Guido was disappointed to see that, despite arriving in the seaside town of Morecambe with an army of photographers, Rishi turned down the opportunity to pose with the area’s most popular landmark – the statue of the eponymous Eric Morecambe. Thankfully, fun-loving Michael Gove leapt at the opportunity, and hit a wobbly pose alongside local MP David Morris. Michael’s used to being caught on the hop…
Following on from David Morris announcing his candidacy a week ago, the 1922 Committee’s important job over the next couple of weeks has only become more clear. Since then, Guido can reveal a quartet of names putting themselves forward to fill committee vacancies:
- Eddie Hughes
- Iain Stewart
- Jo Gideon
- Harriet Baldwin
There are two vacancies, following Nus Ghani and Aaron Bell’s promotions to the front bench. Let the race begin…
UPDATE: Guido originally asserted that Hughes was on Penny Mordaunt’s campaign team. He wasn’t.
1922 elections seem to come around earlier every year. We had a set in July as MPs prepared to get rid of Boris and now just three months later, Liz may be facing the same attempt at a hostile takeover. Guido has seen one Tory MP’s letter ahead of the contest – understood to be likely to be held next week. Or the week after, depending on the number of select committee vacancies after the reshuffle…
David Morris is first out of the gate, with a letter to colleagues setting out his desire to become a vice-chairman. Morris writes:
“I feel it is as important now than ever we have a steady crew and a hand on the rudder of our ship to enable our Captain, Chairman, Sir Graham Brady to navigate the Conservative Parliamentary Party through the perceived storms ahead.”
Eye-catchingly he’s promising to fight for MPs ahead of next month’s publication, saying “no colleague should be left behind.” Guido hasn’t yet heard of any other Tory MPs putting their names forward, though that’s probably because nominations haven’t opened yet and David Morris is particularly keen.
Speaking to one committee source they believe the election will produce a mix of pro- and anti-Liz MPs, and don’t sense real hunger to do anything radical such as changing rules around the 12-month grace period on a vote of no-confidence.
On the Saturday night of conference outside the Hyatt Bar, Guido bumped into Michael Gove before he set off the 45p tax rate bomb on Laura Kuenssberg’s show. When Guido asked what his conference plans were, Michael said he was a) planning on not making any headlines and b) preparing his 1922 election platform, before hastily clarifying that was a joke. Given A proved to be untrue, can we really rule out B?
As one of his, potentially, lasts acts as PM, Boris has appointed Britain’s new Government Advisor to… the space industry. David Morris MP got the star job, certainly set to put rocket boosters under his career, and will be in charge of any policies regarding the NASA mission to the moon or “any other space related matters”. An out-of-this-world opportunity for a backbencher…
David tells Guido the role is, in effect, a trade envoy post to the UK space industry, and will be meeting with the US Space Force next week. He was appointed National Space Champion in July this year as well as serving as the chair of the APPG for Space. Morris has already had a fascinating career; as an accomplished guitarist he was a bandmate of Rick Astley and wrote songs for Jason Donovan – he’d better start brushing up on his Bowie as Parliament’s own Ziggy Stardust…
Parliament’s independent body responsible for MP’s expenses, IPSA, is refusing to pay out for MPs jollying abroad who now need to fly home, Guido has learnt. A victory for the taxpayer…
Whilst Guido understands a Lib Dem whip is now stranded until he finds the cash to pay for the flights himself, things could be worse: Guido has seen the Tory MPs’ Whatsapp group where newlywed David Morris has informed colleagues he has had to postpone his honeymoon…
UPDATE: IPSA have now u-turned on their opposition to paying for MPs to come back from abroad – having sent an email to MPs saying not only will they pay for MPs coming back from abroad, but for their spouses and partners too. Now seems a bit overly generous…
Our original source in the Lib Dems, however, assures us that at 1.30pm, IPSA was refusing to fork out for flights back. However, after pressure from the Lib Dem whip and others, they have u-turned.
Jeremy Hunt has been more overtly making himself known as a contender for the top job and today has finally signalled he’s running. Since leaving the Health Department that made him a hate figure for the left (in 2017 he received more social media abuse than Diane Abbott), he’s worked on establishing a reputation for competence, get better at connecting with the public, and beefing up his Brexit credentials. Even at the expense of foreign relations…
His ten months as Foreign Secretary got off to a bumpy start on a China trip when he memorably forget his wife’s nationality, but recent trips have proved more beneficial. His flashy tour of Africa last month landed him plenty of helmet-wearing, boat-riding action man photographs, even earning him accolades as “presidential”. Hunt’s SpAds including Ed Jones, Tim Smith and Christina Robinson have been running his campaign machine for the time being. Sue Beeby, an experienced ex-CCHQ staffer and Treasury SpAd formerly at HS2, is helping out on the campaign. Former Hunt SpAd and May’s outgoing press secretary Paul Harrison was widely thought to be in the frame, campaign sources close to Hunt insist he is not…
On the Parliamentary front, former Health Minister (and fellow multi-millionaire) Philip Dunne has been working groups of MPs at dinners for Hunt. David Morris has recruited a decent number of supporters too. Andrew Mitchell has made himself close to the team. Much of the pitch has been proposing Hunt as a ‘stop Boris’ safe pair of hands, who sensibly voted Remain but is (now) committed to delivering on the referendum result. Where has Guido heard that pitch before…?
Hunt has been working hard to shore up his ‘re-Leaver’ credentials, Guido understands he’s managed to recruit Leave-voting Leo Docherty and Will Quince on board. He’s been showing skin to Leavers by talking up ‘No Deal’, earning him the nickname “windsock” from Lib Dem voting Tory ultra-Remainer Lord Cooper. Guido hears Hunt has even being trying to court hardcore ERGers like IDS…
Despite a slick campaign and making inroads within the Parliamentary party, Hunt only managed to clock 8% support in the most recent leadership poll of Tory members, behind Boris, Raab, Gove, and Sajid. As the preferred candidate of the Tory Party establishment, he’ll have to set out a bolder vision if he wants to truly shake off the ‘continuity May’ brand…
Social media support: Hunt has 162,000 Twitter followers, and 10,000 likes on his Facebook page. Sadly no ‘Pumped for Hunt’ campaign yet…
Mainstream media support: The Sunday Times has been consistently writing positive news stories. Other papers are biding their time but if Remain support coalesces around him expect the previously Mayite papers to come on board…
ConservativeHome members survey: 6.75% (4th)
Times/YouGov membership poll: 8% (5th)
YouGov public recognition: 37% (3rd)
William Hill odds: 12/1 (5th)
