Thanks to Boris Johnson’s powerful new central government machine, this will be our finest hour
BORIS Johnson has created the most powerful central government machine in British political history.
He has yoked together the three most influential parts of government: No10, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.
No department or agency will be able to resist the power of this new centre.
It will have 46 WEEKS to get Britain ready for life outside the EU, to start trade negotiations with the US, Australia and Japan and to prepare for the biggest event in international diplomacy this year, the UN climate change summit in Glasgow.
The rationale behind this move is simple: What is the point of being in power if you are not actually in charge?
Boris wants to bring an emphatic end to a decade of WEAK GOVERNMENT.
He believes this new set-up is what will enable him to deliver on his promises to you, the electorate.
Boris cut his journalistic and political teeth when Tony Blair and his Chancellor Gordon Brown were tearing lumps out of each other.
He was determined to avoid that fate for his own government.
FRESH START
So he was irritated by a series of stories bigging up the power of the Treasury.
Opinion in No10 was divided about whether these were a result of incompetence or malice.
Boris himself thought that incompetence was to blame and that was why he assumed that Sajid Javid would agree to a joint Number 10/11 operation.
As he put it to Javid in their conversation on Thursday, they needed to make “a fresh start” and stop the bickering between their teams.
But Javid refused, going as far as to suggest that it was PM’s aide Dominic Cummings who should be dismissed, not all but one of his aides.
“‘We weren’t just going to roll over and let them walk all over us,” one ally of Javid’s tells me.
Javid had issues with Cummings.
At a No10 party on Brexit night, he looked glum as all around him cheered as the PM hailed Cummings for the referendum result and the Tories’ election victory.
Javid’s refusal to agree to this joint team sealed his fate.
No10 had been convinced that the Treasury were hiding information from them and Javid’s refusal left them with a sense that they were heading for Blair/Brown-style relationship if they didn’t act.
There were already problems, according to one Secretary of State: “I was being asked by No10 to be more ambitious, but No11 were then refusing to support it.”
THE BIG CHALLENGE
Relations between new Chancellor Rishi Sunak and No10 will be very different.
As a Brexiteer and early Boris backer, there is no fear he is pursuing some separate agenda.
Inside Downing Street, they say that now they trust the Chancellor, they’ll be more inclined to listen to what the Treasury has to say.
The big challenge for this new centre is Brexit.
At the end of this year, our borders are going to change.
In terms of both immigration and trade, it will be the biggest upheaval of the post-war era.
Being prepared for this is going to take a monumental effort.
I am told that there will be no change of strategy in the trade talks with the EU.
The UK will remain prepared to walk away unless the EU has a change of heart and stops trying to demand that the UK signs up to following EU rules on various matters even after the transition period has ended.
With the top-five figures in the Government — Johnson, Sunak, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Michael Gove — all being not just Brexiteers but believers in the value of the UK making its own rules, this government ISN’T GOING TO BLINK as the trade deal deadline looms.
The decision to bring together the three most powerful parts of government is a bold move.
It is too early to say whether it will work or not.
But given the scale of the challenges this government faces at home and abroad, Boris is going to need all the muscle that he can get.
Suella steps up to take on judges
ONE of the most significant appointments of this week’s reshuffle was Suella Braverman as Attorney General.
The 39-year-old lawyer is serious about taking on judges who she thinks are involving themselves in issues that should be left to Parliament.
“The key issue for the new AG and many others is that ‘metropolitan liberal elite’ policies that have been rejected by the electorate are being imposed by courts, both domestic and foreign,” one Boris ally tells me.
The view in Whitehall is that since the Human Rights Act has been introduced, no government has challenged the increasing role of judges.
The Blair government was essentially happy with it, David Cameron was constrained by coalition with the Liberal Democrats and Theresa May was too weak to do anything.
But this administration intends to, regarding the current situation as an affront to our parliamentary system.
Its spine has been stiffened by the fact that in just the last week, the Government has been blocked by the Appeal Court in London from deporting prisoners, who are foreign nationals, on the grounds that the mobile reception where they were being held was not good enough.
'PRIVILEGED CRIMINALS OVER VICTIMS'
It also lost a case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg involving the police keeping the DNA of convicted criminals.
The aim, I understand, is to reverse the tide of decisions that has “privileged criminals over victims”.
I understand that preparatory work is already under way for the Government’s Democracy and Rights Commission, which is meant to come up with a solution to this problem.
I’m told there is a growing sense at the top of government that dealing with these problems while remaining under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights might be impossible.
There is now a willingness to examine leaving the court if that is what is required to rebalance the relationship between judges and politicians.
Labour headed for Keir crash
THERE is mounting concern among the more sensible elements of the Labour Party about Sir Keir Starmer.
Despite a massive advantage in both the polls and constituency Labour Party nominations, the leadership front-runner keeps coming out with more and more left-wing policies.
This week, he revealed ten pledges which included a commitment to “defend free movement”, mass nationalisations and a Prevention of Military Intervention Act.
Starmer is more moderate than Jeremy Corbyn but is still to the left of Ed Miliband – and as the latter’s general election defeat in 2015 showed, that is not where the public is.
Sasha swoops in
SPECULATION is rife in the Cameron set that Sasha Swire is set to write a revelatory book about the Cameron years.
Sasha is married to Hugo Swire, an Old Etonian who was one of ex-PM David’s earliest backers in 2005.
The couple remained close to the Camerons and the Osbornes over the years.
They know a huge amount about what the Camerons and their friends think about the country and the Tory party – which explains the nervousness among many of that set.
Axed Sajid finally gets to ski-daddle
AFTER Sajid Javid left Boris Johnson’s room in No10 on Thursday, he remarked: “Well, I guess I can definitely go on that skiing holiday now.”
Javid had been unlucky with his travels in the past.
MOST READ IN OPINION
In 2016, as Business Secretary, he had to return early from a holiday in Australia to deal with a crisis at Port Talbot steel works.
At the end of 2018, as Home Secretary, he had to cut short a deluxe safari holiday to come back to deal with migrants attempting to cross the Channel illegally.
Javid can take solace in the fact that this time his holiday will not be disturbed. Life out of office has its consolations.
- James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator
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