Carrie’s stand-up row with key aide over ‘betrayal’ – and panic at No 10
OUR POLITICAL EDITOR ON A FEBRILE DAY IN DOWNING STREET
BORIS Johnson managed a fleeting smile when he was served a chicken kiev meal during his whirlwind trip to Ukraine on Tuesday. The weak joke amused him briefly, but was not enough to lift his morose mood.
One source said the PM was ‘as downbeat as I’ve seen him’ as he contemplated the huge task of trying to rescue his premiership from the political rubble. ‘He’s knackered too,’ the source said. ‘But he just can’t catch a break...’ If it was bad then, it looked worse last night.
The drip-drip of disaffected Tory MPs had slowed after three declared they were submitting letters of no confidence on Wednesday.
But the PM was rocked by the dramatic resignation of his long-serving policy chief Munira Mirza, one of the last aides remaining from his days as London mayor at City Hall.
In an extraordinary resignation letter, Miss Mirza said she had demanded Mr Johnson make a public apology over comments he made regarding the failure of the Crown Prosecution Service to press charges against Jimmy Savile during Sir Keir Starmer’s time in charge.
The remarks, made to Sir Keir during angry Commons exchanges this week, have also faced noisy criticism from moderate Tory MPs already wobbly about the PM’s future. Mr Johnson yesterday insisted he had not been referring to Sir Keir’s ‘personal record’. But Miss Mirza, who is not known as a shrinking violet, told him he had ‘let yourself down by making a scurrilous accusation’.
In a calculated barb, Chancellor Rishi Sunak also distanced himself from the jibe about the Labour leader, telling reporters at a dramatic Downing Street press conference: ‘Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.’
Not everyone in Westminster is convinced by the sudden concern for Sir Keir’s feelings among senior Tories.
AfRIeND of Miss Mirza said last night: ‘I think it was the final straw – there had been a lot of other straws along the way. She’s just had enough.’ Some in No 10 detect the hand of Mr Sunak, noting that he is close friend of Miss Mirza’s husband Dougie Smith, another senior adviser to the PM.
One source said Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie was overheard having a ‘stand-up row’ with Miss Mirza after she dropped her bombshell yesterday, feeling it was a gross betrayal. Whatever the reason, her departure – and the Chancellor’s decision to distance himself publicly from the PM while standing at a lectern in Downing Street – sparked panic in No 10.
A planned clear-out of senior advisers in the wake of the Partygate row was rushed forward in a bid to demonstrate the Mr Johnson is still in control of affairs and is serious about reform. One source said: ‘He knows we’ve got to change and address people’s concerns. That means some very tough decisions.’
Shortly after 6pm, it was revealed that Jack Doyle, No10’s director of communications, was quitting after two years at the heart of Government.
Less than two hours later, No 10 confirmed that the Prime Minister’s most senior aides, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and private secretary Martin Reynolds, were also on the way out. All three had been tipped for departure following the withering criticism of leadership structures in No10 by Whitehall ethics chief Sue Gray in her report on Partygate.
Another former senior aide, Nikki da Costa, last night said the clear-out appeared to have been ‘brought forward to distract from Munira’s principled resignation’ and was designed to ‘get the pain out of the way in one go’.
But, with No 10 now fearing that a vote of no confidence in the PM is all but inevitable in the coming weeks, there may be a lot more pain to come.