WHEN I visited Westminster on a parliamentary lobby trip last week, I didn’t expect to get a front-row seat to the collapse of Boris Johnson’s government.
It wasn’t even four full days that my colleague Steph Brawn and I spent in London and yet it felt like at least a week. It was a deluge of news but we witnessed one of the biggest political moments of our generation – so far.
The National likes to make its presence felt in the UK halls of power from time to time – to ask questions of the politicians that are never asked by others in the media, and to feed back to our readers on what’s going on behind the scenes (it’s usually alcohol).
The first morning we stuck to the itinerary – a sit down with Simon Clarke in the Treasury followed by a historical tour of the Foreign Office building and chat with the crisis management team – but it wouldn’t be long before everything was up in the air.
The ripples of Johnson’s fateful apology over the Pincher scandal were seeping out throughout the day, but it wasn’t until after our meeting with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in Portcullis House at 5pm that the magnitude of what was about to follow started to kick in.
Much of that interview, and the surprise arrival of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, is covered on page 10.
It was as the dozen or so journalists from the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists Association (SPJA) were leaving Portcullis House, just steps from the reception, that I heard someone behind me fatefully shriek: “Sajid Javid has resigned!”
Most stopped on the spot, some hadn’t heard, I tried to turn back – Starmer had just urged the Cabinet to resign or force Johnson to go less than 10 minutes before, but a press officer stopped me in my tracks and insisted a statement would be forthcoming.
Rishi Sunak’s resignation letter dropped when we were within sight of the hotel, I shouted “Sunak’s gone” in shock, and immediately called my news editor, who had not heard, so our conversation was brief, a scramble ensued.
Four of us rushed back to the hotel cafe to hurriedly write up the answers to two questions we were allowed to use – thankfully, part of the embargo had been scrapped due to the circumstances, and Starmer hadn’t put out a statement yet. That first hour of chaos was a sign of what was to come over the next few days.
After speedy typing and uploading we made our way to Dover House for Beating Retreat – we had been invited by the Scotland Office as part of the trip – and we couldn’t resist trying to see if we could find out any inside track on who the next Chancellor would be, but no-one was giving anything away.
After we had a few glasses of free prosecco and I scoffed doubles of the rarer vegetarian appetisers, we then headed to a Diageo cocktail reception in a grand garden just off College Green. We unfortunately missed the infamous negroni fountain, which made it into a Sun article, due to our late arrival, as it had been switched off. Remember what I said about the alcohol?
Anyway, there were some Scottish Tory MPs in attendance, as well as the SNP MPs and even some Labour frontbenchers, but there were no notable English Tories in sight, likely holed up watching the start of their government crumble, or plotting their leadership bids. We found out Nadhim Zahawi was appointed Chancellor just as the lights went up for last orders before 10pm.
I headed back to the hotel early, foreseeing the long days ahead, and after a cup of tea couldn’t resist totting up the numbers before I went to sleep. By midnight, 13 members of Johnson’s government had resigned, and it was just the beginning.
On Wednesday morning we had a meeting with Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, who spent most of the interview decreeing that because Johnson had been honest with him, that meant he had no reason to doubt the PM’s integrity. Multiple journalists in the room put to him – should he not also consider how the public views Johnson, with many feeling misled by the Prime Minister over the numerous scandals he’s presided over? Jack would not be swayed. I picked up on the fact he said loyalty was important in politics, he was steadfast in backing Johnson as PM, but would he follow him out the door? “No,” was the short answer. Immediately after that he left to take a ministerial car to a meeting.
By the afternoon it became almost impossible to keep up – every few minutes another junior minister, a PPS, a parliamentary under secretary, dropped a resignation letter, five went in one swoop. Our lunchtime meeting was moved so we had time to watch PMQs before sitting down with energy minister Greg Hands in BEIS HQ – the stories from the interview will be in Monday’s National – and back to the hotel again to watch the liaison committee while Steph and I ate paninis that we had grabbed from a cafe next door.
At points we were beginning to worry that those MPs we had spoken to so far; Simon Clarke, Alister Jack and Greg Hands – were going to quit, and our stories would be worthless, but none of them did. Considering 59 went in the end, that’s not bad going for journalistic luck. Jack was even with Carrie Johnson while her husband stood at the lectern outside of Number 10.
One Tory minister did cancel a sit down with the SPJA, and has not made any statement throughout the whole saga. It was an impeccably timed trip.
After grimacing and cringing through Johnson’s liaison committee appearance, we decided to venture for some dinner in Whitehall as we had begun suffering from resignation letter fatigue. Inevitably that decision led us past Downing Street, where we stayed for over an hour trying to get a video of Johnson returning to the waiting crowds.
He had come in the back door – much to the annoyance of Steph, who had boldly climbed a wall in front of the Metropolitan police in a bid to get the clip. We then discovered Johnson had somehow found the time to send a letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refusing a Section 30 order in what could be his last moments as Prime Minister, a final stab at democracy as he plotted how to cling on. Then David Duguid, Tory MP for Banff and Buchan, resigned as parliamentary under secretary in the Scotland Office, as did Ruth Edwards, Jack’s PPS.
I did an impromptu Facebook live from across the road to keep our readers updated before we finally went to eat, the news and resignations did not stop coming but I found time for nachos and a diet coke.
By Thursday morning we’d heard all about the Cabinet ambush in Downing Street and that Johnson coincidentally had a change of heart overnight, that he would indeed go and to expect a statement. While Steph headed for an interview with SNP Westminster chief whip Owen Thomson to get his reaction to events, I headed towards Number 10 after grabbing a latte, there was no way I was going to miss history.
The roads were packed outside of the iconic black gates, the islands in the middle of the road littered with international broadcasters, and me, while those who weren’t so willing to risk getting hit by a car or tour bus lined up on top the white stone wall on the other side of the road. At one point police officers were directing those arriving across the street because there was no room left on the pavement outside of the gates.
I knew Johnson had stepped out of Downing Street when the booing and shouting began, it spread across the street like wildfire, with the police officers lining the crowds watching on. It was so busy that it took most of Johnson’s statement to send a video to the digital team because there was so little signal, it was packed. I had to do my best to listen to Johnson’s statement by leaning into the phone of a kind woman who has a better 4G provider than me. At one point, a tour bus stopped right in front of the gates and I could see those on the open top deck hurriedly pulling out their phones – impeccable timing.
“He just keeps waffling,” one of the circle of women I had joined bemoaned, and she was right, although it was difficult to make out everything he was saying amongst the noise of the crowd, notorious protestor Steve Bray belting out “Bye Bye Boris”, and the constant traffic on either side of us.
Amusingly I was told later that night by some fellow train passengers returning to Glasgow that those watching the statement on TV could only hear cheering from the PM’s supporters, while the broadcasters inside struggled to make out any of what Johnson was saying because the booing was deafening. I said I had the footage on hand and they all demanded to see it.
Johnson going was the talk of the train – some people I spoke to didn’t believe he would go, one said they feared Scotland would now leave the UK and others were curious about independence and what it would look like. A taxi driver also told us he didn’t want Scotland to leave, but mostly because we produce great footballers.
It’s clear in the aftermath of those fateful days that Johnson is going, finally, but the fact that he has not gone now, and that it took so long for Tory MPs to oust him will be the legacy of this UK Government.
The mood outside the gates was sombre after he was finished. The booing continued for a while as the crowd left, some people were going back to work, others were continuing on with their holidays, but one man at least was out of a job.
