New Tory chair Richard Holden dismisses reports Esther McVey has been appointed as ‘anti-woke’ minister
Good morning. Yesterday’s reshuffle was more surprising than expected, largely because of the return of David Cameron, but also because it suggests that Rishi Sunak has chosen to tack towards governing more as a mainstream, centrist Conservative, to abandon trying to present himself as a radical, “change” candidate, and to pull back from a lurch towards “red wall” Toryism.
There was one concession to the red wallers. Although the very rightwing Suella Braverman was out, another rightwinger popular with the GB News demographic (she presents a show there) was in. Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary who was born in Liverpool, has been made a Cabinet Office minister. According to a briefing to the Sun newspaper, she will serve as the “common sense tsar” tasked with “tackling the scourge of wokery”.
But will she? Richard Holden, the new Conservative party chairman was doing interviews this morning and on the Today programme at one point he appeared to confirm that McVey is the new Braverman. Asked about McVey’s job, Holden said: “What Suella … what Esther is going to be doing ….” The presenter, Nick Robinson, described it as a Freudian slip.
However, Holden was reluctant to describe McVey as a common sense minister who will wage war on wokeism. In an interview with Times Radio, asked if McVey would be vetting “woke” policies, Holden replied: “I think all of us will be looking at all policy in the round.” And when it was put to him that she was in government to represent “anti-woke opinion”, Holden replied:
No, it’s there to represent – I know Esther, I know her husband Philip (Davies) very well – they have various different views on a wide range of different topics just like other MPs do as well. And I think to try and put people into little pockets of one thing or another, I don’t think is fair.
And on the Today programme, when Robinson asked what being minister for common sense might mean, Holden did talk about freedom of speech on universities, but also stressed that the Conservative party was “a broad church … with a common goal”.
The briefing about McVey being a “common sense tsar” was clearly intended to appeal to rightwingers but, in a further sign that the gambit may have failed, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary and a fellow GB News presenter, described the label attached to McVey by the Sun as “silly”. He told Times Radio:
I welcome Esther’s return because I think she’s highly capable and a good presenter of the Tory cause. I think having a minister for woke is silly and I think it’s deeply regrettable that a minister of the calibre and quality of Jeremy Quin, who was in the Cabinet Office, has been lost to the government and they brought in somebody with a silly title. I think it’s an extraordinary thing to do and is not serious, but Esther is a very good person and to have her in the cabinet is a good thing.
I think silly titles for government posts is a Blairite thing. That is not the proper business of government ... This is ridiculously tokenistic, won’t impress anybody.
Rees-Mogg himself was once minister for “Brexit opportunities and government efficiency”. Given that critics felt both of those concepts were fictions, that title was controversial too.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.
11am: The Growth Commission, which was set up by Liz Truss, publishes a report proposing free market policies that it says would stimulate growth.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
After 12.30pm: MPs resume the debate on the king’s speech, with the focus on the economy.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Key events
William Hague was foreign secretary when David Cameron was prime minister and he is very close to Rishi Sunak, who succeeded him as MP for Richmond in Yorkshire. In his Times column today, he has warmly welcomed Cameron’s return to government. Hague says:
(Cameron’s) central achievement in 11 years as party leader, often overlooked after the Brexit debacle, was to give the Conservative party a much broader base. In his time, great strides were made in making sure a fiscally conservative party was also socially liberal and internationalist: advancing the careers of women in politics, championing same-sex marriage, expanding development aid and becoming the natural home of ethnically diverse British leadership, of whom Rishi Sunak himself is the outstanding embodiment.
Cameron’s renewed prominence is a reminder that the cabinet in which he will be sitting is mainstream and centre-right, looking to reduce taxation but only in a financially responsible way, controlling migration effectively but without divisive language, improving the UK’s relations with Europe while eschewing nationalistic rhetoric. That is what Sunak has been doing but against the backdrop of mixed messages from former PMs and some of his own cabinet. The Conservatives after this reshuffle are more unmistakably the party that some of its disenchanted former voters will recognise as their own.
Graham Russell has a round-up of how the papers have covered the reshuffle, and the return of David Cameron.
Downing Street has announced new appointments to the whips’ office. Stuart Anderson, Dame Amanda Milling, Joy Morrissey and Mike Wood have been made government whips, while Aaron Bell, Mark Fletcher, Mark Jenkinson and Suzanne Webb have been appointed assistant (ie, more junior) whips.
