'Never has there been a more ambitious man in Downing St': Boris Johnson shows his hand with Treasury power grab
'Boris is not prepared to let anyone usurp his own ambition - not Sajid, not Cummings, not anyone'
On cabinet discipline, Margaret Thatcher once joked: “I don't mind how much my ministers talk, as long as they do what I say.”
He may be modelling himself on his political hero Winston Churchill, but Thursday’s reshuffle finally proves beyond any doubt that Boris Johnson’s premiership aims to be as presidential as the Iron Lady’s.
It was all smiles around the cabinet table on Friday, as pictured below, but with predecessors having been fired for lacking either discipline or dynamism (or both), Sajid Javid’s resignation has left newly-appointed ministers in no doubt over who has ultimate control of Whitehall.
If Number 10 seizing control of the Treasury in the biggest political power grab of modern times was not enough to hammer home the message, Secretaries of States have received specific instructions from No10 on what their key priorities should be in yet another example of Downing Street’s vice-like grip on government departments....
He may be modelling himself on his political hero Winston Churchill, but Thursday’s reshuffle finally proves beyond any doubt that Boris Johnson’s premiership aims to be as presidential as the Iron Lady’s.
It was all smiles around the cabinet table on Friday, as pictured below, but with predecessors having been fired for lacking either discipline or dynamism (or both), Sajid Javid’s resignation has left newly-appointed ministers in no doubt over who has ultimate control of Whitehall.
If Number 10 seizing control of the Treasury in the biggest political power grab of modern times was not enough to hammer home the message, Secretaries of States have received specific instructions from No10 on what their key priorities should be in yet another example of Downing Street’s vice-like grip on government departments....
