DOMINIC
RAAB: Restored to his exact old job of deputy prime minister and justice
secretary. Brexiteer and late-term Johnson loyalist who “couldn’t have been
more helpful” to the Sunak campaign, according to a gushing aide who spoke to
the Times. Famous for his idiosyncratic Pret sandwich choices. Black belt in
karate. Fluent in Portuguese.
SUELLA
BRAVERMAN: Actually named Sue-Ellen, after the character in Dallas. Brought
back as home secretary days after breaking the ministerial code. Reportedly
made this her condition for endorsing Sunak. Daughter of immigrants from Kenya
and Mauritius. Darling of the European Research Group and Tory right. General
troublemaker. One to watch.
JAMES
CLEVERLY: Backed Liz Truss then Johnson. Gets to stay foreign secretary anyway.
Owes something to Penny Mordaunt for that (more below). Brexiteer and former
British Army lieutenant. Likes playing fantasy wargames and painting Warhammer
figurines in his spare time. South London native.
BEN
WALLACE: Stays put as defense secretary to continue steering the U.K.’s
response to the invasion of Ukraine and growing Russian aggression. Survivor of
every Cabinet reshuffle since Boris Johnson first became prime minister. Former
British Army captain who served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize and Northern
Ireland. Briefly worked as ski instructor. Middle name is Lobban.
GRANT
SHAPPS: Moved to business secretary. Fan of pivot tables and architect of
Westminster’s most-written-about spreadsheet. Also good at aliases. First
declared his intention to be a Tory Cabinet minister aged 13. Now deployed as a
safe pair of hands by Tory governments facing difficult broadcast rounds. Small
plane owner. Cousin of Clash lead guitarist Mick Jones.
PENNY
MORDAUNT: Socially liberal Brexiteer and good communicator. Often compared to
Boris Johnson as a result. Everyone thought she’d be PM for a few heady days in
the summer. Had to abandon her second leadership bid on Monday after failing to
hit 100 backers. Wanted to be foreign secretary but paid a price for refusing
to pull out and back Sunak. Claims she has the resting face of “a bulldog
chewing a wasp,” which may well get another outing on the front bench today.
KEMI
BADENOCH: Stays at international trade and picks up the equalities brief.
Daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Captured the hearts of Tory members in the
summer with her insurgent leadership campaign. Unapologetically outspoken. Put
in shifts at McDonald’s as a student in south London. Later worked on digital
projects for the Spectator. Had to apologize in 2018 after confessing she once
hacked Harriet Harman’s website.
GILLIAN
KEEGAN: Promoted to education secretary. First holder of the role to leave
school at 16 since Alan Johnson. Former shop-floor apprentice who went to a
comprehensive. Used to travel to Tokyo to negotiate contracts for Natwest. Then
became fluent in Spanish while working for Mastercard in Madrid. Grew up in
Labour-voting Merseyside.
GAVIN
WILLIAMSON: Becomes a minister without a portfolio in the Cabinet Office.
Machiavellian former chief whip who kept a pet tarantula named Cronus on his
desk. Former fireplace salesman. Definitely wasn’t Sunak’s campaign whip.
Sacked as education secretary by Johnson after presiding over two years of
school and exam chaos during the pandemic. Sacked as defense secretary by May
for allegedly leaking state secrets, which he denies.
NADHIM
ZAHAWI: Moved to Tory chairman. Son of Iraqi Kurdish immigrants. Propelled up
the career ladder after overseeing the coronavirus vaccine rollout. Backed
Johnson’s leadership bid on Sunday in an article that went up minutes before
the former PM withdrew from the race. Quickly reverse-ferreted to support
Sunak. Keen horse rider who owns stables in Tysoe.
MICHELLE
DONELAN: Stays culture secretary. Decided to go into Conservative politics aged
6 and addressed the party’s conference in Blackpool aged 15. Once crowned a
Wiltshire farm chili-eating champion. Used to work in marketing for World
Wrestling Entertainment.
MEL STRIDE:
Appointed work and pensions secretary. Might have been chancellor had the
disintegration of the Truss mini-budget not forced her to appoint Hunt 10 days
ago. Former Treasury committee chairman. Father of three. Key Sunak ally who
hosted curry nights for fellow anti-Truss plotters. Founded a multi-million
pound business aged 24 after cold-calling the chairman of Shell.
JOHN GLEN:
The new chief secretary to the Treasury. Another staunch Sunak ally.
Longstanding economic secretary to the Treasury (until he quit to help force
Johnson out in July) finally rewarded with a Cabinet job. Growing up his family
ran a horticultural business in Wiltshire. Spent eight months working for
William Hague and helped him with PMQs prep. Used to be stationed in Paris with
the Foreign Office.
MARK
HARPER: Appointed transport secretary. One of the “gang of five” ex-chief whips
who backed Sunak’s leadership bid — all of whom have now been rewarded with
Cabinet jobs. Former chartered accountant. Raised in a working class family in
Swindon. Briefly ran for Tory leader (along with everyone else) in 2019.
THÉRÈSE
COFFEY: Moved to environment secretary, where she previously served as minister
for more than three years. Said yesterday she was happy to be going home. Key
Truss ally — with the pair referred to as “Liz and Tiz” — and central cog in
her short-lived government. Praised across the party for her stewardship of DWP
during the pandemic. Big karaoke fan.
SIMON HART:
Former Welsh secretary now turned into Sunak’s chief parliamentary enforcer.
Ran the Countryside Alliance for seven years before becoming MP. Delivered the
fateful broadcast round the morning after Chris Pincher’s resignation from
Johnson’s government. Resigned days later.
STEVE
BARCLAY: Appointed health secretary, a job he held in Johnson’s interim
Cabinet. Came to prominence when he was plucked out of nowhere to be appointed
Brexit secretary in the May years. Former lawyer and British Army lieutenant.
Also worked for a bit at Barclay’s (no relation). Rugby fan.
OLIVER
DOWDEN: Former Conservative Party chairman and close Sunak-ally now tasked with
cross-Whitehall coordination. Colleagues call him Olive. Resigned from
Johnson’s Cabinet before it was cool. Did stints in CCHQ and prepared
successive Tory prime ministers for PMQs before becoming an MP. Beat
little-known businessman Rishi Sunak in the selection to become Tory candidate
for Hertsmere in 2015. Once taught English in Japan for a bit.
MICHAEL
GOVE: Reappointed to lead the department of leveling up. Reforming minister.
Adopted son of an Aberdeen fisherman. Sacked by Johnson in July in an act of
revenge for derailing his leadership campaign six years prior. Unfailingly
polite. Separated last year from Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine. Has since
embarked on a European clubbing tour from Scotland to Ibiza.
ANDREW
MITCHELL: Appointed minister for development, and will attend Cabinet. Strong
believer in the commitment to spend 0.7 percent of GDP on aid, which gives us
an indication where Sunak might land on that question. Briefly Cameron’s chief
whip. Forced to resign after sensational claims he had called policemen outside
Downing Street “plebs.” Earned the nickname “Thrasher” at his school thanks to
being “a stern disciplinarian.”
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