Cameron gaffe may put Corbyn in No10
Amiddle-ranking minister no one has ever heard of will accept any humiliation to snaffle a Cabinet promotion. And so Stephen Barclay became Brexit Secretary or, as Whitehall calls him unkindly, PA to Theresa May’s EU negotiator Olly Robbins.
Barclay, no relation to the bank although he did work for it, replaced Dominic Raab in a role which has steadily disintegrated. Barclay’s function is purely ceremonial.
It shows the mess Brexit is in when a Cabinet minister can’t be trusted with the biggest upheaval since the Second World War and the heavy lifting is left to an unelected civil servant.
The PM is banking her survival on MPs accepting that a bad deal is better than no deal. She’s bolstered by 48 Tory MPs failing to crawl out of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Victorian woodwork to put her through a no confidence mangle.
But more experienced hands than Jacob are thinking ahead to a different confidence vote – the one all MPs will take part in if they reject Mrs May’s deal next month. In the old days a PM who lost that would call an instant election. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act makes this less straightforward.
David Cameron introduced it in 2011 so elections are only held every five years, unless two thirds of MPs demand one sooner.
Mrs May showed last year it doesn’t work because no opposition turns down a shot at the polls.
Like the EU referendum, klutzy Cameron never thought this through. And left a ticking timebomb which could make Jeremy Corbyn PM without a general elec- tion. There is a clause which says the PM has 14 days to win another confidence vote, if the first goes against her. Only if she’s still kiboshed after a fortnight is it off to the ballot box 21 days later.
Corbyn has been an MP for 35 years and knows just how to exploit Parliamentary procedure. Two weeks gives him time to hold his own confidence vote, and become PM by striking deals with other parties, crucially the DUP. Diane Abbott confirmed Labour is plotting just that.
The Shadow Home Secretary said: “If it’s all about getting rid of this Tory government you do what it takes.”
Once the Labour leader shows he’s able to command a majority in Parliament it’s off to the Palace to slobber over the Queen in the traditional kissing of hands. And he can stay put until 2022 unless another confidence vote ousts him.
Nice one, Dave. It just makes me wonder about the effect of your alleged cavorting with a porker’s head in your student days because you’ve made a right pig’s ear of this.
Strike deals with others ...then it’s off to see the Queen