May orders cabinet to show some unity
Theresa May urged senior ministers to show “unity” around the Cabinet table as she told them to keep details of their discussions private.
Following a weekend of vicious briefings against Chancellor Philip Hammond, the Prime Minister told Cabinet that some members of the government had failed to take their responsibilities seriously.
She told the weekly meeting at 10 Downing Street that she had tried to encourage open discussion of policy within Cabinet, but it was vital for the government that this remained private, her official spokesman told reporters.
The Prime Minister said: “There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the Cabinet table.”
Mrs May told Cabinet that the briefings and counterbriefings seen over the weekend were “a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously”, said the Prime Minister’s spokesman.
She told the meeting that as Prime Minister she had introduced a more genuine and collective process of discussion in the development of policy in the belief that this would result in better decision-making, but that privacy was essential for this to work.
The spokesman told reporters that ministers showed “widespread agreement” with the Prime Minister’s message.
The attempt to instil Cabinet discipline comes after a series of newspaper headlines about Mr Hammond’s comments at last week’s meeting, culminating in a story quoting an unnamed minister accusing the Chancellor of trying to “f*** up” Brexit.
As Brexit negotiations continued in Brussels, Mrs May used a speech at a Tory drinks party on the House of Commons’ terrace on Monday evening to warn against “backbiting and carping”.
She warned that infighting could result in Labour and Jeremy Corbyn winning power.
Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said Mrs May should sack ministers if they were plotting and briefing.
“If the Prime Minister has to start removing Secretaries of State because they are not focusing on their job, they are focusing on their own personal ambitions, so be it,” he said.