Arguably the biggest winner of yesterday’s Cabinet appointments is Mark Littlewood. No clue? He’s probably the most influential policy wonk in town for this government.
That is good news for those who worry about obesity or health-targeted interventions – or indeed any government intervention other than those on the cost of living. This will be an avowedly right-of-centre administration.
While policy will be driven from a traditional 21st-century Thatcherite perspective, the Cabinet itself is a balancing act of balletic proportions. Two of the new PM’s closest supporters are Kwasi Kwarteng (chancellor of the exchequer) and James Cleverly (foreign secretary).
The former is a pretty serious intellectual, but not necessarily the most detail-orientated occupant of No 11. The latter is an affable, competent minister who — along with Truss’s closest friend, the new deputy PM Thérèse Coffey – will be the nominated teller of tricky truths to the PM.
Coffey has the delightful task of sorting out the NHS in the months before the general election. The huge unpopularity that will likely be attached to her as a result means Cleverly could well become the under-the-bus candidate if something unfortunate happens to the PM.
That, of course, is deliberate. The PM does not want that label going to someone who, like defence secretary Ben Wallace, may still harbour active leadership ambitions.
The Truss approach to former opponents – and future potential rivals – is as brutal as yesterday’s vanquishing of Rishi Sunak supporters, special advisers and No 10 civil servants. The PM welcomes them with open arms before propelling them to the precipice of departmental failure.
Penny Mordaunt is leader of the house, a horrible job with this government’s wealth of potential backbench rebels. Suella Braverman – never a departmental boss – goes to the worst department of all: the Home Office. Expect government critics and supporters alike to be yearning within weeks for the benign reign of Priti Patel. Worth, too, keeping in mind that Patel’s reputation has always prospered on the backbenches.
For one evening, Tory MPs seriously thought about Kemi Badenoch to take on Rishi Sunak. Her reward for the standout performance in the parliamentary stage of the contest is the most generous appointment made by the new PM. She takes the favourite Truss role of international trade.
With it, she becomes a crucial player for food and farming. Do not expect her to confer any favours. Trade will be crucial to the Truss government’s signature. farmers especially should expect further trade deals they don’t like. Manufacturers may, however, be more enthusiastic about FTAs with India and, perhaps, Brazil.
Ranil Jayawardena at Defra is in place to avoid conflict with DIT, keep the farmers quiet and the food flowing. And Jacob Rees-Mogg at BEIS represents a huge test of the ministerial abilities of the Cabinet’s most exotic member.
It will be fascinating to see if British business has a better relationship with Rees-Mogg than it had with his predecessor. My guess is not – though the welcome presence of the excellent Graham Stuart, as number two at BEIS, puts an experienced and commercial voice at the Cabinet table. He’s the business grown-up in the room.
It’s deeply pragmatic and extremely clever. It demonstrates the most ideological and thoughtful PM since Thatcher and the most utterly political since Harold Wilson.
Given that Truss has the worst PM in-tray since Churchill in 1939, she’ll need to be both. The stakes could not be higher.
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