The former Business Secretary is better placed to inherit the former Prime Minister’s old role as the teller of Tory verities – if he doesn’t want the job himself, of course.
Today’s parliamentary bout provides an excellent opportunity to review other vital perspectives on the legislation – and see which approach might be closest to the Prime Minister’s own.
The average voter in the Red Wall cares more about the NHS, surging bills, and small boats than they do the exact regulatory environment chemical companies currently face.
It’s a tribute of a kind to the topsy-turvy nature of 2022 that Johnson, Truss and Sunak were all eligible to be both Minister of the Year and Backbencher of the Year.
She was not an easy person to contradict and no one in her circle made the argument against unfunded tax cuts.
“He is the greatest electoral asset the Conservative Party has had in modern times,” he says.
I was a Conservative MP for the best part of ten years, and have been a political journalist for the better part of 20. But as the old song about the Pushmepullyou has it, I’ve “never seen anything like it in my life”.
There is a curious, cloth-eared quality to the way in which the Prime Minister refuses to take a point.
Watch our events on the first day of Conservative Party Conference 2022.
The Business Secretary demonstrated to the Federation of Small Businesses that he will be their true friend and champion.