Isabel Hardman
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I was recently talking to one MP who was caught out by a previous change of heart. They were still defending the previous policy as the government U-turned. At the time, they’d seen their career trajectory as heading towards the ministerial ladder. They were so humiliated by the way they’d done their party’s bidding that they’ve now gone on to being a regular rebel.
This isn’t just an administrative concern for MPs about letter-writing, though. One of the questions many in Westminster have been asking over the past year and a bit is why the numerous Tory sleaze stories haven’t had the sort of cut-through that similar rows and revelations had in the John Major years. The answer is possibly that those sleaze stories of the 1990s accompanied a general impression of a clapped-out government that was struggling to stay competent. Boris Johnson’s government isn’t there yet: it hasn’t introduced a ‘cones hotline’ equivalent policy, for instance. But it’s not far off, especially as the credit for the vaccine programme fades and the reality of trying to deal with NHS backlogs post-pandemic sinks in.
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