New ministers are marching through the corridors of power today with the special ‘I mean business’ walk that denotes an MP who finally has a job they consider important. Meanwhile in Portcullis House, old ministers are trundling about with the sort of gait that denotes a newly sacked, bewildered MP hoping that at the very least they’ll get a decent office with a good view of the Thames as compensation.
As the dust settles from this reshuffle, all sorts of rumours are flying around about who is angry and humiliated after losing their job (e.g. Andrew Lansley and Owen Paterson) or after not being offered the plum promotion they’d wanted (Liam Fox). Backbench MP Stephen Phillips has just held a meeting with the new chief whip Michael Gove to find the source of a rumour sweeping the party that he told Number 10 before the reshuffle that if he was not offered the job of Solicitor General, he would resign as an MP and trigger an awkward by-election.
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