‘Unleash Hell!’ – How Boris Johnson told Jacob Rees-Mogg to undermine Rishi Sunak

The day Boris Johnson asked me to become his communications chief last February, only two of us were in the room. At one point I was saluting, and he took the knee. It was unorthodox and memorable, as recounted in the first episode of my podcast series, Unprecedented. It was also swift and decisive.

Days later, however, I discovered that one powerful group within the parliamentary Conservative Party did, in effect, have a veto.

Boris asked me gently, but I was essentially summoned to present my credentials to the ERG. The letters imply a helpful think tank, informing debate with facts and figures, but over recent years the European Research Group has become a formidable force to be reckoned with, tormenting successive prime ministers, and often distorting the decisions they take by ensuring that every major strategic move has to be viewed through the lens that matters most to them: whether it undermines or helps deliver Brexit.

My appointment – as an ardent and consistent “Remainer” – had alarmed the group, and I was sent over to provide reassurance. We don’t have Senate-style confirmation hearings in the UK. When the PM changes his team, there are complex political considerations and some official due diligence work, but no formal vetting process. But in many ways, this was that. The scene was a grand committee room in the Palace of Westminster.

Around 50 members were present, and it was chaired very formally by one of their leaders. They are all very polite but serious people preoccupied with one issue above all else. They wanted to hear that I’d seen the error of my ways and would now vote for Brexit – if the question every came up again.

I decided to be straight. Not only did I not regret my very public opposition to their cause, but I had not changed my mind. If we had the chance tomorrow, I’d vote to rejoin the EU. They were clearly outraged, but I had some comfort to give them: “What I can do is look you in the eye and promise that every day I’m in this very privileged job I will do all I can to help make a success of Brexit.”

I meant it and explained my reasoning. We live in a democracy and, whether we like it or not, a majority in England and my native Wales voted to leave the EU – not only in 2016 but in two subsequent general elections. We have to respect that. And whilst no credible party is offering to reverse the decision, we also have to make it work.

Unfortunately for all of us, not just those who advocated for it, Brexit is not working. A global pandemic may have distorted its impact or disguised it, but now that the dust is clearing not even Nigel Farage has the brass neck to tell us we’re better off.

We are clearly not, and our departure has weakened the EU. This, to be fair, was beginning to dawn on Boris Johnson last year, and I have to remain open-minded enough to think that the changes he wanted to bring about may have delivered some bread-and-butter benefits.

I was in the room when he asked Jacob Rees-Mogg to take on a new role targeting laws and regulations that the UK was no longer obliged to follow.

He accepted with relish but warned that he’d have to go head-to-head against the Treasury and the man who was then the second most powerful figure in government, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak. “I will have to tread on some very big toes”, he said, swiftly correcting himself with a wry smile, “actually some very small toes”. “Go ahead”, said the PM, with echoes of Russell Crowe’s memorable command in Gladiator to “unleash hell!”

Top of the list of potential benefits being resisted by the Treasury were changes to something called Insolvency 2. It doesn’t sound sexy, and few of us can work up any enthusiasm for discussion of the intricate rules that govern the insurance industry. But it matters, and change could free up tens of billions of pounds to be invested in the industries of the future rather than held back for a rainy day.

Interestingly, Andrew Griffith is pursuing this agenda very energetically in today’s Treasury, but it hasn’t been implemented yet.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, as we know, is out of government, and the sun has set on the sunset clause he wanted for all EU laws brought onto our statute books in the UK. As for that promise to “take back control” of our borders, we’ve seen immigration actually increase. People like me cherish that because of the skills, energy, and entrepreneurialism that immigrants bring.

The NHS would collapse without them, and many private enterprises are struggling with the cuts we’ve seen in some specific sectors, not to mention what they bring to the rich cultural diversity of modern Britain. But for a government that seems determined to cut the numbers, there are obvious questions over its credibility and competence when they keep going up.

I no longer feel anger, just the dull pain of witnessing the tragic waste of precious time, energy and effort that Brexit brought about. Unprecedented is an attempt to make sense of a situation when one of the most stable and mature democracies in the world ended up with four prime ministers in four years and devoted its politics to redrawing our institutional relationship with neighboring countries when there was so much else needing attention at home and abroad.

We’ve all paid a high price, and though few will think he deserves any sympathy on this front, one of the direct casualties of Brexit and its toxic, divisive influence on our politics, is Boris Johnson himself.

Listen to Guto’s political-memoir podcast series Unprecedented on Global Player now