Here are pictures of some of the new ministers arriving for cabinet this morning.
The reshuffle does not seem to be entirely over. Julie Marson, MP for Hertford and Stortford, says she is stepping down from her job as a whip for personal reasons.
It has been an honour and a pleasure to serve the government as a whip, but I believe it is now time that I return to the backbenches. This was a personal decision.
I look forward to continuing to serve my constituents as a backbench MP. pic.twitter.com/94V1Y4NvjN
— Julie Marson MP (@JulieMarsonMP) November 14, 2023
Sunak tells his new cabinet they are ‘strong and united team’ as they meet for first time
Rishi Sunak described his new cabinet as a “strong and united team” as they met for the first time at No 10.
Opening the meeting, Sunak said:
A warm welcome to those for whom it’s their first cabinet and also a welcome to those for whom it may not be their first time …
Our purpose is nothing less than to make the long-term decisions that are going to change our country for the better. I know that this strong and united team is going to deliver that change for everybody.
Sunak noted it was an “important week”, with inflation figures and the supreme court’s Rwanda ruling expected tomorrow and the chancellor’s autumn statement next Wednesday. He went on:
Across all of that I’m confident that we can demonstrate to the country that we are making progress on the priorities that I set out at the beginning of the year – to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and to stop the boats.
But their ambitions went further than that, he said. He said the cabinet would make the “big, bold decisions that will drive change”. And he ended saying:
Looking around this table, I know that we have an energetic and enthusiastic team that is going to deliver for the country. So, let’s get to work.
New Tory chair Richard Holden dismisses reports Esther McVey has been appointed as ‘anti-woke’ minister
Good morning. Yesterday’s reshuffle was more surprising than expected, largely because of the return of David Cameron, but also because it suggests that Rishi Sunak has chosen to tack towards governing more as a mainstream, centrist Conservative, to abandon trying to present himself as a radical, “change” candidate, and to pull back from a lurch towards “red wall” Toryism.
There was one concession to the red wallers. Although the very rightwing Suella Braverman was out, another rightwinger popular with the GB News demographic (she presents a show there) was in. Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary who was born in Liverpool, has been made a Cabinet Office minister. According to a briefing to the Sun newspaper, she will serve as the “common sense tsar” tasked with “tackling the scourge of wokery”.
But will she? Richard Holden, the new Conservative party chairman was doing interviews this morning and on the Today programme at one point he appeared to confirm that McVey is the new Braverman. Asked about McVey’s job, Holden said: “What Suella … what Esther is going to be doing ….” The presenter, Nick Robinson, described it as a Freudian slip.
However, Holden was reluctant to describe McVey as a common sense minister who will wage war on wokeism. In an interview with Times Radio, asked if McVey would be vetting “woke” policies, Holden replied: “I think all of us will be looking at all policy in the round.” And when it was put to him that she was in government to represent “anti-woke opinion”, Holden replied:
No, it’s there to represent – I know Esther, I know her husband Philip (Davies) very well – they have various different views on a wide range of different topics just like other MPs do as well. And I think to try and put people into little pockets of one thing or another, I don’t think is fair.
And on the Today programme, when Robinson asked what being minister for common sense might mean, Holden did talk about freedom of speech on universities, but also stressed that the Conservative party was “a broad church … with a common goal”.
The briefing about McVey being a “common sense tsar” was clearly intended to appeal to rightwingers but, in a further sign that the gambit may have failed, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary and a fellow GB News presenter, described the label attached to McVey by the Sun as “silly”. He told Times Radio:
I welcome Esther’s return because I think she’s highly capable and a good presenter of the Tory cause. I think having a minister for woke is silly and I think it’s deeply regrettable that a minister of the calibre and quality of Jeremy Quin, who was in the Cabinet Office, has been lost to the government and they brought in somebody with a silly title. I think it’s an extraordinary thing to do and is not serious, but Esther is a very good person and to have her in the cabinet is a good thing.
I think silly titles for government posts is a Blairite thing. That is not the proper business of government ... This is ridiculously tokenistic, won’t impress anybody.
Rees-Mogg himself was once minister for “Brexit opportunities and government efficiency”. Given that critics felt both of those concepts were fictions, that title was controversial too.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.
11am: The Growth Commission, which was set up by Liz Truss, publishes a report proposing free market policies that it says would stimulate growth.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
After 12.30pm: MPs resume the debate on the king’s speech, with the focus on the economy.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
