Whitehall blob 'gobbling Right-wing Tories like Pac-Man'

 With Boris Johnson and Suella Braverman among high-profile MPs going through a tough spot, Brexiteers say there is a 'witch hunt' afoot

Source - Daily Telegraph  24/0⁵/23

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Right-wing Conservatives are being pursued in a Whitehall "witch hunt" led by a "blob" of civil servants, senior Tories have complained.

“There is now an open witch hunt against Right-wingers in the Conservative Party. The leadership of the party must shut this down immediately," one top Conservative told me in an incendiary WhatsApp message. “Active conversations are underway among MPs about how to respond to this and nothing is off the table.”

For many Brexiteer Conservatives, the news that Johnson faced two new police investigations into new alleged lockdown breaches was the last straw, after days of damaging stories which undermined Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary.

The police complaints against Johnson had been made by civil servants at the Cabinet Office which is the one Whitehall department that reports straight to Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, Johnson's successor-but-one. Did he know his team was reporting Johnson to the police?

The timing of the revelations seemed suspicious too - coming just over a day after the deadline (4pm on Monday) for all ministerial submissions to the Covid-19 inquiry into the Government's handling of the pandemic.

There were also suggestions that the Cabinet Office had decided to report Johnson to the police forces because the privileges committee - which is about to report on whether Johnson lied to MPs over the partygate scandal - was just about to approve a Commons ban of less than 10 days to save him from a recall by-election.

How can the committee report now, given it has new evidence of fresh wrongdoing over lockdowns, which Johnson denies? It threatens to keep the Privileges' inquiry going until the end of the year.

Johnson's office cries 'stitch-up'

His spokesman said: “It appears some within the Government have decided to make unfounded suggestions both to the police and to the privileges committee. Many will conclude that this has all the hallmarks of yet another politically motivated stitch-up.”

The spokesman added that "no contact was made with Mr Johnson before these incorrect allegations" before they were sent to the police and to the seven MPs on the privileges committee.

The fresh attacks on Johnson came after days of stories which have undermined Braverman, the most senior Right-winger and champion of Brexit in Sunak's Cabinet.

Braverman was already battling claims that she broke the Civil Service code by asking a civil servant to help her with a speeding offence. 

Then there was a report that she had not formally disclosed years of previous work at a charity which worked with the Rwandan government and that Home Office officials were forced to “fact-check” the Home Secretary’s statements to Cabinet.

And that comes just a day after Dominic Raab, the Brexit-backing former Deputy Prime Minister who had quit over claims he had bullied civil servants, said he was standing down as an MP at the next general election.

One senior former Conservative Cabinet minister WhatsApped me on Tuesday night. The message read: “I didn't really believe in the 'blob' till now. But the events of the last few days - the repeated briefing against Suella and now tonight's action against Boris - are beginning to make me think again.

"If the PM's team is somehow encouraging all this they need to back off fast, and if they are not they need to take some tough action for once against civil servants who are leaking against ministers."

'An attack on democracy'

A senior Tory government minister got in touch. He said: "This is a complete stitch-up. I cannot believe it. It is an attack on democracy and due process." While a Brexiteer backbench Conservative MP blamed the Whitehall 'blob', saying: "We are being gobbled up like we are in Pac-Man.”

Unsurprisingly, Left-wing critics were unimpressed. Labour MP Neil Coyle said the Tories were just "mad, bad and sad for the country". Brexit-hating LBC presenter James O'Brien posted a photograph of actor Rowan Atkinson with underpants on his head and two pencils up his nose.

Nevertheless, the top of the Conservative party is in turmoil today. How on earth will Rishi Sunak respond to this challenge?

Late on Tuesday, No 10 said that Sunak was still weighing whether to accept Braverman's explanation over the speeding offence or order an independent investigation that could take up to two months.  

This morning, however, we report that Braverman will not be sacked.

Next will be what to do about Johnson, suddenly facing two more police investigations and waiting for the privileges committee's verdict.

Sunak cannot get involved in either the police forces' investigations or the MPs' deliberations. 

But he needs to do something. If he waits, he might lose control of events with some of his own MPs now in "active conversation" about what to do next. "Nothing is off the table," the source added, menacingly.

There was talk on Wednesday morning of fresh letters of no confidence in Sunak being collected by Johnson supporters. 

Just 54 letters are required to trigger a Christmas no confidence vote. New leaders cannot be challenged for a year after being elected.

Perhaps it is time for Sunak to reach out to Johnson himself for peace talks? 

There have been overtures before. Greg Hands, the party's chairman, told me on my podcast last month that he would like Johnson to campaign nationally for the party ahead of next year's general election.

Right now, the chances of that sort of rapprochement between the pair are vanishingly small. 

But at some point both men have to realise that they are better off working together to fight their common enemy: Labour and Sir Keir Starmer. If they don't, they will have plenty of time to mend their fences in opposition, at their leisure.