Lord Hesseltine has been sacked from numerous Government advisory roles, following his rebellion against Government Brexit negotiations in the House of Lords.
The long-serving Conservative politician and key Thatcherite figure was sacked from five government advisory roles, after he led a rebellion in the Lords against the government on Tuesday. Lord Hesseltine supported the motion to for a parliamentary vote on the final Brexit agreement to be formally written into legislation, which stood at odds with the official Conservative party position.
Following his removal, Lord Hesseltine explained his stance in an interview on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme. Whilst he acknowledged the Government’s right to take action, the former Conservative leadership candidate defiantly argued that “sometimes there are issues which transcend party politics”.
In recent years, Lord Hesseltine had been appointed in various Conservative Government roles under both Theresa May and her predecessor David Cameron. These have included economic adviser to Number 10, adviser to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Growth as well as National Infrastructure Commissioner.
Despite his various advisory positions, in his interview Lord Hesseltine conceded that he did not hold a personal relationship with the Prime Minister. He commented:
“I heard nothing from Number 10. Indeed I’ve had no relationship with Number 10 since the new Prime Minister.
When questioned on whether he has approved of her leadership thus far, he added:
“I’ve never met Theresa May and so I can’t make a judgement. She’s doing very well in the polls, public opinion approves of what she’s doing, so I’m not going to get involved in a tick-tack of personalities.”
Indeed, in a recent YouGov poll, 49 percent of those surveyed indicated that they thought that May would make a preferable Prime Minister to the current leader of the opposition Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Nevertheless, Theresa May has yet to formally call an election to formalize and legitimise her mandate to govern, having become Prime Minister following a party leadership contest that was triggered following David Cameron’s resignation from Number 10.
Lord Hesseltine famously stood unsuccessfully for the Conservative leadership in 1990. Whilst ultimately his bid proved unsuccessful, the move has been widely considered as a key trigger in Margaret Thatcher’s eventual resignation as Prime Minister.
Many high profile politicians have been fervently vocal in their opposition to Brexit negotiations, in spite of the referendum result. Former Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair in recent months have been calling upon the public to mobilize. Most recently, former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne warned against the protectionism of exiting Europe without having negotiated a trade deal prior.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to unveil his 2017 Spring Budget later today. Read more about what we know so far here.