Former Environment Secretary Therese Coffey reveals the stresses of being a government minister, telling BBC Radio Suffolk:
“Nearly five years ago I got so ill, I nearly, dare I say it, died.”
The long-awaited Ri-shuffle will continue tomorrow as Sunak shuffles the junior ranks in his election personnel team. The election Cabinet appears to be set as of tonight. Braverman’s ejection has her allies restless and plotting. The ball is in their court…
Cameron’s surprise appointment, which was brokered by Sunak consigliere William Hague, is meant to give Sunak more space for domestic policy. Cleverly is said to be frustrated with the loss of the FCDO brief and has already taken on a different tone to Braverman. No one is surprised at Coffey’s departure, which took a mammoth 2 hours and 45 minutes to be confirmed. Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said he was “alarmed” about the tax burden and found himself out of a job four days later. Greg Hands was sent to the Department for Trade to serve there for the 4th time. One of the stranger reshuffle days, this is apparently the big plan for the campaign…
Team Sunak operatives Richard Holden, Victoria Atkins, and Laura Trott get new jobs. A crop of ministers looking to leave Parliament resigned – ACOBA rules mandate a 6-month wait between leaving government and taking a new job. An indication they are expecting the election to happen in May…
One month after Hamas launched its attack against Israel, James Cleverly has found himself as the favourite cabinet minister among party members for the first time, with his net satisfaction ratings scoring an impressive +71.8 points, according to a poll by Conservative Home. Cleverly didn’t have a huge media presence before last month, though his increased online and media visibility in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war has boosted his ratings by 20 points. Cleverly isn’t campaigning for the leadership, though MPs may yet end up thinking him the safest choice…
Cabinet Ministers in the red include Jeremy Hunt, whose refusal to budge on tax cuts hasn’t found favour with party faithful, giving him a -23 points, and Therese Coffey, whose rating is an unfair -27 points. CCHQ will be disappointed with much loved Party Chairman Greg Hands’ low score of -15.5. Rishi is still scoring low at 7.1 points, though he’ll forlornly hope that his ratings may see a boost after the King’s Speech today. Stay tuned…
Apart from Andy Burnham complaining of Mancs being treated as “second class citizens,” a few Tory cabinet ministers might be suffering from the HS-Blues this week as Sunak cancels the rest of the project in what Greg Hands noted would be called “a sign of our decline”. His head was presumably in his hands as the northern leg was axed…
HS2 is absolutely vital. Totally agree w @andy4wm. Post Brexit we must be AMBITIOUS for our country and hungry for our economy. What signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country? https://t.co/wqvlNAm3YQ
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) May 20, 2019
Thérèse Coffey warned back in 2011 that to “dump HS2 saves cash now but N/S divide deepens”. Grant Shapps must have sympathy for Burnham, especially as he justified the decision to cancel the Leeds leg by arguing that “Manchester is a principal beneficiary of this entire programme”. In Jeremy Hunt’s words, “what signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country?”
Thérèse Coffey has ordered the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs immediately cancels all meetings and correspondence with Greenpeace, after five of its members protested at the Sunaks’ constituency home yesterday morning. According to the Express‘ David Maddox, DEFRA Permanent Secretary Tamara Finklestein emailed staff today with instructions not to engage with Greenpeace until further notice:
“You will have seen the coverage of Greenpeace in the media today, 3 August, which involved a protest at the Prime Minister’s constituency home. Following this activity, the Secretary of State has taken the decision that the Defra Group should cease engagement with Greenpeace until further notice. This includes any planned meetings or communications.
If your teams have any engagement with Greenpeace planned, can you please contact […] as soon as possible to discuss. Please can you also alert the External Affairs team with any correspondence received from Greenpeace.”
The activists were arrested yesterday afternoon after spending a full two hours on the roof of the property. The protest has attracted criticism from across the floor, with the likes of Yvette Cooper and Chris Bryant condemning the stunt yesterday. Now Thérèse is finally cutting the loons out entirely. Resisting for once government having a dialogue with people who are behaving unreasonably…
