2022 likely won’t go down as one of Conor Burns’s favourite years. Not only did his best mate get forced out of the premiership, his life was temporarily ruined by an absurd farce during party conference, after a junior whip spotted him at the bar with a young man. The lack of any impropriety didn’t stop Wendy Morton stripping Conor of both his job and the party whip, only for Rishi’s government to re-admit him to the party after a total failure by Truss’s Whips office to even receive a complaint about Conor’s actions at the Hyatt bar. Not for lack of trying, with the young man in question repeatedly approached to try and get a complaint submitted…
Last night, any hacks standing outside No. 10 may have been surprised to see Conor Burns confidently marching into Downing Street – through the front door rather than the quieter Cabinet Office entrance. It sounds like the PM and Burns coordinated the meeting to defrost relations after Conor’s shocking treatment by the party.
While there’s no ministerial vacancy to allow Burns straight back into government – bar Gavin Williamson’s old job – it’s thought readmitting him will be a priority whenever one arises/when Rishi decides to hold a reshuffle. He may still get some interim non-ministerial role to tide him over. Taking to Instagram, Burns wrote, “After the turbulence of recent months it was good to have a quiet conversation with the Prime Minister last night.” Leaving the topic of conversation to the imagination…
Congratulations to Greg. It’s his third appointment to the same role on six years…
“I was born in Belfast, of a nationalist family. I’m a Catholic, albeit not a great one. I’m openly gay. The idea that I’m here explaining this to the audience in the United States that we are acting on behalf of the DUP? Give me a break”
That shut down that line of questioning…
With the PM heading to Northern Ireland to try and solve the protocol issue and speak to party leaders, you would hope the PM’s SW1 Northern Ireland team would be united at this politically challenging moment. Unfortunately it looks like the Northern Ireland Office isn’t entirely harmonious…
During Lobby today there was some confusion about Minister of State Conor Burns’s time in the US last week. According to the PM’s spokesman he didn’t visit as ‘Minister of State’, he went with a new title as the “PM’s Special Representative to the US on the NI Protocol”. While this technicality may sound unimportant, ‘special representative’ allows Burns to report directly to the PM rather than via his departmental boss, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis. Guido’s since verified this hierarchy of Conor Burns reporting directly to the PM, though a source batting for Brandon Lewis emphasised he is still a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, and as such does still very much report to the Secretary of State on the wider range of issues relating to his primary position, as well as continuing to report to Lewis Brandon on the protocol and US relations. Meow…
Conor Burns on his infamous “ambushed by a cake” defence:
“It’s not often you get to write a line in your own obituary live on national television”
Speaking to Paul Goodman on ConservativeHome’s Moggcast podcast, Jacob denies the rumour, first reported in the Sunday Times, that he was the one who encouraged Boris to accuse Sir Keir of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. Now Rees-Mogg accuses a Tory colleague of being responsible:
“What was going on at the time was a very noisy chamber and people were shouting things out, I think it came from behind us”.
Guido’s had a quick look to see who was behind the front bench and therefore who Rees-Mogg could be pointing the finger at:
Immediately behind the two we saw Alex Burghart, Shailesh Vara, Suzanne Webb, Conor Burns, Andrew Griffith, Sarah Dines and Sara Britcliffe. We have tried enhancing the video audio, with no success…
