Boris Puts All his PPS Eggs in 2019 Basket
A small PPS reshuffle came last night after a few resignations and sackings:
- Chris Clarkson (2019) → MoJ
- Jonathan Gullis (2019)→ Leader of the Lords
- Peter Gibson (2019) → Tory Chairman’s Office
- Neil O’Brien (2017) → promotion to Tory vice chairman
- Damien Moore (2017) → Defra
The full list is available here…
As part of the ongoing Lee Cain promotion row, one former minister told Paul Waugh “What is much more important is that they appoint someone, ideally an MP, to properly manage relations with the parliamentary party and sort that out because it is pretty poor.” Guido disagrees. There’s no doubt No. 10 needs to sort out Downing Street backbench relations, however the bad terms at the moment aren’t due to the lack of a chief of staff. That’s not to say a chief of staff who knew their way round the parliamentary party would not be an advantage.
One government source lays the blame largely at the door of Boris’s PPS appointments. While they’re a good way to plant the seeds of future ministers, their key role is liaising between ministers, departments and MPs. No. 10 has been lavishing appointments primarily on new-intake MPs and diverse ones at that. Crunching the numbers, Guido discovers over half – 53% – of all PPSs are now from the 2019 intake.
12.5% are LGBT, versus 5.5% of Tory MPs as a whole
10% are BAME, versus 6% of Tory MPs as a whole
43% are women, versus 40% of Tory MPs as a whole
Of the 2019 PPSs, those diversity figures are even more pronounced. Many Tory MPs Guido talks to are crying out for No. 10 to prioritise party relations over affirmative action…
* This article was originally published by Guido Fawkes
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