Boris Johnson chooses power over personnel in cabinet reshuffle

Boris Johnson promised not so long ago that Sajid Javid would be his chancellor, in front of an audience and the TV cameras.

In characteristically bombastic style, before he could be completely sure he would be back as PM, Boris Johnson said: “I’m going to give you an absolutely categorical assurance I will keep Sajid Javid as my chancellor. I think he’s a great guy, and I think he is doing a fantastic job.”

So what on earth has just then happened?

As one cabinet minister suggested, it seems Sajid Javid’s departure is “a little bit of accident and a little bit of design”.

Two weeks ago, if the now former chancellor had been fired it might not have seemed that surprising.

There were well-known tensions between the two teams, not necessarily between the two men themselves.

And there was plenty of briefing around that the relationship was strained between Mr Javid and the prime minister’s top adviser, Dominic Cummings.

There were not profound policy clashes perhaps, but there was certainly some of the traditional friction – No 10 that wants to be able to spend, No 11 that wants to hold the cheque book tightly.

But in recent days, there had been plenty of warm noises that Mr Javid was safe in government.

Even though No 10 has bold ideas for reform, they had concluded it seemed there wasn’t much point ripping up the relationship at the top.

What however they were determined to change was the atmosphere and the balance between the wider institutions – the political machine of Downing Street and the wider Treasury team.

For a deeply motivated group inside No 10, that meant forcing changes on the chancellor as noted by the well plugged-in Conservative blogger Paul Goodman earlier this month.

The possibility of that had not gone unnoticed by the Treasury team, and I understand that Mr Javid had discussed with friends what to do in that circumstance.

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If he were presented with a fait accompli, he had considered that he might have to quit.

Walking in front of the cameras at Downing Street this morning therefore, he was aware of what might have been about to happen.

I’m told the meeting between the two powerful men started cordially, with Mr Boris Johnson praising Mr Javid’s time in the job, before hitting him with the demand that he’d love him to stay, but without his team.

Whispers suggest the chancellor (still in the job at that point) asked the prime minister for what precisely his advisers had actually done wrong, but he was short on evidence.

After the pair went “round in circles”, they took a break, at which point in a series of “side meetings” senior figures like the chief whip and Eddie Lister, another senior No 10 adviser, tried to persuade Mr Javid to stay.

He did not back down though, and then it’s said in another one-on-one meeting with the PM, he tendered his resignation.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/