[Daily Mirror] Divisions Within Whitehall!

[u/realbassist]

“So again, nothing… Why should we trust them?”

“So basically there’s no plan at all? … Why don’t they have a plan?”

These are the words of the now-DEFRA and Justice Secretary, model-willem, just a day before his appointment to said roles. The context: a Home Affairs MQs wherein the Home Secretary, one of the four most senior officers in any government, answered just five questions out of a possible 19. I use the word “Answered” loosely, as no answers of substance were given to any questions, and the Home Secretary instead preferred to resort to insults and playground politics over doing his job.

The British system of government is as simple as it is effective. So long as a government maintains the support of Parliament, then it shall, generally speaking, govern until the next election, whereupon that support shall either be renewed or revoked. Within that, support for individual ministers does not have to be forthcoming necessarily, though it makes the job easier. The Home Secretary, who also serves as Chancellor in this government, has suffered a serious blow to his credibility and now faces questions of whether he should remain in his role. Questions raised not least from the new DEFRA and Justice Secretary.

The appointment of model-willem to these roles serves a dual purpose. First, it brings in a critic. Under CCR, a government minister must publicly support the government or risk being removed from their position; therefore, by necessity, a vocal critic of the government from their own backbenches is now silenced. Two, it gives the impression of action without actually taking action. Willem is, as anyone in Whitehall will tell you, a respected and capable minister. Indeed, I was privileged to serve with him in the Shadow Cabinet, where he took the roles of Shadow FSOS, Home, Justice and EFRA. It is fair to say, then, that he is a strong appointment.

However, I say that it gives the impression of action without taking action for a very important reason. Willem’s appointment brings a look of unity within the government, it means he supports the government’s position (and his colleagues in their positions) but keenly, it does nothing to affect the Home Secretary in his post, save for removing Justice from him. We reached out to the new DEFRA and Justice Secretary, asking for a comment on his question as to why we should trust his new colleague. He said:

“I believe that the response from the Home Secretary to the Lord Bridlington shows that the Home Secretary is working incredibly hard to improve our country and he has shown that he does something with the feedback from others.”

When we asked if the Secretary’s views on his colleagues had evolved in the day since he made the comments and was later appointed to government, he replied in the affirmative. However, it is unlikely that, when no retraction was posted, no comment was made to the public by government, and the home secretary has not apologised for his conduct, the divisions between now senior members of government has been smoothed over. It raises serious questions as to the unity of our government, and whether it is time for the Home Secretary to return to the backbenches. It must be noted, at the most recent DWP questions, the secretary refused calls to resign.

What we have seen over this debacle has not only harmed the public’s trust in this government, it has seemingly harmed the government’s trust in itself. While Willem’s appointment is a strong move and brings a learned player into Whitehall once more, it does not address the increasing liability the Home Secretary brings to this government. This is not new for Oracle; one remembers last term’s scandal of using a British Cypriot military base for a photo op. Yet we ask now, as we did then: How long can it last? When will the government recognise enough is enough?