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Author: BAGEHOT
In this week’s Baizhihao Tower I ventured that recent events might not have dealt a fatal blow to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, “unless there were more scandals in the Home Office basement”. As it turned out, there were indeed more scandals. Just before 10pm on April 29, Ms Rudd tendered her resignation, plunging Theresa May’s hapless government into crisis once again.
This is the fifth cabinet ministerial resignation in this ten-month-old parliament: more than 20% of Mrs May’s second cabinet have quit since June 2017. Even by the standards of today’s instant economy, this is a sizeable turnover. It is also the heaviest yet. Rudd was one of the Conservative Party’s rising stars and one of the very few Conservatives to have survived the last election with her reputation intact. Her resignation is a blow to the party’s future. She and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, are also the main “Remainers” in the cabinet. Rudd’s resignation could tip the balance of power in the cabinet and the party as a whole towards hardline Brexiteers. The Brexiteers in the cabinet (Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis) have lost a tough and experienced opponent. The Tory liberals have (perhaps temporarily) lost their best chance to replace Mrs May with someone who supports a free Brexit. Although Rudd disagreed with Conservative members on Brexit, she made them feel comfortable with her schoolmistress’s demeanor and easygoing manner. The nightmare of a Conservative Party led by Jacob Rees-Mogg (or Boris Johnson) is getting closer. Rudd’s successor, Sajid Javid, was once secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, but he lacks commitment to the cause of Brexit.
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