Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE BOOT OUT BEGINS
» Hammond decides to jump before he’s pushed Boris draws up new Cabinet and rewards Brexit allies
CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond began emptying his Number 11 home yesterday as he prepares to lead the Tory guerrilla war against Boris Johnson. Spreadsheet Phil intends to jump before his new neighbour – expected to move into Number 10 on Wednesday – can sack him.
Mr Johnson has been holed up in a £9.5million Westminster townhouse owned by a Sky TV exec.
And as he drew up his new Cabinet, hundreds protested against Brexit in London yesterday.
Demonstrators gathered under the slogan “No to Boris, Yes to Europe”, carried posters and flew a blimp mocking him.
Mr Johnson is deciding whether to leave rival Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretary or replace him with his old mate David Davis, 70, who quit as Brexit supremo least year.
If Mr Hunt loses the Foreign
Office, he is likely to be offered the consolation prize of First Secretary of State, meaning he becomes PM if Mr Johnson is run over by a bus. Mr Davis has told him the only other job he will take is the Treasury, which Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Home Secretary Sajid Javid are also scrapping for. The new Chancellor’s deputy is likely to be Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg as Treasury Secretary. Mr Johnson is anxious to break Tony Blair’s record of 36 per cent of women in the Cabinet. That means returns for Boris backers Esther McVey and Priti Patel, promotion for
Commons leader
Andrea
Leadsom to
Education, and
Treasury
Secretary
Liz Truss to Business.
Amber
Rudd at
Work and SHADY GUY Boris thumbs up yesterday
Pensions and Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes will stay in post.
Mr Hammond will be joined on the backbenches by the new “Gauke-ward squad” of Justice Secretary David Gauke, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, Business Secretary Greg Clark and, of course, Theresa May.
They will now align with the other backbench Remainers in a Tory civil war to stop Mr Johnson leaving the EU with no deal on October 31. Mr Johnson is expecting a comfortable victory over Mr Hunt when results of the Tory leadership contest are announced on Tuesday.
Mrs May will appear at her last PM’s questions at noon the following day before heading to Buckingham Palace to formally hand her resignation to the Queen. Mr Johnson will follow her in for the traditional kissing of hands. He will then move into Downing Street on Wednesday evening.
Today Mr Johnson will be told he must make spending billions on the armed forces his priority if the UK is not to be left defenceless.
The dire warning comes from Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy chaired by Labour’s Margaret Beckett.
Dame Margaret will say: “We call on the new PM to prioritise the UK’s national security.”
It will shred the new PM’s ambitious spending plans which include hiring an extra 20,000 police at a cost of £1billion.
He needs £10billion to roll out full-fibre broadband eight years ahead of target, £4.6billion on schools and £9.4billion in tax cuts for the better off.
nigel.nelson@sundaymirror.co.uk