Cop that! But Sir Michael’s eyes did not waver
FROM the Tory backbenches came a measured, serious speech from a grey-haired chap who looked as though he could be in the Cabinet. As indeed he recently was. And possibly still should be. It was Sir Michael Fallon (Con, Sevenoaks), making his first Commons appearance since he quit as defence secretary in that feverish groping kerfuffle a few weeks ago.
For so solid a citizen as Sir Michael to be toppled by ‘bottom-pinching’ (or similar, allegedly) was in some ways very British. It must have stung him to the quick.
Sir Michael’s name has not appeared in the Hansard voting lists in recent Commons divisions during the EU Withdrawal Bill. Perhaps the Tory whips allowed him some time off to regather his morale. If so, it worked, for the Fallon who stood on the second Tory bench down, just beyond the gangway, soon after lunch yesterday cut a figure of total composure.
Speaking in the Budget debate, Sir Michael came not to bury the May Government but to praise it. This was not going to be a Geoffrey Howe or Robin Cook moment, when a recently- departed grandee savages the regime he has just left. Instead he hailed ‘a successful, sensible Budget’ and declared that ‘the greatest single achievement’ of the recent Tory years had been the fall in unemployment. His tone and pace was steady. Quite unchanged.
Beside him sat Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Con, Berwick-upon-Tweed). And what was she wearing? Oh no, a short skirt and va-va-voom kneelength leather boots. Cop that, Carruthers! Sir Michael’s eyes did not waver one moment. They kept to the straight and narrow. As must we all in these days of the Ayatollah Twitter.
A doughnut of Fallon friends had formed around him, on television making the House look fuller than it was this post-prandial Thursday. They included matronly Heather Wheeler (S Derbyshire), Kevin Foster (Torbay), Conor Burns (Bournemouth W), Richard Bacon (S Norfolk) and Edward Argar (Charnwood). Friendly interventions came from Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest W) and Scott Mann (N Cornwall). From the front bench, Sir Michael was listened to by the Treasury’s Liz Truss and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid – neither of whom is as polished a political operative as the fallen Fallon. Such are the foibles of politics.
Having ‘ warmly welcomed’ the Budget, Sir Michael intended in the future to speak up about defence spending ‘more freely’ than when he was a minister. Having deposited that minor note of rebelliousness, he immediately attacked Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, for being clueless about debt costs.
In future Sir Michael mildly hoped there could be reductions to National Insurance rates – which were now as punishing as income tax for the less well-off – and greater incentives to companies to give their employees shares. He produced a statistic new to me. He said that at the end of the Thatcher years (of which he was part), 11 million Britons held shares. Today the figure is down to eight million. So much for progress.
REFERRING to one of our better-known employeeowned firms, Sir Michael said: ‘We need 1,000 John Lewis partnerships.’ He went on to speak about Brexit in blunt but positive terms, saying the Government should use its buying power to make sure that all its contractors and grant recipients ‘hardwire’ exporting into their business plans.
In what some might see as a swipe at the May Cabinet’s more dulleyed Remainer tendencies, Sir Michael said ‘ Brexit Britain demands a bigger vision, more confident and self-rewarding’. He was not the only scandal-hit Tory reappearing in the Chamber. Earlier, at International Trade Questions, Mark Garnier was to be seen.
He is the one who asked his secretary to enter a sex shop on his behalf. Mr Garnier was a haunted figure, a markedly less confident presence than of old.
Sir Michael, however, made one realise what a capable old pro’ the ministry has lost.