Butter up the judges, release some prisoners: how David Lidington can survive as Justice Secretary

Liz Truss, I think it’s fair to say, was miscast as justice secretary. She was appointed only last July by Theresa May and demoted rather cruelly on Sunday night to be Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Truss is far more capable than her critics allow; but I would still argue that the job wasn’t right for her. Before her move to 102 Petty France, she had been an impressive education minister under Michael Gove and – bar one excruciating speech – was said to be a very capable environment secretary. But justice was a bad fit. There are a few reasons for this. Whitehall whispers suggest that Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, didn’t think she was ready to run such a big department. But such rumours should be treated with scepticism, even if it is true that MoJ has more employees – over 70,000 including prisons and probation staff – than a lot of FTSE 100 companies. I was a civil servant at the Ministry of Justice when she arrived (I’d been a speechwriter briefly for Michael Gove when he was justice secretary, and carried on in the same position working for Liz Truss for a few months).