If you thought the main fallout from Theresa May’s reshuffle was last week, think again: over the past few days the Conservatives have been appointing their parliamentary private secretaries, which means the reshuffle has only just about ground to a halt. These PPS jobs are unpaid but count as government payroll, meaning the MP in question must be loyal to the government as well as carrying a minister’s bag around.
The problem is that not every ambitious MP can be made a PPS. Worse, not every PPS can be made a minister, which means that there are a fair few Tory backbenchers and PPSs swirling around who are feeling a little sore. I understand that the Conservative whips have been inviting MPs who they think could have deserved a promotion had there been unlimited spaces into meetings where the spurned politician in question gets to ask whether there was anything he or she could have done to ensure that they rose up the ladder this time around.
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