ENTER THE EXECUTIONER
Minute by minute, amid tears and triumphs, how Boris orchestrated Cabinet bloodbath
DOMINIC Raab grimaced but said nothing as a reporter shouted at him: ‘Are you going to have more time to spend on holiday?’
Technically, Mr Raab was entering No10 to learn if he was to be reappointed as Foreign Secretary in the reshuffle.
But he already knew his fate, having come straight from a tense meeting with Boris Johnson in which the Prime Minister rejected his plea to keep his job. The walk up the street was purely for show.
To complete the humiliation, he then had to pose for a formal picture for his new role as Justice Secretary. He did not manage a smile. By contrast, his successor Liz Truss positively beamed as she strode up Downing Street to be appointed as the Tories’ first female Foreign Secretary.
And Nadine Dorries looked stunned in her own official portrait after being handed the job of Culture Secretary in one of the surprise moves of the reshuffle.
Earlier, Miss Dorries – a one-time rent-a-quote and former reality TV contestant – had stood and gossiped with reporters about the reshuffle, apparently unaware she was to be handed a Cabinet job.
Yesterday’s reshuffle had a long gestation. When Mr Johnson gathered senior aides in Downing Street on Sunday afternoon to finalise his shake-up it was the culmination of months of planning. The Prime Minister had been frustrated that key parts of his agenda were not being seen to be delivered, but had felt constrained from acting by the demands of the Covid crisis. Aides had first prepared to hold the reshuffle in July.
But the unexpected departure of Matt Hancock as Health Secretary after being filmed kissing an aide made it less urgent and the PM’s enforced self-isolation at the end of the month made it logistically impossible. Mr Johnson had toyed with the idea of delaying the shakeup until after next month’s Conservative Party conference, but finally decided at the weekend that it made no sense to give a platform to failing ministers who were destined to be sacked.
After a fortnight of speculation, the Westminster rumour mill went into overdrive yesterday morning as Government drivers were put on standby to whisk ministers to Downing Street.
It was finally confirmed at lunchtime when No 10 took the unusual step of denying claims by former top aide Dominic Cummings that the PM had consulted his wife Carrie on who to hire and fire.
The formal reshuffle did not begin until after Prime Minister’s Questions when the PM and senior aides hunkered down in his Commons office to conduct the sackings away from prying eyes.
As nervous MPs clutched their phones and awaited news of their political futures, journalists swarmed to catch a glimpse of the comings and goings.
Amanda Milling was spotted looking miserable after being sacked as Conservative Party co-chairman and a grim-faced Robert Buckland was also seen leaving after being fired as Justice Secretary. Meanwhile, Miss Truss and Oliver Dowden were having a relaxed lunch with colleagues in the Members’ Dining Room before they were handed new jobs by the PM.
But Gavin Williamson had already been told he would be departing as Education Secretary after a miserable run that saw his approval ratings among Tory activists fall to an incredible minus 53.
He gave a farewell speech to staff in his department before the reshuffle was even underway. Eyes are said to have remained dry.
When he was summoned to the Commons, the former chief whip made a brief appeal to the PM to return to his former role, but Mr Johnson stamped on the idea immediately.
Friends said Mr Williamson was philosophical about his brutal removal and believed he might yet have one more comeback in him.
‘Raab could not manage a smile’
Mr Johnson is said to have been ‘pained’ by his conversation with the blameless Mr Buckland.
One senior Tory MP said his only failing was that he was ‘a middleaged white man’ in a reshuffle that emphasised diversity.
But this was nothing compared to the bust-up with Mr Raab, who battled for more than half an hour to keep his job. He reminded the PM he had stood in for him when his life was in the balance at the height of the pandemic last year. And he defended his record on Afghanistan, which has faced intense criticism following his decision to stay on holiday as Kabul fell to the Taliban. The PM was said to be sympathetic but unmoved.
After what one source described as a ‘negotiation’ between the two men, the PM offered to throw in the grand, but largely meaningless, title of Deputy Prime Minister to soften what was otherwise a harsh
demotion. Downing Street insiders said the PM had planned to move Mr Raab to justice for months, describing the former lawyer as a ‘round peg in a round hole’ there.
His fate was sealed not so much by his conduct over Afghanistan as by his toxic falling-out with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, a close personal friend of the PM.
After the sackings, Mr Johnson was smuggled out of Parliament to Downing Street. Ministers were called in to the Cabinet room oneby-one to be handed their roles by him. They were then taken to the State Dining Rooms to have their official pictures taken in front of a pair of Union flags. Downing Street said the reshuffle was designed to create a ‘united’ team and Mr Johnson certainly rewarded loyalty. Both Miss Truss and Miss Dorries have proved unswervingly loyal to the PM. Michael Gove had made little secret of his desire to move to the Foreign Office, but insiders said the PM had long favoured Miss Truss. A source said: ‘Michael wanted it, but it was always going to be Liz.’ Mr Gove’s official portrait records that, like Mr Raab, he could not muster a smile.