‘Tokenism’ claim as women and ethnic minorities gain in reshuffle

May says Government better matches the wider country as middle-class, white male members axed

THERESA MAY yesterday promoted 11 women and doubled the number of ethnic minorities in her Government as she mounted a clearout of middle-aged, white male MPS.

The Prime Minister said that the reshuffle meant that her Government “looks more like the country it serves” after axing five middle-aged junior male ministers. However, she faced a backlash from Tory MPS amid complaints that white male MPS were being “unfairly hoofed out” and some of the appointments were “tokenistic”.

Mrs May also faced criticism for failing to do more to change her top team, after it emerged that her new Cabinet is just as white, male and privileged as her first one. An analysis showed that the proportion of full Cabinet members who are men has risen from 73 per cent to 74 per cent, while the proportion who were privately educated rose from 27 per cent to 35 per cent.

A senior No 10 source said the changes meant the Government was “one of the most diverse in history” and appointing female and ministers from ethnic minorities meant there was a “pipeline for the future” for the MPS to become Cabinet ministers.

Mrs May said: “This reshuffle helps us do just that by bringing fresh talent into Government, boosting delivery in key policy areas like housing, health and social care, and ensuring the Government looks more like the country it serves. It also allows a new generation of gifted ministers to step up and make life better for people across the whole UK.”

The Prime Minister tried to regain the initiative after the first day of her reshuffle was marred by the refusal of Jeremy Hunt to leave his post as Health Secretary and the resignation of Justine Greening as education secretary.

The reshuffle means the total number of women in the Government, including the Prime Minister, has risen from 30 to 37. Among those who lost their jobs was Mark Garnier, a trade minister, who said he was “very sad” to have lost the role.

Philip Dunne, a 59-year-old health minister, John Hayes, a 59-year-old transport minister, Robert Goodwill, a 61-year-old education minister, have also left the Government.

Philip Davies, a Tory MP, said: “Time will tell as to whether these people have got their jobs on merit or whether they have got them on tokenism. It certainly does not do anyone any favours to promote people not ready for promotion just because of their gender or race.”

Three female ministers were yesterday promoted into new more senior roles including Caroline Dinenage, who became joint minister for social care, Harriet Baldwin, now an International Development and Foreign Office minister, and Margot James, the new digital minister. Six women were made assistant chief whips in the wake of the Westminster harassment scandal. They included Kelly Tolhurst, Mims Davies, Amanda Milling, Jo Churchill, Wendy Morton and Nusrat Ghani.

The number of ethnic minorities in Government rose from four to nine. They included two allies of Boris Johnson – Suella Fernandes, the leader of a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPS who joined the Brexit department, and Nadhim Zahawi, another Eurosceptic who joins education.

Other ministers of state were moved sideways, including Dominic Raab, a Brexiteer who moved from the Ministry of Justice to the housing brief.

Alok Sharma, an Indian-born accountant who dealt with the victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster as housing minister, has become the employment minister. Rory Stewart, a foreign affairs specialist, was surprisingly moved from his role as Foreign Office and Dfid minister to prisons minister. Sam Gyimah, the prisons minister, became the minister for higher education. Chris Pincher became the deputy chief whip.

‘It certainly does not do anyone any favours to promote people who are not ready for promotion’

What is Theresa May doing with this reshuffle? The answer may lie with a Conservative electorate that has undergone profound change. Today, the Conservative Party’s following is far more pro-brexit, more working-class than that which handed David Cameron a surprise majority back in 2015. Making sense of this change is crucial to making sense of where the party should head next.

It is no secret that British politics is in a process of realignment, yet many continue to underestimate the scale of this change. According to the British Election Study, between the elections of 2015 and 2017 alone, support for the Tories fell back among Remainers by around 8 points but increased among Leavers by the same margin. Tory support among liberals fell back by around 6 points but increased among conservatives by 14 points. It dropped among graduates by around 4 points but jumped by 16 points among those with no qualifications.

Consequently, at the last election the Tories had one of their best results in modern times among workers, traditional social conservatives and non-graduates – all of whom are far more supportive of a hard Brexit than many Conservative donors, big business and Cabinet ministers. These voters are clear about where the Tories should head next and there is one big message – they really want the party to reform immigration.

Between 2015 and 2017, support for the Conservatives among voters who think that Britain should prioritise control of migration increased by 16 points – to a striking 61 per cent, well ahead of the figure for those who want single-market access prioritised. This is a position shared by around one in four Labour voters. All of which means that the Tories’ fate depends on their most conservative backers of recent times – whose loyalty depends on whether or not the party will, finally, reform Britain’s immigration system.

How should the Conservatives deal with this dilemma? They stand at a crossroads: down one path lies a Cameron-reboot aimed at tempting millennials, middle-class liberals and Remainers in London and the university towns with offers of a soft Brexit, tuition-fee reform or a new housing policy. The other path requires responding to their much larger army of fervently pro-brexit working-class voters who are looking for a “real” Brexit and who, it should not be forgotten, have already shown their willingness to abandon the Tories when their concerns are not met. Ukip may no longer be a danger to the Tories in elections but apathy easily could be.

Sandwiched between these two routes is a middle way, and this is where the reshuffle comes in, exemplified by the appointment of a new party chairman, Brandon Lewis, who comes from a very pro-brexit and anti-immigration seat. This narrow path aims to repair the party’s relationship with over-60s while admitting that the focus must be on 30 and 40-somethings who, while remaining wary of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, swung hardest against the Tories last June.

This means promoting a new generation of Conservatives to start a new conversation with these voters about how Brexit can be used to create a fairer society and far stronger public services. It means launching a genuine revolution in social mobility as well, to speak directly to those working-class voters, including many socially conservative Labour supporters, who agree with the Tories on Brexit and immigration but remain sceptical about their stance on the economy.

The evidence shows that keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10 will require the Tories putting themselves in uncomfortable territory; speaking far louder to workers who believe that the economy is not working for all; to young families who worry intensely about housing, healthcare and the future for their baby-boomer parents; and to the concerns of non-london England, including the pro-brexit Labour heartlands.

If they can walk this fine line successfully, the destination could be a landslide. But make no mistake, the tectonic plates of British politics are on the move and the Conservative Party needs to move quickly to ensure that it is not left behind.