Stop ‘placating’ Sunak and give popular Tories more airtime, minister tells No 10
Downing Street must stop trying to “placate” Rishi Sunak and instead give popular colleagues like Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt more airtime, a Cabinet minister told No10 in a private memo.
Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, accused Downing Street of acting as though the Prime Minister was as popular as he was when he took office, despite falling poll ratings.
He urged aides to put “good, capable, senior colleagues” up for major interview slots more frequently, rather than “average performers” like Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary.
The MP for Plymouth Moor View was photographed writing the memo while travelling on a train from Exeter St Davids to London Paddington on May 6, by a fellow passenger.
Images of the minister’s laptop screen, obtained by The Times, showed that Mr Mercer wrote: “Team in No 10 operating as though the PM is as popular in the polls as he was two years ago.
“It appears to be all about placating him/ managing him/ promoting him on social media.”
He added: “Political communication seems haphazard, unthemed and loose. We have average performers during important slots. How many people did Harper win over for us this weekend?”
The Plymouth MP made specific reference to Ms Badenoch, the Business Secretary, and Ms Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, as particularly popular Cabinet members who deserved more airtime.
The pair are considered possible successors to Mr Sunak if there were to be a Tory leadership contest.
In his memo, Mr Mercer said: “There are good, capable, senior colleagues around the Cabinet table who people clearly like, who should see more airtime and be more prominent.
“The ConHome [ConservativeHome] cabinet polling should not be ignored (Mordaunt/Badenoch — irrespective of the personal views of No 10 staff).”
It also saw controversy surrounding veteran cards not being accepted as valid ID at polling stations, something which the veterans’ minister complained in his memo he had been trying to persuade No10 to change “for months without success”.
He added that despite his access to Mr Sunak, “I don’t feel part of the team” and that it “feels like even I cannot have any impact on the grid/ government comms”.
The Plymouth MP also criticised Downing Street for too many special advisers whom he believed were “overpromoted and underskilled” and had “poor political judgments”.
Mr Mercer’s penned the remarks the Monday after the local elections, which saw the Tories lose 470 councillors and the West Midlands mayoralty.
And he criticised the individual who took the photographs of him sitting on the train in front of his laptop for being “some little weirdo”.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning: “So some little weirdo has gone round snapping my laptop reading private messages from a private email account.
He added: “My shoes and socks were off because I’d just cycled across Dartmoor in the rain.
“Shoot me now. Or grow up.”
