An historic cabinet… but not a bloody one
Today’s Cabinet was historic but not bloody. It was the first Saturday Cabinet since the Falklands war and an echo of the 1975 Wilson Cabinet when collective responsibility was suspended for the first In/Out referendum on Europe. Then 7 out of 23 Cabinet ministers dissented from the Prime Minister’s position to stay in; today 6 of the 30 who sat round the table (full Cabinet members and 8 ministers who attend) dissented.
The Prime Minister opened it with his selling of what he is describing as a transformative deal. Whitehall has time-honoured rankings for Cabinet ministers and others then spoke going down the strict order of who’s technically the most important in the room.
So the Chancellor spoke next followed by the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary, each of them speaking to particular parts of the deal they’d played a role in forming and speaking at decent length. The Prime Minister had already said that they would stay until everyone had spoken however long it took but as the contributions continued down the rankings the ministers’ addresses got smaller, some of the points had already been made, no one was closed down, “no-one was grandstanding” one minister said.
Many talked of their journeys. Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan Smith, John Whittingdale and Theresa Villiers explaining how they had longstanding positions on Europe. All 5 Cabinet ministers voting for Leave spoke of the sovereignty issue and the need for Britain to take control of its own affairs. Iain Duncan Smith was amongst those careful to say that the Prime Minister had got “the best deal anyone could’ve got in the circumstances.”
Sajid Javid, long seen as a passionate anti-European out-flanking the mainstream Tory Euro-sceptics, explained how his was a “pragmatic” decision about what was best for business and jobs.
Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary joked that the prospect of the months ahead made him hope the date could be brought forward. The Scottish Secretary David Mundell said people mustn’t say Vote Remain to save the United Kingdom as that was playing into the nationalists’ trap.
After the full Cabinet members had been heard in strict ranking order the 8 ministers attending Cabinet spoke (there are no rankings, something that may keep Sir Jeremy Heywood the Cabinet Secretary awake tonight). Priti Patel spoke of her longstanding views on Europe. Matt Hancock was the last of the ministers attending to speak praising the Prime Minister’s deal.
The PM had then arranged for the Chief Whip to be the man closing these proceedings giving him the opportunity to remind everyone about how the conduct themselves in the campaign and the need to maintain a respectful tone towards colleagues.
The Prime Minister then drew events to a close explaining how there was clearly consensus that what he’d negotiated was a good deal though not good enough for some with longstanding objections to the EU and that there was clear backing around the table for his position, now the government position, to remain in the EU.
Ministers then had to hang around in the waiting room outside the Cabinet so they didn’t crash into the back of the TV pictures as David Cameron addressed the nation from the podium in front of No.10. That moment replaces the cross-channel Prime Ministerial broadcast to the nation which had been considered.
The Cabinet ministers for Leave then left in a co-ordinated series of cars taking them off to the Vote Leave campaign headquarters to pose for photos and the hit the phone banks. Vote Leave hopes this will be a shot in the arm for their campaign, vying with Grassroots Out (allied to Leave.eu) for the mantle of official campaign. David Cameron hopes their internecine bickering can go on for as long as is humanly possible.