NO, PRIME MINISTER!

On day of reshuffle chaos, Health Secretary turns down new job and May is forced to sack Education Secretary after she refuses to move

THERESA May’s New Year reshuffle unravelled last night, denting her hopes of putting the disasters of 2017 behind her.

She had hoped to use a shake-up of her leadership team to stamp her authority on government. But the plans were torpedoed when senior ministers refused to move. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Mrs May he would rather quit than accept a move to the business department – forcing her to back down.

And, following talks lasting more than two hours, the Prime Minister was forced to sack Justine Greening when she refused to move from education to work and pensions. Whitehall sources said Mrs May had also ditched plans to axe her former leadership rival Andrea leadsom as Commons leader.

The reshuffle started shambolically when Conservative HQ wrongly tweeted that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling had been made party chairman.

A subsequent tweet had to be deleted because of a spelling

error and then the Tory website was taken offline because of a security problem. Mrs May had already backed away from plans to shift Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Chancellor Philip Hammond for fear of destabilising her top team.

Her reshuffle, which was supposed to increase the Government’s ‘diversity’, also left the gender and ethnic make-up of the Cabinet unchanged and led to the departure of Britain’s first openly lesbian Cabinet minister, Miss Greening.

One senior Tory described the outcome as embarrassing, adding: ‘ Far from asserting her authority, it’s just highlighted how weak she is.’

Tory MP Nicholas Soames tweeted: ‘Is that it? I don’t mean to be rude or to be seen to be disloyal but there needs to be a major improvement to the reshuffle tomorrow.’

The problems threatened to overshadow a relaunch designed to focus the Government’s efforts on domestic priorities such as housing, social care and schools.

The reshuffle followed the sacking of Mrs May’s deputy, Damian Green, last month over sleaze allegations.

The Prime Minister appointed former justice secretary David Lidington as her new right-hand man. He will deputise for Mrs May at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, but he will not inherit Mr Green’s grand title of first secretary of state.

Former immigration minister Brandon Lewis and rising star James Cleverly were also appointed to breathe new life into the Tories’ moribund campaign machine.

And Mrs May appointed a string of young MPs as party vice chairmen to help revive the Tory grassroots.

Veteran party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin stepped down following criticism of his handling of last year’s disastrous snap election at which the Tories lost their majority.

The annual conference was also calamitous, with the PM’s speech being interrupted by a prankster and letters falling from the party slogan behind her while she spoke. In other developments: Former TV presenter Esther McVey enjoyed a meteoric promotion to Work and Pensions Secretary after Miss Greening turned down the job;

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire resigned on health grounds after revealing he needs surgery to remove a lesion on his lung. He is replaced by former culture secretary Karen Bradley;

Mrs May faced a backlash from proabortion campaigners over her appointment as Tory vice chairman for women of former nurse Maria Caulfield, who vowed last year to uphold ‘the rights of the unborn child’;

The Prime Minister sacked three male junior ministers, freeing up room to promote more women in a major shake-up of the junior ranks; Former work and pensions secretary David Gauke became the Tories’ sixth Justice Secretary in less than eight years;

Mr Hunt was handed responsibility for resolving the social care crisis on top of his duties at the NHS.

The Prime Minister will try to reassert her authority today with sweeping changes to the lower ministerial ranks. Significant numbers of female and ethnic minority MPs are expected to get promotion in a bid to make the government less ‘pale, male and stale’.

Mrs May will underline her focus on housing by appointing a number of new ministers to serve under Housing Secretary Sajid Javid. But her difficulties in moving senior colleagues underline her continuing weakness in the wake of last year’s election.

One Tory MP said: ‘Every time she tries to flex her muscles she is quickly reminded just how weak she is.’

Miss Greening, a steelworker’s daughter, was Britain’s first comprehensive-educated education secretary. But, after a series of lacklustre media performances, Mrs May concluded she needed a new face to champion the Tories’ credentials on education, an issue which cost the party votes at last year’s election.

Miss Greening told the PM that her post was her ‘dream job’ and – suggesting she could cause trouble on the backbenches – said social mobility mattered ‘more than a ministerial career’.

Some Tory sources said Mrs May had considered making Mr Grayling party chairman.

But the plan is said to have met with ‘internal pushback’, prompting her to switch instead to Mr Lewis.

AS MOMENTUM towards Theresa May’s reshuffle built up last week, we were told that she would take the opportunity to reassert her battered authority. The reverse has happened. Yesterday was the Westminster equivalent of a motorway pile-up.

I am an admirer of the Prime Minister, but there’s no pretending it was a success.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that future students of politics will be given the British Cabinet reshuffle of January 2018 as a case history of how it should not be done.

The aim of the reshuffle had been to make Mrs May look strong. Instead, it reminded the nation of the perils of not having a majority in the House of Commons and the subsequent dangers of having a Prime Minister who does not have the full confidence of her Cabinet colleagues.

Ideally, Cabinet reshuffles are swift and efficient affairs. Not so yesterday.

