It is being described in Westminster as ‘the end of the Spartans’ – the brigade of veteran Tory backbenchers who battled for Brexit and made Theresa May’s life a misery but ended up dying on the hill of Owen Paterson’s business interests.
But just as Spartan society collapsed in ancient Greece when it was sacked by the Visigoths in 396 AD, so the likes of former Cabinet Minister David Davis and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg are facing the fury of the new generation of ‘Red Wall’ MPs: they are raging about the amount of political capital they spent trying to protect Mr Paterson from the consequences of breaching lobbying rules over his £500,000 of outside earnings.
Close to Downing Street (where Boris Johnson’s close aides were rattled by the Paterson saga) predicts that the scandal will trigger a change of guard in the party’s parliamentary party. Sources said that although they had good intentions at the beginning, their plan was ultimately ill-conceived and self-destructive. They are losing the trust of the younger generation at the Commons.
‘The Spartans’ – a warrior class – was the name given to the most hardcore members of the European Research Group (ERG) who pressurised David Cameron into calling the EU referendum and then defied Mrs May over the Brexit deal she tried to negotiate with Brussels, securing a harder Brexit and helping to pave the way for Mr Johnson’s premiership.
In Government, blame for the fiasco is being placed at the feet of Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured), Chief Whip Mark Spencer and No 10 Political Secretary Declan Lyons.
September saw the reunion of the core members at the Carlton Club. It featured smoked trout salad, boiled quail’s eggs, cucumber and lamb rump.
After last week’s events, the Prime Minister was left bruised. He is now facing by-election for the seat in North Shropshire. MPs from the Red Wall seats – former Labour bastions which fell to the Tories for the first time in 2019 – have been exchanging bitter messages on their WhatsApp groups about the ‘arrogance’ of the Spartans and Mr Johnson’s failure to avert the disaster.
One member of the new intake, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, is said to have called Paterson a c*** in the division lobby, while others spoke darkly about the Prime Minister having ‘lost’ the party.
The Government is placing the blame on Mr Rees Mogg, Chief Whip Mark Spencer, and Declan Lyons, No 10 Political Secretary, for this fiasco.
The likes of former Cabinet Minister David Davis (pictured) and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg are facing the fury of the new generation of ‘Red Wall’ MPs: they are raging about the amount of political capital they spent trying to protect Mr Paterson from the consequences of breaching lobbying rules over his £500,000 of outside earnings
Sources claim that Rees-Mogg, acting as a’vector’ for Spartans under pressure and talking about emotional tones regarding the impact of Mrs Paterson’s suicide on him by speaking in broad terms.
Despite the misgivings of a number of No 10 aides, including Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield, Mr Lyons agreed that Mr Paterson’s suspension should be blocked – linked to a simultaneous overhaul of Parliament’s standards system – while Mr Spencer took the disastrous decision to whip it through the Commons and obtained the support of Mr Johnson, just back from a hectic round of appearances at the COP26 summit in Glasgow followed by a late-evening dinner with former colleagues from the pro-Paterson Daily Telegraph.
Labour refused to support the new standards committee and thus secured a political win.
According to a source, “Spencer won’t be trusted again by MPs.” How can MPs ever trust Spencer to argue for the cause of action when it’s right and won’t get in their faces again? But Spencer’s allies challenge his claim that Spencer was too enthusiastic about forcing the vote through.
Dominic Cummings was Mr Johnson’s ex-advisor and nemesis. He claimed it was a strike against Kathryn Stone (the Parliamentary Commissioner to Standards) in the event she joins the Electoral Commission to investigate the Tory donations used to finance the renovation of Prime Minister’s Downing Street apartment.
The saga has renewed familiar calls for ‘more grey hair’ in No 10 and the appointment of ‘a Willie Whitelaw figure’ – Margaret Thatcher’s seasoned Deputy – who can ‘horizon scan’ for problems and deter Mr Johnson from making any more ill-fated decisions.