Dominic Raab, soon after being appointed as Foreign Secretary issued an updated edict for his civil servants.
All other Foreign Office Ministers were henceforth to be referred to as JMs – Junior Ministers – in future internal departmental correspondence.
Unsurprisingly, the JMs didn’t take it too well. ‘We were being treated like we were children,’ one disgruntled Minister complained.
Their period on the naughty step didn’t last long. Raab was involved in Sunloungergate. Boris deposed him during the subsequent reshuffle. Liz Truss took his place.
She issued an order to the officials requesting that the JM designation be dropped on her first day of employment.
‘Liz gets it,’ a Minister said. ‘She knows how to treat her colleagues properly. It’s one of the reasons she’s been so successful.’
It was spectacularly successful. 2021 has been Liz Truss’s year.
When it began, the International Trade Secretary was viewed by many in Westminster as the Cabinet’s Judith Chalmers.
Every week, a new photo of her would be released showing her at another sunny location as she traveled the world looking for lucrative and elusive post-Brexit deals.
Her tenure in one of the Great Offices of State ends. She’s now in charge of masterminding the final fraught stages of Britain’s EU exit.
And – were Boris to suddenly fall beneath a heavily laden wine-and-cheese platter – favourite to replace him in No 10 Downing Street.
For the government, these 12 months have been hard. Boris was at his lowest point. Dishy Rinshi took the shine off. Brutal for nearly every Cabinet member, save one. 2021. It was The Year Of The Truss
The Truss Ascendancy wasn’t supposed to happen like this. That is, if at all.
When ConHome had conducted a poll of Tory MPs and awarded her an astounding 83% approval rating, I asked the Minister for his thoughts on the implications of this.
‘The problem for Liz is if we were looking at a leadership election in a few months then she’d be in prime position,’ he said, ‘but Boris is fireproof. His stubbornness is unmatched. So we’re not looking at a vacancy for another three or four years. And by then the picture will have changed.’
Boris has been rendered as much fireproof by recent events as a Texas pyromaniac who is soaking in an oil-gusher.
While reports of his departure are exaggerated, Tory MPs frustrated by their current situation have already begun to mental align with a potential successor.
Her path was clearened by a second hurdle last week. Many saw Remain’s decision as a major obstacle to the deal for the Tory Spartan backbenchers. They will have significant control over who the leader is.
But Lord Frost’s resignation, followed by Truss’s insertion as Brexit Minister, has changed that dynamic.
She now has a golden opportunity to burnish her pro-Brexit credentials – one she clearly intends to seize.
No sooner had she been handed the role than she issued a statement affirming her willingness to trigger Article 16 – suspending part of the Brexit deal – if further EU concessions aren’t forthcoming over the Northern Ireland protocol.
‘New chapter, same story,’ wailed The Guardian, criticising her ‘pugnacious tone’. This criticism, from an in-house magazine belonging to the Remain camp, will not have surprised her as it is a critical part of her political strategy. A strategy she will indeed pursue ‘pugnaciously’, according to allies.
Although she’s now the longest-serving member of the Cabinet, her new status as Boris’s heir apparent means she’s set to face an entirely new level of scrutiny.
One of the criticisms levelled by Truss’s opponents is that she’s a political lightweight. But it’s a caricature those who have served under her reject.
‘I was with her when she was dealing with the 2016 prison riots,’ says one official who was at the Ministry of Justice.
‘No 10 and everyone else were screaming, “You’ve got to send in the Army!!!” But she was telling them, “It’s OK. We’ll wait till we send in the Tornado Teams. They’ll get things under control.” And they did. She held her nerve.’
She’ll have to keep holding it. Although she’s now the longest-serving member of the Cabinet, her new status as Boris’s heir apparent means she’s set to face an entirely new level of scrutiny.
The widely dissected speech she gave to Chatham House on her first major foreign policy address, two weeks earlier, was highly praised.
‘I had to read it twice, to see if it really was as trite and lacking in an actual foreign policy as it came across on first reading. It was,’ moaned Alastair Campbell.
But Tony Blair’s former spin doctor was missing the point. It wasn’t aimed at the chancelleries of Europe, but the living rooms of Berkshire and Wiltshire.
She was lucky in 2021, but 2022 will be even more difficult. The policy challenges she faces – Brexit closure, Putin’s Ukrainian adventurism, China’s increasingly unpassive aggression – are of an order she has not faced before
Again, her condescension by the liberal intellectualsia will serve only to tie her closer to the Conservative grassroots.
Because her rise isn’t based on creating sophisticated ideologies or a polished online media platform, like Rishi, it has been quite the opposite. Truss thrived and survived by simply doing simple things right.
Use the following template to help you prepare for your time as Trade Secretary. Make yourself known in capital. Sign a minor trade deal. Take a photo. Go on.
As one friend said: ‘People don’t realise just how much influence she’s already had over the Government’s agenda. She kept harping on about freeports when she was Chief Secretary, and everybody thought she was crazy.
‘Now it’s a major plank of policy. The idea for retention payments was conceived by Rishi. Rishi announced it earlier in the year. It was she who spoke first about Rust-Belt Britain. That was the precursor to the Red Wall.’
If she was fortunate in 2021, then 2022 may prove to be more challenging. The policy challenges she faces – Brexit closure, Putin’s Ukrainian adventurism, China’s increasingly unpassive aggression – are of an order she has not faced before.
So are the forthcoming political tests. The liberal Left plans to expose her beneath the progressive camouflage it uses to attack all Tory female Ministers.
Given the fact that pro-Europeans regard her as a traitor, attacks against her will be pursued with extra fervor.
Her political history will be scanned for new or unreported transgressions.
A clip last week of a young Truss, 19, slandering the Monarchy in a social media fling was circulated. Though her statement ‘I agree with Paddy Ashdown’ will probably have done more damage than anything she said about the Crown.
There is also the possibility of jealousy or sycophancy from her fellow colleagues.
Truss’s rapid rise to the Westminster A list has meant that she didn’t have time to take a group of trusted senior friends with her.
She is popular among fellow MPs despite her social awkward reputation. There are currently very few Trusstafarians in the Cabinet and backbench.
She is popular among fellow MPs despite her social awkward reputation. There are currently very few Trusstafarians in the Cabinet and backbench.
But that isn’t necessary a deal-breaker. Boris, who is able to explain how Boris navigates the tricky path of replacing Boris, can be a good source for information.
His parliamentary support was minimally organized. Theresa May handed him what was supposedly a Brexit-poisoned chalice – ‘you Brexit, you fix it’ was how her team laughingly framed it.
And by placing him in the gilded cage of the Foreign Office, she believed she’d dispatched Boris to a brief so far removed from the daily political cut and thrust his leadership ambitions would be neutered.
It’s amazing how this worked out. Boris also enjoyed Truss’s advantage. Opponents kept underestimating him. It was almost too late.
There are some signs that they are starting to recognize the danger. Rumours circulated last week that Sunak and Jeremy Hunt had made an informal agreement to prevent her from being in the next two leadership elections.
Boris proved that MPs who depend on Tory activists have a tendency to fall into line when they enjoy strong support.
These 12 months were brutal for the Government. Boris was at his lowest point. Dishy Rishi took the gloss off.
Brutal was used for nearly every Cabinet member, save one. 2021. It was The Year Of The Truss.