A Safe Space for Liz

 A Safe Space for Liz.

Spare a thought for Johnny Mercer. As newly installed PM Liz Truss was filling her Cabinet with sycophants and servants, Johnny came face to face with a revelation we all arrived at in 2016: that there is no room for principles in today's Conservative Party. It is in fact, conservative in name only.

Johnny and I share a military background and for this reason, despite questioning some of his choices (he was the first to Boris Johnson's side in the outgoing PM's leadership campaign) I had to believe that deep down, he was a man of integrity. As the Johnson Government cast our right to protest into the fire along with the environment, ministerial standards, the NHS, Northern Ireland and the energy price cap, Johnny cut a lonely figure. Now, the circus remains but Johnny leaves town.

Truss' Cabinet picks are very revealing. Theresa May's premiership was a series of calamitous events and her fate was sealed from the very beginning, with the promotion of Boris Johnson to the Office of Foreign Secretary. Keeping her enemies closer than her friends was a courageous act - it showed a willingness to reconcile and work through differences - but Johnson's resignation, expertly timed, spelled the end of her leadership.

Those who have observed Truss from the side lines recognise her Cabinet selection as being in keeping with her character. That is to say it is entirely risk averse. In the safe space she has built of her allies, she is as unlikely to follow Julius Caesar to the metaphorical grave as she is to follow Margaret Thatcher in stoic integrity. It also condemns the Conservative Party to continue its Orwellian path, with no room for alternative voices. The jump from liberalism to this authoritarian government is impossible to make for one with genuine principles, but Liz has achieved a seamless transition and in doing so, has become the antithesis of Paddy Ashdown. She was far more likely to secure a parliamentary future with the Conservative Party than she was with the Liberal Democrats. The switch represented the safe bet, and probably wasn't the first time she'd sacrificed principles at the altar of advancement. It certainly wasn't the last. In 2016, she famously campaigned to remain in the European Union, along with her PM, David Cameron. Fast forward only a couple of years and Liz could see that the tide had turned. Thus, Remain too, found itself bound at the altar. Truss claims now to be one of the strongest advocates for Brexit, but who'd believe her? In her position, it is simply the safest bet. It was again, for the woman who claimed she'd stand up to Vladimir Putin, the safest bet to cancel an interview with Andrew Neil, during her leadership campaign.

It has always been clear that in this drawn-out Conservative leadership campaign, Liz Truss represented the continuity candidate. She will not deviate from the destructive course set by Boris Johnson - to do so would risk the wrath of the true power behind the party. No. It's far safer to surround herself with friends and have them say nice things to her.