Michael Gove and Boris Johnson didn’t arrive at last week’s Cabinet meeting wearing military fatigues or sporting dark green berets. But as the latest astonishing details of their Brexit coup reveal, they might as well have done.
‘The situation in our country has moved to another level,’ Zimbabwean military spokesman Major General S B Moyo told the world on Wednesday. And as we now know, the situation inside Theresa May’s embattled Downing Street bunker has moved to another level too.
It was a plan hatched in secret: ‘For your and Gavin’s eyes only.’ It involved the swift and ruthless imprisonment of their opponents: ‘We need to identify the responsibility of individual Cabinet Ministers and submit them to a process that produces action.’
Theresa May is a ‘prisoner of the Brexit crocodiles’ such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, says Dan Hodges
All existing political and Civil Service structures would be swept away, replaced by a sinister ‘Implementation Task Force’, whose leader ‘should have direct authority to mobilise Whitehall on Brexit issues’.
And it culminated in their order to the Prime Minister to publicly endorse their prepared statement: ‘You wish for an end state best described as a FTA and association agreement.’
Priti Patel was sacked from the Cabinet for engaging in freelance discussions with Israeli officials over a small slice of her aid budget.
‘Michael Gove and Boris Johnson didn’t arrive at last week’s Cabinet meeting wearing military fatigues or sporting dark green berets. But as the latest astonishing details of their Brexit coup reveal, they might as well have done,’ says Dan Hodges
As the memo graphically reveals, Gove and Johnson are engaged in a freelance attempt to sideline the Prime Minister, seize control of Government, stab their Cabinet colleagues in the back and unilaterally dictate the direction of the most significant British foreign and economic policy decision since the war.
Or, as a close ally framed it to me last week: ‘That letter was them setting out the price of their loyalty.’
What a price. The Brexit negotiations are so sensitive, the Prime Minister has precluded discussion of the desired ‘end state’ within Cabinet.
Priti Patel was sacked from the Cabinet for engaging in freelance discussions with Israeli officials over a small slice of her aid budget
Yet Gove and Johnson are bullying May towards signing up to a Singapore-on-Sea model of Brexit.
David Davis has been labouring to break down the intransigence of EU negotiators. And while he’s been doing so, Gove and Johnson have been secretly plotting to snatch command of the negotiations for themselves.
Transport, taxation, immigration policy. In each area – areas beyond their respective briefs – they have presented additional demands to Downing Street. And they have again done so behind the backs of the Chancellor, Home Secretary and Transport Secretary.
We currently live in the golden age of the conspiracy theory. But you don’t need to believe JFK was assassinated by an alien hitman hired by Lord Lucan to notice the following pattern.
The letter was delivered shortly after the Tory Conference. It attacked Philip Hammond, and called on May to endorse preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
It called for a ‘Brexit Tsar’. It demanded a specific end-date for the Brexit transition.
Johnson is bullying May towards signing up to a Singapore-on-Sea model of Brexit, writes Dan Hodges
And, lo and behold, up popped Theresa May to confirm she was preparing for a no-deal Brexit.
The Chancellor issued a public mea culpa. Michael Gove was suddenly appointed to an expanded Brexit war cabinet. And out of nowhere – and to the bemusement of all – it was announced that March 29, 2019, would be enshrined as the day Britain left the EU.
Or maybe not quite all. You have to hand it to Johnson and Gove – they’ve got more front than Selfridges. Johnson is an international anti-Red Adair, starting conflagrations wherever he goes.
A letter attacking chancellor Philip Hammond called on May to endorse preparations for a no-deal Brexit
Gove has been back in the Cabinet for only five months, with responsibility for protecting bees and the purity of the nation’s fertiliser.
Yet they have manoeuvered themselves into a position where they are running a de-facto joint premiership. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister remains under political house arrest in Downing Street.
‘We are keen to do everything we can to help,’ the Brexit crocodiles state soothingly. But helping her is the last thing on their minds. Their primary goal, as ever, is helping themselves.
Sacking the crocodiles ‘would require courage and strength’ – ‘and while Theresa May still possesses reserves of the former, she appears drained of the latter,’ says Dan Hodges
It’s difficult to see what May can do to escape their clutches. I understand an offer from the EU was made to settle the Brexit negotiations as long ago as the beginning of April, with €60 billion the price tag. At that time, May judged it politically unsustainable to settle on those terms.
And were she to try to do so now, it’s likely Johnson would resign in a blaze of self- righteous Eurosceptic glory, triggering an immediate leadership crisis.
She could appeal to the rest of the Cabinet to come to her rescue, but few Cabinet Ministers will embark on such a politically hazardous mission, especially given May’s shelf-life is already measured in months, rather than years.
There is one other course of action available to her. She could sack them – or at least sack one of them – shattering at a stroke their conspiratorial alliance.
But that would require courage and strength. And while Theresa May still possesses reserves of the former, she appears drained of the latter.
So she will remain their prisoner, an impotent occupant of her gilded Downing Street cage. But do not be alarmed. There is no coup. Theresa May is safe.
Go about your business.
- Philip Hammond is facing an almost impossible task this week as he attempts to deliver ‘The Immaculate Budget’. With Tory MPs desperate for him to re-energise their political fortunes, and his enemies waiting to pounce on the slightest error, it’s hard to see how he can successfully meet everyone’s expectations. ‘The problem with the Budget is there are so many moving parts,’ a Minister tells me. ‘It only takes one little thing like the Pasty Tax and everything unravels. It has to be perfect. But given there are so many people hoping he falls flat on his face, I just don’t see how he gets through this.’ Could Phil have completed his last spreadsheet?
Chancellor Philip Hammond faces ‘an almost impossible task’ as he attempts to prepare ‘The Immaculate Budget’ this week
- As reshuffle speculation continues, some backbenchers have sprung to the defence of the so-called Inbetweeners – the cadre of unflashy, workmanlike Ministers who keep the wheels of Government turning. ‘You’ve got people like Chris Grayling, Greg Clark and Karen Bradley who just get on with the job, don’t plot and don’t chase headlines,’ one MP tells me, ‘and yet people are agitating for them to be dumped in favour of young blood. Bringing new talent through is fine, but you also have to reward people who do the unglamorous stuff.’ They may get a reprieve, as time is running out for a major shake-up this side of Christmas.
‘You’ve got to admire people like Chris Grayling,’ says one MP, who adds he, Karen Bradley and Greg Clark ‘just get on with the job’