Suella has just published her letter to Sunak. It’s worth reading in full…
Read it below:
The Tory right’s revolt against Rishi’s cabinet reshuffle has gained momentum, as the New Conservatives have written a damning letter to the PM blasting him for “abandon[ing] voters who switched to us last time”. The group contains 24 Tory MPs elected in 2019, with Co-Chairs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger vowing to instigate a fundraising campaign to bolster financial support for the re-election of right-wing Tories. Clearly Esther McVey’s appointment wasn’t enough of an olive branch…
Miriam Cates tells Guido:
“We must not turn our backs on the new coalition of voters in constituencies like mine who gave us our largest majority in 40 years. If we do not speak for them then we are giving up on any chance of success at the next election.”
The New Conservatives claim 20 MPs met last night to discuss their fury over the new Cabinet, particularly Braverman’s sacking. They’ll be waiting for Braverman’s promised “dossier of failure” in stopping illegal Channel crossings to further their campaign to stop the boats.
Read the full letter below:
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…
A new YouGov poll shows 57% of the public think Rishi was right to sack Suella Braverman, compared to 20% who thought it was the wrong decision. Only 24% of voters believe that appointing the former PM David Cameron was a good decision, compared to 38% thinking it was a bad decision. However, voters seem fairly split on whether Cameron will do well as Foreign Secretary, with 36% saying he will do badly or fairly badly, and 31% believing he will do well or fairly well. Cameron’s appointment is quite the climb down from Sunak’s previous attempts to distance himself from 13 years of Tories…
Hoyle has attacked Lord Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary as soon as Commons started business today (the first great officer of state in the Lords since Thatcher’s government). He said given the “gravity of current international situation” it is”especially important that this house is able to scrutinise the work of the FCDO effectively” and that he’s commissioned the clerks to work on methods to make the new Foreign Secretary “properly accountable“. Bumpy…
Pollsters will be looking forward to working out what people make of Rishi’s reshuffle. In the meantime, YouGov polled Brits on a potential Cameron return as Foreign Secretary back in 2018 when hacks brought up the potential move. 53% opposed the move, 39% were strongly opposed. 22% thought it would be a good idea. Probably no sea change since then…
This year 47% of people said Cameron was a bad PM compared to 22% who thought he was good. When asked in October, 36% said Sunak is worse than Cameron was – 16% said he’s been better. We will have to wait to see whether this shifts Labour’s 21-point lead…
