Egotists not fit to be Ministers

So much for collective responsibility. The behaviour of many in Cabinet has been bizarre, inexcusable and deeply disloyal, says the former Deputy PM

OLD-fashioned types used to mutter about whether someone was officer-class material. It’s a phrase stuck firmly in the 1950s, but it expresses an underlying truth: either you are fit to lead or you are not.

The Prime Minister, surveying the behaviour of some of her senior Ministers in recent days, is entitled to wonder about them. We have seen threats against her, attacks on business, and Cabinet Ministers taking the proverbial out of each other’s policies. All of this in full public gaze. It has been an unedifying spectacle of oversized egos showing they are not fit to be officers.

Governments are supposed to operate under a system of collective responsibility. It means that in public, all Ministers support the agreed policies of the Government, and each other.

You can have the most ferocious rows in private (and Ministers do), you can hate the guts of the person sitting next to you at the Cabinet table (that happens as well), but in public you stick together.

What we have seen in recent days is more like collective irresponsibility. At an absolutely crucial time for the future of the Government and, even more importantly the country, individual interests are trumping shared ones. This is bad behaviour at any time. At the current time it is bizarre and inexcusable.

There is a reason for collective responsibility. The public needs to know that any Government has a sense of purpose.

Ministers give up some of their individual freedom when they take office, in return for being able to take big decisions. They should always remember the saying ‘We must all hang together, or we will hang separately.’

We all know that there are strong views held on Brexit, on all sides of the debate. Every backbench MP is entitled to express those views at any time. Some do little else and have being doing so for 30 years. But it’s different for Ministers. They are not just part of a team, they are the leaders of the team. If they can’t show collective loyalty, why should others show loyalty to them?

THERE are two important audiences who I know are particularly unimpressed by the current outbreak of indiscipline. The first is Conservative backbenchers. Any Minister who thinks raising their profile is always a good idea should spend more time in the Tea Room of the House of Commons. They will meet colleagues who will be happy to put them right.

The second group is, if anything, even more horrified – Conservative activists and members. Those who spend a significant amount of their time delivering leaflets and knocking on doors for the party are very often the most loyal supporters anyone could ask for.

They will show loyalty in all but the most extreme circumstances. In return, though, they expect loyalty to reach all the way to the top of the party. Like all families, the Conservative family is better off doing its bickering in private. Its members know that better than anyone. In the coming days and weeks, Theresa May and her Government are facing momentous decisions.

This Friday’s Cabinet meeting at Chequers simply has to reach a successful conclusion. It will agree the text of a White Paper which will set out Britain’s negotiating demands for the all-important sessions with the EU between now and the end of the year. The need to get a Brexit deal before the end date of March 2019 means that this has to be the crunch moment.

I don’t agree with those who complain that Britain should have shown its hand more clearly before now. This would not have helped our negotiating team, and in the long run getting the right result is more important than the process of how we get there.

However, we are now at the point where successful negotiations require clarity. The looming exit date means that even the most difficult questions, such as the customs arrangements and our future links with the European Single Market, have to be addressed in detail.

I hope and expect the Cabinet will come to a successful agreement which will set out a deal to protect the interests of British business. The White Paper will tell us whether they have achieved this.

SHORTLY after, we will have another key set of parliamentary votes on the Trade Bill. This will include votes on the future customs arrangements between Britain and the EU. This vote on such a sensitive issue will be much easier if Parliament can be confident the Government has set out a clear path. The Cabinet meeting, the White Paper and the Trade Bill votes all have to take place in the next three weeks. Given the EU’s normal practice of taking the whole of August off, there are not that many negotiating weeks left between now and the next key meeting of EU leaders in October. The British side absolutely needs to have its position firmly in place within the coming days.

This is why the general political backdrop is so important. It is vital that as a country we show as united a front as possible at this key stage of the negotiations. We all know the divisions that Brexit has caused and there is no point disguising them. Certainly the Europeans know about them very well.

But it is not too much to ask that the Government itself can show a united front in the national interest. That means that every individual Minister has a responsibility to think about his or her own public words, and decide whether now is the right time to be parading some individual hobby horse.

There is a time when this type of individualism can add to the strength of a Government, normally in relaxed periods immediately after an Election. Now is not that time. We are at the sharp end of a negotiation that will shape the country for many years to come. It’s time to behave like good officers.

This is hardly the right time for individual hobby horses