The Tories have the luxury of not having a leadership contest – and David Cameron’s getting quickly down to the job of making sure there isn’t one anytime soon as he builds his new Cabinet.
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George Obsorne returns as Chancellor, Teresa May stays as Home Secretary and Philip Hammond continues as Foreign Secretary. Cameron’s sticking with whom he knows, without having to break in anyone new to one of the major Cabinet posts. However, there was nowhere else these sitting ministers could go! They are all too young to want to retire to the backbenches and are all potential leadership candidates in five years time. The last thing a Prime Minister with a majority of twelve needs is a disgruntled former senior minister knocking about with time on their hands.
Though he must be delighted to have achieved an absolute majority – and that success will have silenced a number of his critics, Cameron is now back at the mercy of his own right wing, who have quickly realised their new power. Cameron can’t win their silence by telling them not to scare the Lib-Dems on whom his government relies – and he’ll need the hard right to vote with the Government to get his policies through. The right are therefore well placed to exact concessions – and they are probably spending the weekend writing out their shopping list.
One sign that the pressure is working is the appointment of Michael Gove as Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. Gove was Education Secretary in the last Parliament and had to be surgically removed from the post after his long-cherished schools reform programme annoyed parents and teachers. He was moved to the Whips office: a sort of half way house for ex-ministers who are not quite ready for retirement. Now he has two jobs, bringing in £136,000, he is being amply rewarded for keeping a loyal silence in the Whips’ Office.
Now Gove is back: ready to wreak his right wing agenda on the Justice Department. And top of his list is to get rid of the Human Rights Act passed by the last Labour Government. Instead of the Act, Gove will draw up a UK Bill of Rights: let’s see what human rights these right wing Tories think we should have…
Gove is also tipped to be in charge of a programme of boundary changes. These nearly happened during the last Parliament, but the Lib-Dems got in the way. Now Gove can steamroller them through. As the changes are designed to give the Tories an extra 20 safe seats, all MPs from the Party should be delighted. He is also likely to deal with further changes in legal aid and the prison system – further measures likely to delight the Tories and dismay radicals alike. We are truly in for a bumpy ride.