Boris Johnson’s ‘diverse’ cabinet hides some worrying truths

Editorial: Diversity of thought doesn’t get a look in – and the real power may lie elsewhere anyway

(AP)

A “cabinet for a modern Britain” it has been spun as – and superficially, at least, it is shaping up to satisfy that boast. With a massacre of the old guard, and virtually every position up for grabs, the opportunity has been seized: in terms of women and Bame representation, it is certainly the most diverse in British history. When the traditional cabinet group photograph is published, it will be in stark symbolic contrast to the older order.

Perhaps stung by the claims he is “Britain Trump”, as Donald Trump calls him, and by the endlessly recycled stories about his references to “letterbox” veils and “watermelon smiles”, Mr Johnson has set out to confound his critics. It is, after all, entirely right that everyone in modern British society can look towards those at the top of politics as examples of what can be achieved.

There are at least two striking appointments, in this respect. Sajid Javid as chancellor at least has the intellect and background to know what needs to be done. During his leadership campaign he even talked about a £100bn plan to close the north-south divide. He is, however, also a devoted believer in the small state, and an instinctive libertarian. As a lukewarm Remainer – he is the only one at the top of government to have voted that way in 2016 – he has become a convert to the Brexit cause. In which case, expect some radical thinking about the way to make Britain prosper in a post-Brexit world.

Priti Patel is rather different. What has she done in a political career to have warranted such a meteoric resurrection? It is as strange as seeing Lazarus attached to a Saturn rocket and sent into orbit.

She has shown appalling judgment, as when she undertook a lone mission to divert part of the UK aid budget to the Israeli Defence Force. She has displayed little flair or originality in any of her public pronouncements, and has few achievements to her name since she was a spin doctor for William Hague.

It is also difficult to be optimistic about Dominic Raab at the Foreign Office. Why move Jeremy Hunt? Mr Hunt’s sole crime seems to have been to be a polite and principled opponent of Mr Johnson during the leadership campaign, and to have ended up with “only” a third of the vote – perfectly respectable in the circumstances. A demotion to defence was offered, and he understandably declined.

He, like Philip Hammond and others, will be a powerful voice of sense and dissent on the backbenches. Mr Raab is a clever man, and has a certain drive, but also seems inclined to be a hot head.

Mr Johnson might regret not being more ruthless with his old rival Michael Gove. As Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, taking on David Lidington’s role, he will have a central part to play. Given the history, it is difficult to see how their partnership might work as well as it did in 2016. Perhaps Mr Gove has now decided Mr Johnson is a team builder after all, or that Mr Johnson has decided to prove Mr Gove wrong. Though pragmatic about timings and detail, Mr Gove is as devoted a long-term Brexiteer as it is possible to envisage. He isn’t “do or die” by nature.

There are also other important correctives to this optimistic view of the progressive credentials of the Johnson government. The first is that – irrespective of whether they went to Eton, their race or their gender – what these ministers actually do and what they stand for is more important than anything else. As an overwhelmingly no-deal Brexit gang with a distinctly Thatcherite ideology, they are in fact pretty homogenous in their views – there’s little diversity at all in that respect.

It is perfectly possible that their policies on educational opportunities, on migration, employment legislation, on housing, on the benefits system and on much else will in fact have the effect of discriminating against groups that have, in all honesty, already found themselves badly hit by the last decade of Conservative-led austerity and cuts, as well as the notorious “hostile environment” for illegal immigration.

It is often said that, beneath his careless use of language and blatant appeal to the worst instincts of the Tory backwoods, Mr Johnson is in fact a social liberal. If so, then now is the moment for him to prove it. The second point is that, although the cabinet is one thing, the “kitchen cabinet” may matter more.

Mr Johnson’s record over two terms as mayor of London suggests he will see his personal “gang” in and around No 10 and the Cabinet Office as his praetorian guard, personally loyal and accountable to Mr Johnson alone. Indeed, many of those now joining him are veterans of City Hall or the 2016 Leave campaign.

Some of those being recruited for the more informal wing of his administration are reassuring figures. Sir Edward Lister, who served Mr Johnson as chief of staff at City Hall, will be back in the same role for this reunion, at least during what is termed, misleadingly, the “transition” phase. He will be assisted by a substantial body of deputy chiefs and various comms specialist.

Much more disturbing is the re-emergence, like a political zombie, of Dominic Cummings, the maverick behind the Leave campaign. You wonder what use this edgy young-ish man will be to the cause of good government; he would, however, be a useful wing man in the event of a second Final Say referendum.

But for the first time in a century, the government front bench will find behind it an arguably more talented group of former ministers, all dedicated to frustrating one of the new prime minister’s fundamental policies – keeping open the option of a no-deal Brexit without proper prior parliamentary consent.

Theresa May, Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Alan Duncan, Rory Stewart… all will, to varying degrees, reassert the democratic values of their party and the rights of the House of Commons, and it is especially encouraging to see that Ms May did not repeat the unseemly dash for the Chiltern Hundreds that Tony Blair and David Cameron made when they ceased to be the top dogs.

Mr Johnson is refreshing government and, he hopes, re-energising it. This is good, and all part of democratic renewal (albeit with only the narrowest of mandates from the Tory membership to base it all on). Yet no matter how energetic the new ministers are, how many bright ideas sprout from their minds, how eloquent they are in the Commons and in the media, or how skilled in pushing legislation through the Commons – the obstacles that faced Ms May still litter the place.

The policy of the EU is unchanged and the parliamentary majority against no deal is unchanged. Not since the brief rise of the Natural Law Party and their faith in yogic flying has the political scene witnessed such blind faith in the power of “positive energy” to alter the real world. The energy will soon run out, dudes.