Deep breath! As fast as I have tried to type this, events continue to overtake!
When I caught the train to Parliament on Monday, I was not expecting to see a change in PM, but ‘a week is a long time in politics!’. Very quickly it became clear colleagues were unhappy, the vote of confidence only a few weeks early which in theory granted the PM 12 months grace was deemed not sufficient.
Whilst I was a supporter of the PM, his ultimate resignation became inevitable as he lost the trust of colleagues – with a rapid and relentless list of resignations. Reasons varied, but numbers count, and he accepted his fate on Thursday morning. It certainly felt surreal to be stood in front of 9 Downing Street as he gave his resignation speech – not that we could hear anything as the mic feed goes directly to the TV crews without travelling to any of us!
Like all Prime Ministers he had strengths and weaknesses and mistakes were made. However, at his best he was able engage across traditional political lines – a rarity in politics / politicians. On the big decisions around Covid including our rapid rollout of the vaccine and the £409bn of Covid support saved lives, jobs, businesses and allowed us to be the first major economy to fully re-open. On Ukraine, even Boris’s fiercest critics would accept he has led the international response. Rightly stepping up to provide both direct support for Ukraine, President Zelensky and to put a firm marker down to protect democratic, free countries.
From a personal level, Boris backed me 100% to deliver the Government’s first ever National Disability Strategy – bringing together all Government Departments to secure over 100 commitments to remove barriers, level up and create new opportunities. I saw first-hand what a tangible difference this would make to disabled people and families and could not have been done without Boris’s unwavering support.
We now turn to the election of new Party Leader and therefore Prime Minister.
As MPs in the coming weeks, we will whittle down the very long list to the final two and then they will face a run-off with members over the summer. Potential candidates will be looking to secure support quickly to show momentum, especially if there are reasonably high bars set to pass through each round of elimination(s). There will then be regional hustings and no doubt intense media scrutiny and debates – especially with the proliferation of all the new news channels.
I am not part of any team, so I will listen carefully to how they think they can step up and set out their positive case, not just to deal with the immediate national and international challenges, but how will we benefit here in Swindon. As a town, support to boost investment, local services, attracting new high skilled, high paid roles and opportunities to strengthen social mobility. I will be very interested in the views of fellow local residents as the candidates put forward their proposals, some have been working on them for some time!
Finally, on a lighter note, great to see Swindon Town will be back at Swindon Supermarine tomorrow for the annual friendly. Always a good match and opportunity for fans to get an early sight of the squads ahead of the new season.
