Politics took a backseat at the start of June for a few brief, merciful days, as the country poured into the capital to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. While Boris and Carrie smiled for the cameras like it was business as usual – ignoring some booing that greeted them as they headed into Saint Paul’s – Tory Grim Reaper Sir Graham Brady was locked in his study, sifting through a mail pile the size of Mount Everest. Finally, with a growing sense of inevitability, the magic number had been reached: a confidence vote was coming.
On June 6, Brady announced the threshold to trigger a vote in Boris’s leadership had been met, and would take place the same day. Tory MPs assembled into their tribes, with Guido revealing a “bunch of malcontent remoaner ex-ministers” had immediately begged Ministers not to support Boris. Steve Brine was accused of leading the charge. Unfortunately for Steve, the rallying call fell mostly on deaf ears, with one furious Minister telling Guido “[Brine] can f**k right off.”
Nonetheless, the outcome wasn’t great: Boris won, though only with a 63 vote victory, 211 to 148. Despite hailing the result as “extremely good”, the piglet had greased his escape by a narrow margin; 41% of Conservative MPs had voted against him. The turkeys were ruffling their feathers and making it clear they were voting for Christmas. Still, according to the 1922 Committee rules, Boris was – in theory – now safe for a year. Surely there was still time to turn things around…
In the meantime, Westminster’s model of integrity Keir Starmer was placed under yet another investigation. This time it was with Sleaze Commissioner Kathryn Stone, who was looking into allegations Starmer had broken MP rules registering his outside earnings, gifts, benefits and hospitality. A week or so later, David Lammy joined him too. The party of decency really enjoys making Stone work for her paycheques…
June was also the month the Rwanda migrant scheme was supposed to whir into motion. The first flights were set for June 14, with the Court of Appeal clearing the way for the planes to leave the tarmac the previous day – despite the best efforts of Labour’s favourite law firm. Sure as the sunrise, however, the ECHR waded in to ground the first flight at the eleventh hour, granting an “urgent interim measure” for one of the passengers. Still, while Priti may have failed in getting the Rwanda flights off the ground, she did at least succeed in confiscating Steve Bray’s boombox. For a while, anyway…
All in all, it was a pretty miserable month for the government: a white-knuckle confidence vote, an immigration policy in a tailspin, and a party still reeling from local election losses across the country. There were hopes that the upcoming summer recess would give time to take stock, reorganise, and come back stronger. Then Chris Pincher paid a visit to the Carlton Club…
Honourable Mentions:
Headline of the month: Shadow Minister Resigned Three Hours Ago, No One Noticed
