It’s been the most intense ‘political’ week since the last one, much of which has involved resignations.
Who did, who didn’t, and who’s resigned about it all anyway.
And to think it started so close to home …
Fifteen seconds of fame
Less than three minutes into the new PM’s first statement to the house, Bracknell Conservative MP, Dr Phillip Lee, set out on his fifteen seconds of international fame by ‘crossing the floor’.
It wasn’t quite as theatrical as going from the government side of the chamber to the opposition’s, mainly because he started from the middle, over by the entrance. Needing two guides to show him the way, the consequent disturbance led to the speaker telling the PM to sit down then calling the house to order. Again.
And like the last day of summer, suddenly the Government’s majority of one was gone.
Resignations of the first kind …
Less than an hour after Dr Lee’s public defection from Tory ranks, the chair of the Lib Dems LGBT+ group, Jennie Rigg, resigned – along with others – citing his incompatibility with Lib Dem values.
Amid controversial claims that Dr Lee voted against gay marriage in 2013 (he voted for it too), and co-proposed an amendment to the Immigration Act to bar foreigners with HIV in 2015 (which proposed to bar other blood-borne diseases too), there were cat-whistles about Dr Lee’s dog-whistle politics (audible to some but not others).
But it turns out that his defection has some ‘previous’ to consider.
… the second kind …
Back in 2016, he’d been significantly ‘undeclared’ on the subject of Brexit until two weeks before the referendum, when he announced that he was backing ‘remain’. Justice was served with a post in new PM Theresa May’s government some weeks later.
Forward to the morning of Jun 12th 2018, when Dr Lee resigned from Mrs May’s government because of “the Brexit process and the Government’s wish to limit Parliament’s role in contributing to the final outcome”. Rumours immediately suggested that “he’ll be lucky if he isn’t deselected by his Association”.
By lunchtime the chair of Bracknell Conservatives’ response “because we don’t have an election looming I don’t believe de-selection is a sensible thing to do however if an election were to be called it will count again him” was doing the rounds. By mid-afternoon it emerged that Dr Lee had dined with arch-Remainer Dominic Grieve the previous evening, and by tea-time the photo of those placards proclaiming Dr Lee as a “Great British Hero” was circulating.
Alas to no avail – by 7pm he’d been given the smallest office in Westminster, following which his ‘rebellion’ was to abstain on a key Brexit vote at the time.
… and the third
By January 2019, Dr Lee was leading the conservatives for people’s vote, called “Right to Vote”, in direct opposition to PM Theresa May. Despite Dr Lee having voted for Article 50 to leave the EU, he went on to vote alongside Labour – against manifesto commitments to honour the referendum result.
In February, after further votes against the government’s Brexit proposals, Dr Lee’s name was regularly appearing on ‘defection-watch’ lists – marked as ‘undecided’.
By May, with almost all MP support for “Right to Vote” having evaporated, he declared that he wouldn’t be attending Bracknell Conservative Association’s vote of no confidence in him.
Which it duly did in early June.
A week later he was backing Sam Gyimah’s bid for the Tory leadership (which Bogovit’s won) so in July, Bracknell Conservative Association’s executive group voted for him to face reselection – which was promptly leaked to the media. As were complaints about that leak – the very next day.
This intensified speculation that he’d be defecting soon, which allegedly ‘ruined’ the Lib Dem’s August reshuffle.
However, if it’s a pre-Brexit election and Dr Lee’s ‘supporters’ in Bracknell were disappointed enough… he might end up being the Lib Dem’s prospective parliamentary candidate for another seat. Which could easily end up as THE contest of the campaign (think irresistible ‘Remain’ vs. immovable ‘Leave’).
But there’s more …
The right hon member for Hastings and Rye (majority 346) and Minister for Work and Pensions, aka ‘plucky Amber’, promptly went and pensioned herself off, following Bogovit’s ‘resigning’ 21 fellow Conservatives in his pursuit of ‘no-deal’.
Clearly nobody told her that the three-day bill had won, because she sailed past ministerial resignation and went straight to ‘Go’ – from the party itself. Thus boosting her re-election chances from fat to slim.
But it leaves the Government, as well as the party, officially Rudd-er-less.
Ordure, ordure …
As if muck-spreading from sitting MP’s wasn’t enough, the Speaker and Tory MP for Buckingham (majority 25,725) went and allowed a very dodgy bit of parliamentary debate to go ahead in defiance of government wishes. This has since become law, making it ‘illegal’ for Bogovit’s to take Britain out of the EU without a deal.
Parliament’s now officially prorogued (aka ‘on holiday again’) and comes back in October.
However, there are rumours that another Standing Order 24 debate that the yet-to-go speaker wants before Brexit – is an urgent and important consideration to repeal the law of gravity.
But it’s no surprise that Mr Bercow has resigned. Having defied the PM, his local Conservative Association would have deselected him anyway.
The Last Word
After all these resignations, the advisor’s line to the PM was to “cheer up as things could get worse”. So he cheered up and they promptly did – with a very public Irish back-stab from the Taoiseach (‘teeshok’) on camera.
And with their majority having declined faster than Rees Mogg’s posture on the front bench last week, one’s left wondering how to best describe a government that couldn’t even win a vote of no confidence in itself …
‘Emborissing’.
