A MAYNIPULATOR »» £350m bus vow ‘will be reality’ for election
Ex-PM will ‘do a Thatcher’ Brutal reshuffle strategist is real power at No10
her successor. The replacement of her Cabinet with hardline Brexiteers has given Mrs May a taste for revenge, insiders say.
Within hours of the new PM taking over, 13 full Cabinet ministers and four others who attended Cabinet were sacked or resigned. The clear-out included many of her old guard.
International trade secretary Liam Fox and Greg Clark, the business secretary, left their roles, as did education secretary Damian Hinds, and James Brokenshire, the housing and communities secretary. Sources say Mr Johnson’s strategy was a gamble – and he is relying on outgoing ministers staying loyal.
One insider said: “They’ve fired people who they think will vote for the Government’s deal on Brexit. That’s why you’ve seen strange people brought in – they had to be bought off.
“There are loads of people Mrs May gave positions to. They owe her.”
If, as expected, the Tories lose the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election on Thursday to the Liberal Democrats, the Government’s working majority will fall from two to one. It will be the smallest of any PM since John Major. The insider added: “Can you imagine getting anything through?”
Mrs Thatcher fell out with Mr Major over his handling of the economy just weeks after she resigned as PM.
They had a row in January 1991 over interest rates and she was furious about his plan to abandon the poll tax.
Brexiteers who join the Government as junior ministers include Zac Goldsmith at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development, Simon Clarke at the Treasury and Nadine Dorries as health and social care minister. BORIS Johnson’s team are poised to make his infamous £350million a week NHS pledge the centre of any early general election campaign.
The claim first appeared during the EU referendum campaign in 2016, when he travelled around the country in a bus emblazoned with the slogan: “We send the EU £350million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead”.
One insider said: “Priority number one is going to be the money from IT was the most brutal Cabinet reshuffle many in Westminster can remember.
Dubbed ”Night of the Blond Knives” it ended with senior posts filled with hardline Brexit supporters.
From the outside it looked like a shambles. But those in the know say it was a highly efficient operation masterminded by the unelected official many believe is the real power in Downing Street.
The man behind the bloodbath was Dominic Cummings, the architect of the Brexit campaign.
All special advisers in Whitehall have been told they answer to him.
One insider said: “People are p***ed off that he’s back. He’s beyond Marmite. You either love him or totally f***ing hate him.”
James Graham, a playwright who has interviewed 47-year-old Mr Cummings, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “One of his main strategies is called the ‘OODA Loop’, which stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act.
“It’s this military strategy which is used to surprise your opponent. It’s what fighter pilots use.”
Our insider added: “His real mission is to disrupt everything.” the side of the bus. It will be a massive building programme – one of his team described it as a new hospital a week.
“That’s ideal prep for an election. There’s already talk of October 24.”