Are the Tories suffering from summer madness?

Cabinet descends into open warfare as
ministers publicly attack each other

One-Minute Read

Cabinet warfare has “broken out into the open”, The Independent declared today, after
Treasury Minister Liz Truss attacked colleagues for demanding more
funding for their departments.

“We have to recognise that it’s not macho just to demand more
money. It’s much tougher to demand better value and challenge the
blob of vested interests within your department,” she said.

The outburst followed reports that Defence Secretary Gavin
Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid have been pushing for
extra cash. Williamson is even said to have boasted that he could bring down Prime Minister
Theresa May, claiming: “I made her – and I can break her.”

Speaking at the London School of Economics, Truss also laid into
Environment Secretary Michael Gove over his planned crackdown on
wood burning stoves.

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Greg Clark publicly rebuked his
colleagues for trying to silence business leaders over Brexit
fears.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had said that warnings by Airbus
that it might have to move its manufacturing abroad in the case of
a no-deal Brexit were “completely inappropriate”.

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – who has also come under
fire for failing to turn up to a crucial vote on Heathrow’s expansion this
week – was reportedly overheard saying to the Belgian ambassador to
the EU: “F*** business.”

Speaking in the House of Commons, Clark said major employers
such as Airbus were “entitled to be listened to with respect”.

One minister told the BBC’s Kuenssberg that the Cabinet was now
comparable to a bad marriage, saying: “We’ve stayed together for
the sake of the kids, given birth to Brexit which is now ready to
leave home and we’re fighting now over who gets what.”

George Freeman, May’s former policy chief, told BBC Radio 4’s
World at One that the party would “deserve to lose” the
next election if they carried on feuding, and accused senior
politicians of turning Brexit into “an alley street-cat fight
between rival gangs”.

The infighting could come to a head at May’s Chequers country
retreat next week, when the PM is holding a Cabinet sleepover to
thrash out the final details of the Brexit white paper.

“It’s being called the body bag summit,” one MP
told Sky News. “They’ve either got to back her or
quit. A couple of cabinet ministers could be coming out in black
bags.”