Inside Politics: Boris Johnson resists calls to sack Gavin Williamson

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Wednesday 19 August 2020 07:54 BST

Gavin Williamson refuses to say whether he has offered to resign over A-levels fiasco

Maybe it’s the summer heat. Or maybe people in Westminster are spending too much time listening to Scarlett Moffatt’s conspiracy theory podcast. But some feverish Tory MPs have convinced themselves they see a special, coded signal in Gavin Williamson’s latest photo shoot. They believe the black whip and little red book on the education secretary’s desk are supposed to send a message to Boris Johnson that he “knows where the bodies are buried”. Williamson is desperately hoping to keep his job – but first he has to clear up the fall-out from the A-levels and new confusion over GCSE results.

Inside the bubble

Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

Ministers will hope the controversy over exams starts to die down, and try to move on by highlighting new legally-binding green targets on air quality, water, waste reduction and biodiversity. No prizes for guessing which of these two stories the media will prefer. Meanwhile in Brussels, 50 officials from both sides resume formal negotiations on a UK-EU trade deal – with little sign of a breakthrough by Friday when the session ends.

Daily briefing

THE MAN WHO MADE CHILDREN CRY: Boris Johnson is resisting Tory calls for a reshuffle, with Gavin Williamson set to keep his job – at least for now. There won’t be a Cabinet “reset” this autumn, according The Telegraph, though Williamson’s jacket is clearly on a shoogly peg. One Tory MP said: “Any minister who makes children cry is not in a good place.” There’s still plenty of mess for Williamson to clear up, if he can. Thousands of students will be forced to defer their places at university for a year, vice-chancellors have told The Times. The Universities UK group is asking for more money to deal with capacity issues – while also pleading for the cap on medical students to be lifted. Labour demanded “immediate clarity” on when exactly GCSE marks will be released. Williamson’s department said predicted grades would be out Thursday – but also suggested official results wouldn’t be confirmed until next week.

MAN ON A MISSION: Matt Hancock confirmed Public Health England will be replaced by the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) – saying the new body’s “relentless mission” was to protect us from pandemics. The health secretary also called on private firms to “join us in the mission” – sparking angry claims of an NHS “sell-off” from the left. Many are unhappy at Dido Harding’s appointment to lead the new body, and PHE acting as the fall guy for the government’s Covid response. Richard Murray of The King’s Fund think tank said PHE “appears to have been found guilty without a trial”. Meanwhile, the city of Leicester sees coronavirus restrictions eased today. Beauty salons, nail bars, tattoo parlours and body-piercing services are allowed to reopen.

SAJ OF HONOUR: Ex-chancellor Sajid Javid has managed to land himself a job with JP Morgan – sitting on the US banking behemoth’s advisory council for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Nothing dishonourable about that, apparently. The advisory committee on business appointments – consulted whenever a former minister wants to start a job less than two years after leaving – did warn that the Tory MP’s “privileged access to information” means there are “potential risks”. The committee recommended that he shouldn’t lobby the government on JP Morgan’s behalf for two years. Javid’s successor Rishi Sunak hailed his own Eat Out to Help Out scheme after figures showed it’s been used 35 million times in two weeks. Sadly, it hasn’t stopped Pizza Express closing 73 of its restaurants.

WHAT THE TRUCK: Brexit talks get back under way in earnest today after David Frost and Michel Barnier chatted over yet another slap-up meal together last night. Reports suggest British truckers’ access to the EU has become another sticking point. The EU team has warned British officials that their demands on haulage are too close to “single market rights”, according to the FT. Brussels appears to sense an air of desperation from the British side following setbacks on independent deals with Japan and the US. “The UK desperately needs this deal,” one EU official involved in the talks told Politico. “The lack of trade alternatives must lead to some reason in London.” The European Commission reminded everyone a deal would need to be agreed by October “at the latest” so it could be ratified.

CHOAS MASTER: Joe Biden is now officially the Democrats’ presidential candidate following his anointing at the party’s convention last night. Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry and former Republican secretary of state Colin Powell all provided ringing endorsements – and amusing attacks on Donald Trump. Clinton said: “The Oval Office should be a command centre. Instead, it’s a storm centre. There’s only chaos.” Kerry added: “When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission, it’s a blooper reel.” They should form a double act.

ALL-SEEING ORACLE: Donald Trump has backed the idea of American firm Oracle taking over the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the US, after he issued an order mandating its sale in 90 days. The president told his supporters at a rally in Arizona it would be “a great company” to get a buy-out done. Surprise, surprise: Oracle’s chairman Larry Ellison is one of the few top tech executives to openly support Trump. Elsewhere, Trump’s appointed postmaster general Louis DeJoy has said he will suspend any changes he makes to the United States Postal Service until after the election to avoid accusations that the agency has interfered with mail-out process at the president’s behest.

On the record

“I’m absolutely determined over the coming year that I’m going to be delivering the world’s best education system.”

Gavin Williamson plans on sticking around.

From the Twitterati

“There you have it. Matt Hancock just set out his vision for the NHS. He explicitly, unashamedly wants private provision at its heart. Even *after* Serco’s Test and Trace debacle.”

Dr Rachael Clarke is convinced Hancock’s call amounts to more privatisation…

“Hancock launches the next stage of NHS privatisation at Policy Exchange – an organisation that’s always been dedicated to the capture of public spending for the private gain of a few at cost to the many.”

…and tax campaigner Richard Murphy fears the same.