Well, last week’s column was finished on Tuesday 18th and I could not possibly have anticipated how dramatic the next few days would be.
Normally I try to run through my week in chronological order but this week it feels more appropriate to start at the end. I am, as usual, writing this on Tuesday. Today Rishi Sunak became our new Prime Minister after an incredibly turbulent week. I supported him in the summer campaign, and I am very pleased to see this appointment and believe his economic competence and professional manner will be best placed to see us through the difficult challenges we face post Covid and with Putin’s war in Ukraine.
As you will probably have seen over the weekend the selection of the next leader of the Conservative Party, and therefore Prime Minister, started with three front runners in Boris Johnson, Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak. To go to a ballot of members they were required to get the support of at least 100 MP’s and we saw that whilst both Boris and Penny said they had the required support, both chose not to put themselves forward in light of the overwhelming support that Rishi Sunak was demonstrating. This meant that on Monday Rishi Sunak became leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party and on Tuesday our Prime Minister.
So how did my week actually unfold and how did we arrive at this point?
On Wednesday, I started with an early meeting with a business from NETPark who were in Westminster to meet officials before then having a couple of meetings in my capacity as PPS. Then, of course, it was Prime Minister’s Questions before two opposition day debates.
Opposition Day is a day when the Opposition get to choose the debates to take place. This is an opportunity for the Opposition to get a Minister to answer on a subject of their choosing, they sometimes try to be very political in the wording of the question to create other consequences. The first they chose was on the economy and it was therefore a Treasury Minister to answer and I was the allocated PPS to support him.
You may have seen that the second debate created the chain of events that made the Prime Minister’s position untenable and led to her resigning. This was a debate on fracking where they put down a motion to completely ban fracking but with an addition that if they won the vote they would take control of the order paper. It is untenable for a Government to lose control of the order paper so the Government made this a ‘Confidence Motion’ with a strong 3 line whip. This means that all Government members should vote with the Government or expect to lose the whip. In other words, you are no longer allowed to sit as a Conservative MP. This caused major concerns for a number of my colleagues as they did not want to vote in a way that looked like they supported fracking.
The Government countered this by providing an undertaking that before any fracking could be allowed there would be a full debate on the approval process and the role of local communities in determination. The vote was therefore proceeding as the Government would like but then came some uncertain communication about whether it was in fact a confidence motion. This led to disagreements between the Government Whips and the Prime Minister. These circumstances, combined with the resignation earlier in the day of her Home Secretary, was the tipping point that led to the Prime Minister resigning on Thursday.
I actually spent most of Thursday in blissful ignorance of what was happening as I was at RAF Halton as part of the AFPS (Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme) and had next to no mobile signal. RAF Halton is where all the non-officer recruits to the RAF start their careers. We had the opportunity to both see what they go through and talk to both recruits and the training team. It was a very interesting day. It was only when I left for the train home that I could see what had happened!
Friday was the usual busy constituency day which started by joining Newton Aycliffe Rotary for their visit to Husqvarna. Rotary were putting their plans together for Christmas and I am now going to help the Santa sled collections. Husqvarna have a great range of equipment and we saw their robot ranges being made. Lots of production line automation but also very many jobs. This is a relatively quiet time for the production team before the post-Christmas peak ready for the Spring. I am told they have a number of vacancies and, in particular, would welcome female applications as they feel they are underrepresented in their teams.
I called in at the Neville Parade Community Centre for their coffee morning. This gave me the chance to get a few opinions on who people would prefer as the next PM. I also put a survey on Facebook asking the same question. The afternoon was spent at a long-scheduled visit to Durham University. They are very keen to work closer with our businesses and communities so if you want to engage with them let me know and we can put you in touch.
Then, of course, we had the dramatic events I started this column talking about. If you want to discuss this or anything else, please get in touch at paul.howell.mp@parliament.uk or give us a call on 01325 790580.
Paul Howell, MP for Sedgefield