PM TRIED TO CALL AMBER... BUT SHE WOULDN’T PICK UP
AFTer the extraordinary public reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, it took some courage – and arguably some brass neck – to oppose any plan to commemorate her memory. But when ethne rudd, the secretary of the little-known Kensington Society, saw a proposal for the Diana Memorial Gardens to be established on her patch of southwest London in 1998, she determined to stop it. The scheme, endorsed by then chancellor Gordon Brown, involved concreting over several acres of grass in Kensington Gardens to create a formal garden as a tribute to Diana. But Mrs rudd, a magistrate, church volunteer and staunch Tory supporter, was utterly appalled by the idea, and accompanying plans to enlarge the nearest tube station, to cope with the influx of visitors. The chancellor not only backed down, but sent officials to her home to see what alternatives might be acceptable. Mrs rudd, who died in 2008 aged 79, was a formidable operator when circumstances demanded, so it is no surprise that her memory was invoked by her daughter Amber rudd at the weekend when she resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary.
referring to Boris Johnson, she declared: ‘My mother used to say, “Judge a man by what he does and not by what he says”.’ rudd’s supporters say she believed what the Prime Minister was saying – that he wanted a deal with the eU – until it became clear to her that there was little or no follow-through. To the minister it seemed all action and energy was being devoted to No Deal preparations. And so she walked. rudd may have decided to quit as early as Tuesday night when 21 rebel Tories were expelled – but she decided to wait until the weekend before going.
The timing of her announcement appears to have been deliberate. It was reported Mr Johnson had heard rumours of her planned departure on Saturday afternoon and tried to ring her.
She apparently ignored his calls for a number of hours and finally spoke to him as the news broke around 9pm.
Her older brother, roland, a financial Pr guru and multimillionaire helping to bankroll the campaign for a second referendum, was one of the first to salute her latest Cabinet resignation (she also stood down from Theresa May’s government after the Windrush scandal).
He tweeted: ‘So proud of my sister. She’s principled, brave, honest and loyal to her friends.’ Loyalty is possibly not a virtue that her local Conservative association, in Hastings and rye where she’s been the MP since 2010, recognises right now.
In 2017, she scraped home with a 346 majority.
The seat will now almost certainly fall into enemy hands while she says she intends to fight the next election as an independent Tory in another constituency.
A staunch remainer, even some of those ‘loyal friends’ are still wondering why she ever contemplated a Cabinet job with Johnson, let alone accepted one.
Under Theresa May, rudd – first as Home Secretary then as Work and Pensions Secretary – was a key figure in the
Cabinet revolt forcing No Deal off the table (while acknowledging the referendum result must be honoured).
Writing in the Daily Mail in February, she made clear that she was prepared to quit Mrs May’s Cabinet if a parliamentary breakthrough on the PM’s deal was not found.
Yet, just days before Johnson became party leader in July, she cynically ditched her opposition in a radio interview. rudd said: ‘Both [Tory leadership] candidates have said that No Deal is part of the armoury and the negotiations going forward. And I have accepted that.’
Just six months earlier she’d told BBC Newsnight that she would not rule out ‘resigning from the Cabinet’ if Mrs May’s government pressed ahead with No Deal. It appeared to be a very public job application to keep her post as Work and Pensions Secretary.
But like Johnson’s brother Jo, another remainer, she was deeply shaken by the criticism that she had sold her principles for a ministerial chauffeur-driven car.
As No Deal seemed the increasingly likely outcome to Brexit negotiations, it was the expulsion of 21 Tory rebel MPs last week – something she’d cautioned the Prime Minister against – that gave her an escape route.
The first senior minister to resign from Johnson’s Cabinet, Amber rudd, 56, has made a habit of clocking up firsts, though not always to her advantage.
SIx years after entering the Commons in 2010, she became Home Secretary, the fastest rise to one of the great offices of state in the post-war era. It was not all plain sailing.
Her plan to make companies publish lists of their foreign employees dismayed many businesses and led to suspicions that rudd – who once worked for JP Morgan – was deserting her City roots.
The plan was quickly dropped but her reputation was damaged in the process.
Her downfall as Home Secretary in April 2018 was also swift. She quit after inadvertently misleading the home affairs select committee, saying in error that the Home Office had no targets for the removal of illegal immigrants.
But she was back in the Cabinet barely six months later, one of the fastest ever comebacks.
The official report into her demise found officials had given her wrong information.
Amber Augusta rudd, the youngest of four children, enjoyed a privileged upbringing in a large family home in Kensington and a country house in Wiltshire. Her father Tony was a Labour-supporting stockbroker.
After Cheltenham Ladies’ College and edinburgh University, she worked in recruitment and dabbled in the film industry, serving as ‘aristocracy co-ordinator’ on the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. In 1990 she married AA Gill, the restaurant reviewer, and they had a son and daughter.
In a recent interview with the Mail, she described how their stormy marriage broke down. They divorced in 1995.
rudd was first brought into the Cabinet in 2015 as climate change secretary. In the 2017 election campaign, she stood in for Mrs May in a TV debate, just two days after her father’s death.
There was once speculation rudd would have a tilt at the leadership but in this month’s poll on Conservative Home website she was bottom in the league table of Cabinet minister approval ratings.
Last year rudd said she and Boris were ‘good friends’ and I’m told the PM thought that friendship was strong enough to keep her in the Cabinet.
He made the same mistake with his brother Jo.
No wonder he’s worrying about who’s next.