Sack ministers to halt Cabinet civil war, PM is urged
After Chancellor is hit by two damaging leaks in two days...
TORY MPs have told Theresa May they would support her if she sacks feuding Cabinet members to instil discipline. Philip Hammond yesterday accused rival ministers of leaking details of conversations about public sector pay, in a plot against him.
In a bid to end the rows the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs told the Prime Minister they would back any discipline she saw fit – including firing ministers who have routinely gone off message or publicly contradicted each other since the election.
A senior party source said: ‘She has been informed that the membership are tired of self-indulgent ministers plotting or going AWOL on collective responsibility and that she should tell ministers this.’
The Chancellor was left embarrassed by reports over the weekend that he had told colleagues state workers were ‘overpaid’ and driving a train was now so easy ‘even’ a woman could do it. Yesterday he claimed he was being smeared by fellow ministers who disagreed with him over Brexit.
Mr Hammond has faced criticism for his publicly stated belief that the UK should avoid a ‘cliff edge’ when it leaves the EU in 2019 and should instead move into a two-year period of ‘transition’.
‘If you want my opinion, some of the noise is generated by people who are not happy with the agenda which I, over the last few weeks, have tried to advance … ensuring that we achieve a Brexit which is focused on protecting our economy, protecting our jobs, and making sure that we have continued rising living standards in the future,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Mr Hammond is widely believed to be at odds with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, but said he did not know who had been briefing against him.
The Chancellor added: ‘They shouldn’t have done it frankly because Cabinet meetings are supposed to be a private space in which we have a serious discussion. I think on many fronts it would be helpful if my colleagues … focused on the job in hand.’ Asked if there was now a fight to succeed Theresa May as party leader, he said: ‘I certainly hope not. If there is I am no part of it.’
Mr Hammond refused to confirm a report in the Sunday Times that during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday he said public sector workers were ‘overpaid’. A Treasury source insisted that he did not use the word.
‘I am not going to talk about what was or wasn’t said in a Cabinet meeting … it is easy to quote a phrase out of context,’ Mr Hammond said.
But he added: ‘Public sector pay raced ahead of private sector pay after the crash in 2008-09. Taking public sector pay before pensions contributions, that gap has now closed.
‘But when you take into account the very generous contributions public sector employers have to pay in for their workers’ pensions – their very generous pensions – they are still about 10 per cent ahead.’
The Chancellor rejected claims he had made a sexist remark about driv- ing trains, saying: ‘I’ve got two daughters … I don’t think like that, I wouldn’t make a remark like that.’
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox denied briefing against Mr Hammond. ‘I absolutely deplore leaks from the Cabinet,’ he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics. ‘I think my colleagues should be very quiet.’
First Secretary Damian Green told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: ‘The last thing anyone wants is for the Conservative Party to turn in on itself.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Sky News the ‘ varying accounts’ coming out of Cabinet meetings were ‘quite extraordinary’.
DAVID Davis will call on Brussels to ‘get down to business’ at the second round of Brexit talks today. Up for discussion is the divorce bill and the rights of EU citizens living in Britain. Labour faced fresh embarrassment on Brexit as business spokesman Rebecca LongBailey refused to say whether the party wants to leave the single market.
‘Self-indulgent plotting’