by S. NEERAJ KRISHNA
BORIS JOHNSON's cabinet reshuffle wasn’t expected to raise much of a kerfuffle. The prime minister, it is said, wanted to maintain a “business-as-usual” air over the exercise.
Things, however, took an unusual turn with Sajid Javid resigning as chancellor of the exchequer. He refused to bow down to conditions laid down by the prime minister.
“It’s been a huge honour to serve as chancellor of the exchequer,” he told BBC. “Whilst I was very pleased that the prime minister wanted to reappoint me, I was unable to accept the conditions that he had attached, so I felt that I was left with no option other than to resign.”
Javid said one of the conditions was that he “replace all my political advisers”.
“These are people who have worked incredibly hard on behalf of, not just the government, but the whole country, [and] done a fantastic job. I was unable to accept those conditions,” he said.
“I don’t believe any self-respecting minister would accept such conditions. And so, therefore, I felt the best thing to do was to go.”
Javid said the conditions were put forward by the prime minister. “That was, of course, his prerogative,” he added.
Javid, who came to Britain as a Pakistani bus driver’s son, had made history as the first British Asian to have held two of UK’s four great offices of state. Now, he again set a record as the shortest-serving chancellor since 1970, having held the office for just 204 days.
Notably, Javid was set to present the Budget in March. Now, the job will be done by his former deputy, Rishi Sunak, who was promoted as chancellor in no time.
Incidentally, just two days before his resignation, Javid had written in an article on HS2 for The Telegraph: “I will be setting out more details in my Budget on March 11, as we publish our long-term National Infrastructure Strategy.”
There had been no hint from Javid’s or Johnson’s sides over such an eventuality. In fact, both had always tried to downplay rumours of rifts.
Ahead of his re-election, during a meeting with members of the Confederation of British Industry, Johnson was asked about retaining Javid as chancellor.
His reply was: “I’m going to give you an absolutely categorical assurance that I will keep Sajid Javid as my Chancellor. How about that?
“I think he’s a great guy and I think he is doing a fantastic job and I’m proud to count him as a colleague.”
“Fantastic” was the word Javid, too, chose to use when asked about his relationship with the prime minister. That was at a time when rumours were rife over friction between No 10 and No 11 on Downing Street.
Speaking to BBC, he had said Johnson was “someone I’ve always got on with incredibly well, and it’s been a real privilege to work with him so closely”.
BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said: “The relationship between these two next door neighbours in Downing Street is vital in any government.
“The relationship between the two men as individuals has been OK but there have been clashes between their wider teams.”
It was no secret that there was a power tussle between Javid and Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
A flashpoint that was underplayed by both sides was when Javid’s media adviser Sonia Khan was fired in August, without consulting him. Cummings had accused her of leaking sensitive government information.
An "infuriated" Javid reportedly "voiced his anger", but maintained the issue under wraps.
Rows simmered over the Conservatives’ economic policy at the election and the Budget, too. Javid pushed for tighter fiscal rules, even as Johnson's team sought more financial freedom.
Cummings had pitched for heavy tax cuts and radical new spending. Javid’s team, however, was anxious about public finances and “unwilling to overboard with the Budget”.
Javid tightened the purse strings during Johnson’s run-up to the December election, too. That affected “Cummings’s plans to pump money into the North”, said an analyst.
Sources said No 10 insiders felt that “Javid was being difficult”. They were unhappy with Javid’s “intransigence”, and started favouring Sunak.
No 10 staff apparently preferred dealing with Sunak, who was yet to complete five years in Parliament. Some reports said several departments had been directed to talk to the deputy rather than the boss.
Another “particular annoyance in No 10” was Javid’s backing for the HS2 before an official announcement. It had left the prime minister somewhat cornered.
Before that, Javid and Cummings had open differences over the appointment of Bank of England’s new governor. Cummings had been rooting for Andy Haldane, but Javid ensured that his candidate, Andrew Bailey, got the post.
On the No 10 versus No 11 “war” ahead of the reshuffle, a Whitehall source had told the Financial Times: “It’s become like the Israel-Palestine crisis: no one can pin down exactly when it started but it’s descended into retaliation after retaliation.”
Some of Javid’s recent radical proposals such as mansion tax, raid on pension funds, to curbing “entrepreneur’s relief”, too, did not go down well with his critics.
Some of them felt he was deviating from traditional Conservative philosophy, and banking towards the left.
Looking back, Johnson and Javid, and their teams, were truly on the same page only when it came to divergence in the UK-EU relations. Otherwise, there always seemed to be tensions simmering below the personal bonding the duo shared.
A source close to the prime minister summed up the developments quite succinctly: “We cannot have a political team that displays even a cigarette paper of difference.”
For Johnson, Javid’s exit gives him control—an “iron grip”—over the Treasury. The move to impose conditions on Javid looked like scripting a drama with a preordained climax. It certainly made bad optics.
For Javid, the writing on the wall was clear: either sack his close aides and continue as chancellor with a team of advisers handpicked by Cummings, or quit.
Staying on would have established him as a, what his detractors called him, “Chino—Chancellor in name only”. He chose to walk out with his head held high.
“My successor has my full support, as does the prime minister, and I will continue to support this government in every way I can from the backbenches,” he said.
