Jason Stein, a key adviser to Liz Truss who was suspended over allegations that he was behind negative and abusive briefings about other Conservative MPs, has been reinstated following an investigation that took slightly over 48 hours, Downing Street has said.
The suspension took place on Wednesday following anonymous quotes from No 10 sources provided to the media, most notably one that suggested Truss believed Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, was “shit”.
Downing Street said at the time it could not comment on individual staffing matters, but when asked about reports that Stein had been suspended, Truss’s press secretary said the prime minister believed some briefings about parliamentary colleagues were “completely unacceptable”.
On Friday, the press secretary said: “The investigation has concluded and the suspension has ended.”
The rapid end of the process bolsters the widespread assumption that Stein was suspended mainly to buy Truss some political time, amid anger from Javid about comments in the Sunday Times last weekend, and that now she has agreed to step down, this is no longer needed.
The Sunday Times cited a No 10 source who rejected the idea that Javid had been considered rather than Jeremy Hunt to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor.
“The prime minister laughed out loud at the suggestion,” the source reportedly said. “She has sat in the cabinet with Javid for 10 years and she knows who is good and who is shit.”
While Truss’s press secretary declined to say whether Javid had complained to Truss, Javid had been due to ask a question at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday and it was widely reported that he planned to raise the case if no action was taken against Stein.
Stein’s suspension emerged shortly before PMQs, and in the end Javid did not ask a question.
Stein, a special adviser to Truss, has been a fixture around Westminster for years. He was a special adviser to Amber Rudd when she was work and pensions secretary, before she quit over tensions about Boris Johnson’s policy.
Stein subsequently worked in corporate PR, and for Prince Andrew. His reputation survived the prince’s disastrous BBC interview with Emily Maitlis because he had quit shortly beforehand after advising Andrew to not go ahead with it.
Having worked with Truss when she was a Treasury minister, Stein was an early fixture in her Tory leadership campaign and led much of the communications strategy, winning much of the credit for her convincing win over Rishi Sunak.