Pushover

It was broad daylight when Mrs May called Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt into No 10 with the intention of awarding him a new portfolio, most probably the Business department.

Two hours had passed and darkness had fallen by the time Mr Hunt left the building. He was still in the same job, very much so.

Indeed, he had been given the extra responsibility of social care policy. I believe this was ill-advised because Mr Hunt’s current role, running the NHS, is already hugely onerous.

It was the same minishambles when it came to Business Secretary Greg Clark. The Prime Minister was determined to move him. And yet Clark dodged the bullet because Mr Hunt had refused to take his job!

Can you imagine if a minister had tried to defy Margaret Thatcher. Or if she had been faced with the prospect of having to keep in her Cabinet someone she considered to be deadwood?

Exactly. The imagination boggles. Mrs May — a pushover for her own ministers — is no Mrs Thatcher.

Next, Mrs May tried to move Justine Greening, her wet and ineffective Education Secretary, to take charge of welfare. Greening wouldn’t do it. Three hours of horse-trading ensued, at the end of which Greening flounced out of the Government.

It’s clear that Mrs May went into Reshuffle Monday with a Plan A. And did not even emerge with a Plan B. Or even a Plan C.

She found herself dealing with Plan D —‘D’ for Damage limitation.

In fact, when the Daily Mail went to press last night, the Prime Minister had managed to sack only one Cabinet minister!

Meanwhile, the farce had begun as Conservative Campaign Headquarters announced that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling had been made party chairman, when he hadn’t.

We still don’t know whether Mrs May wanted to send Mr Grayling to run the Conservative machine and he refused — or whether he agreed but senior figures inside the Tory party HQ wouldn’t take him.

Whatever the case, Mrs May was defied again.

One thing is, however, certain. Sir Patrick McLoughlin, the Tory Party chairman, has quit.

But Mrs May can’t even be given the credit for that! It emerged yesterday that the bumbling McLoughlin had been begging to be put out of his misery and to leave his job for months.

It’s no secret that Mrs May yearns to sack Philip Hammond, who many believe lacks the intellectual and personal calibre to be Chancellor.

Disposing of Hammond would have sent out the positive message that Mrs May was prepared to be ruthless, while enabling the introduction of younger new talent to a Cabinet which is in crying need of younger blood. However, she lacked the guts to dump Spreadsheet Phil.

Other changes amounted to tinkering — such as the name change at the now Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

To be fair to Mrs May, there is a great deal to be said for leaving ministers in the same job for many years.

The longer they get to know their department, the longer they understand the issues at stake. With experience comes good judgment.

Furthermore, Mrs May achieved two crucial appointments which do address the two central weaknesses in her Government.

The first is the arrival of David Lidington as Cabinet Office minister to replace disgraced Damian Green.

This is, beyond question, good news.

From now on, Dr Lidington will, in all but name, be the Deputy Prime Minister. He will make many of the key decisions, while assuming charge of the Cabinet committees through which government is conducted.

Task

Having known Mr Lidington for three decades, I cannot think of a better man for the job.

He is competent and selfeffacing. He knows his way around Whitehall better than almost anyone else.

Two years ago, he was on the verge of being sacked by David Cameron. Now he will be the heart and soul of the Theresa May administration.

Mr Lidington’s first task will be to sort out the machinery of government in No 10. And not before time. Mrs May’s office — under her political secretary Stephen Parkinson, who must carry the can for much of yesterday’s chaos — has been shambolic.

Mr Lidington’s priority will be to sharpen up the Downing Street operation and give direction and purpose to a Government which has often lacked both.

The second, equally crucial, appointment is that of Brandon Lewis as Tory Party chairman.

By replacing Sir Patrick McLoughlin, arguably the worst chairman the party has ever had, he will have to address the awesome challenge of invigorating a Conservative Party whose membership is in free fall and now stands at an estimated 70,000.

Trouble

This compares abominably with Jeremy Corbyn, who has galvanised Labour to such an extent that its party membership stands at just under 600,000 — more than eight times higher than that of the Tories.

Brandon Lewis is energetic and capable. He enjoys campaigning. He is ambitious. He certainly needs to be, given that he’s been handed one of the most difficult tasks in politics.

Mrs May has chosen wisely in appointing James Cleverly, one of her most gifted new Tory MPs, as his deputy.

Historically it has been very rare for a Conservative leader to try to revive the party machine while in government. Three giant cheers to Mrs May for attempting to achieve this. But she has had no choice.

The appointments of Lewis and, even more to the point, Lidington, send out a powerful message.

Contrary to much recent analysis, Mrs May is utterly determined to fight the next general election, scheduled to be held in 2022.

Britain needs a period of stability as we navigate Brexit.

Let’s hope that the shambles of yesterday’s Cabinet reshuffle is quickly forgotten and we can concentrate on ministers’ achievements rather than their jockeying for position round the Cabinet table.

Because if it isn’t, there’ll surely be trouble ahead.