Whittingdale: Attacks on Brexiteers could harm Tories for years
SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Margaret Thatcher left her friends and advisers in no doubt about how she felt towards Europe. “If you got her on to the subject, and it wasn’t difficult – the flashing eyes, the finger, the tone of the voice – she felt very strongly about the matter.” John Whittingdale first worked for her in 1983 on the election campaign trail before becoming her political secretary. He was a regular visitor until her death in 2013. In 1988, he accompanied the then Prime Minister on her trip to Bruges, when she made her famous speech against the European “superstate”.
“From that time on she became ever more critical,” he recalls. Now, faced with another landmark in Britain’s relations with Europe, the Culture Secretary, who is campaigning to leave the EU, believes she would probably be on his side.
“If she saw the extent to which more power has gone to Europe now and the direction in which it is moving I think she would be extremely unhappy,” he says. “I find it very difficult to believe she would be supporting remaining in an institution which is going to continue becoming more and more federal.” Baroness Thatcher felt “incredibly strongly” about Europe and infuriated Sir John Major by “campaigning against him” during the Tory party’s civil war over the Maastricht Treaty, he says.
A quarter of a century later, the Conservative Party’s blood feud over Europe has flared again, just as spectacularly. Once more, it is likely to determine the current Prime Minister’s immediate future and will cast a divisive shadow over the party for years to come.
For Mr Whittingdale, the next 10 days until the referendum on June 23 are acutely dangerous for the Conservatives, as the Leave and Remain sides clash in their push for victory.
He is calling on the Prime Minister to intervene to halt the highly personal attacks by Tories in the Remain campaign on Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, the leaders of Vote Leave.
Mr Whittingdale fears the savagery of their “profoundly damaging” slurs will hurt the Tories in their next election battle with the Labour party.
There is no appetite for toppling Mr Cameron “immediately” after the vote, he says, but the Prime Minister should make way for his successor well before the next general election in 2020. And, whatever the result, Mr Cameron must not assume that Tory demands for reforming Europe will disappear.
When the Prime Minister gave his ministers the freedom to campaign against EU membership in February, he called on them to treat each other with courtesy and respect.
Four months later, the gloves are off.
During last Thursday’s referendum debate on ITV, the pro-EU Energy Secretary Amber Rudd launched a series of attacks on Boris Johnson’s integrity. She claimed he was motivated to campaign for Vote Leave because it would help him in his quest to become the next Tory leader. “The only number that Boris is interested in is the Number 10,” she said.
Mr Whittingdale is deeply unimpressed and clearly suspects that Downing Street spin doctors may have supplied her lines. “I don’t know who scripted Amber’s words,” he says. “Whoever was responsible, it was not constructive to the debate – but more than that, it is profoundly damaging for the long-term unity of the Conservative Party to make that kind of personal attack.
“It is very unfair on Boris who has adopted a position of principle. How does it help the party to make personal attacks on somebody like Boris who is a very important figure in the Conservative Party who has a lot of support?
“We are going to have a leadership election in due course, probably not for a couple of years, but the chances are that Boris will be one of the candidates.
“Personal attacks on him are not likely to be forgotten by our opponents when we come to fight the election in four years’ time.”
He is also critical of Sir John Major, who claimed Mr Johnson and Mr Gove were not to be trusted with the NHS any more than a hungry python could be put in charge of a pet hamster. “I don’t think it’s helpful at all. I don’t suppose the Labour Party will forget it.”
Mr Whittingdale wants the Prime Minister to reissue his order to senior colleagues on both sides to rein in their attacks on each other. “It would be helpful if he made… a general call to lower the temperature,” he says.
So brutal has the party’s EU war proved that Mr Cameron’s own position as leader has been called into question by some of Mr Whittingdale’s Brexit colleagues. Two weeks ago, several Tory MPs revealed that they believed he would have to stand down even if he won the referendum.
However, the Culture Secretary says they are in a minority and there is no appetite for a Tory leadership election “within the next few months”.
Mr Cameron announced last year that he would not stand for election to serve a third term. He insisted, however, that he will serve out his full second term – which is due to end at the next election in 2020.
Yet Mr Whittingdale appears to believe this timetable is not realistic.
“I do think most people would say that if the Conservative Party is to fight the next election under a new leader that person needs a bit of time to establish themselves and to make their mark,” he says.
“The precise timing of suggest he could be one of the Brexit casualties in the next reshuffle. Other Leave campaigners including Priti Patel, the employment minister, and defence minister Penny Mordaunt could also miss out.
“Leaving aside my own position, I certainly don’t think it would be sensible or constructive to have a revenge reshuffle. I don’t believe the Prime Minister would do that,” he says.
“The Prime Minister – all senior members of the government – will need to put every effort into mending fences, bringing people back together and unifying the party.”
Mr Whittingdale says the PM should ensure the composition of the Cabinet in future reflects the fact that almost half of Tory MPs back Brexit.
But whether or not he continues to sit around the Cabinet table, Mr Whittingdale insists he will keep the pressure on Mr Cameron to fight for more reforms in Europe if the public votes to Remain.
“If we vote to stay in, that in my view will be a signal that whilst we don’t want to leave, nevertheless there is a profound unhappiness with the present state of our relationship. I would hope and I believe that the Prime Minister would renew his efforts to achieve reform.”