Review: Ungovernable: the Political Diaries of a Chief Whip by Simon Hart

Desmond Clifford

Simon Hart (SH) served as Secretary of State for Wales under Boris Johnson, by whom he was was mesmerised and alarmed in equal measure.

Over-looked by Liz Truss, he was appointed Chief Whip by his friend Rishi Sunak. As SH noted at the time, “Boris crashed our reputation for integrity, and now Liz has managed to do the same with our reputation for competence.” The endgame was inevitable.

It seems there was nothing in the Wales Office role he enjoyed. He complains about Oral Questions in the Commons once every six weeks, hardly an onerous level of accountability.

“Cabinet was dull”, he notes at only his second meeting. In fact, “dull” is the most frequent word in the book.

His work at the Wales Office, Brexit policy, White Papers, Mark Drakeford, Labour MPs, David Frost, the Platinum Jubilee ceremony at Saint Paul’s, Liz Truss – dull, dull, dull.

SH sees himself as a voice of reason while his party melts down and people are losing their heads.

Complicit

In truth he’s complicit and contributes to lowering standards of UK governance by mimicking the insouciance of his Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

On 10 March 2021, he receives a letter from Jeremy Miles, Counsel General in the Welsh Government (wrongly described as “Attorney General”; the WG has no such post) about post-EU practicalities in Wales. Hart writes, “I don’t really care/ give a fuck what he thinks about this topic”. I imagine some club cronies might guffaw, “bloody well done, Simon”.

I imagine many more people will just be depressed at this contempt from the United Kingdom Government towards Wales.

Contempt, indeed, from the one man whose actual job it was, paid for by the taxpayer, to engage with the Welsh Government on exactly these issues.

Mark Drakeford is described repeatedly as “dull”, as though his function is to provide a bored Welsh Secretary with distraction and entertainment. In this respect, SH emerges from these pages as the authentic creature of the Johnson circus era.

Drakeford was everything Johnson was not, and the people of Wales preferred it that way.  (I should record that I was a civil servant in the Welsh Government at this time).

Snarky

SH is snarky about Drakeford’s management of the COVID crisis. “So much for nice Mr Drakeford’s brilliant handling”, he bitches one day when the virus takes a bad turn. This from the minister who, on 28 February 2020, thinks COVID is, “Probably still hysteria”.

In May 2020, he acknowledges that Labour’s good Senedd election result is attributable to Drakeford’s handling of COVID, before adding, “Outrageous but true”. Silly voters, eh?

A few months later he is in Cardiff to represent the UK government at the official opening of the new Senedd. He meets the Queen at the station and, in breach of protocol, attributes views to her, “She would rather be watching the racing”.  How does he know? The late Queen was famous for never even hinting at her personal views, so it’s odd for a unionist and monarchist to undermine the crown this way.

The Queen had a keen sense of duty, which is more than can be said for her Secretary of State, “I skip the Senedd bit – partly in protest, and partly to have lunch with Adam”.

In protest at what? He doesn’t say, so we’ll never know. I’m all in favour of family lunch when duty is done but the Welsh Secretary isn’t invited to the Senedd opening as a favour or a personal delight.

They are invited, alongside the monarch, to reflect the full functioning of the United Kingdom’s constitution.

If there is to be a Secretary of State for Wales, the paying public might reasonably expect they’ll carry out those few duties linked to their job.

The Welsh Secretary has only one real job: to stand up for Wales in UK Government decision making.

Contempt

We hear of the contempt shown to the Wales Office by the Home Office. SH confirms he was given no warning of the housing of 300 asylum seekers at a disused but unsuitable army base at Penally (in his constituency).

This was a disgrace, and he should have banged down doors in Whitehall.  If he did, he neglected to tell his diary. When Penally was closed down, SH was given precisely 30 minutes notice of the announcement.

In January 2021 he’s annoyed because the Welsh Government wanted a say on the location of Freeports in Wales. Why wouldn’t they?

Later he is affronted because Michael Gove is “planning a private meeting with Mark Drakeford”. Again, what’s the problem?

Repeatedly the diary notes petulance in search of a grievance.

At an away day for Tory MPs, he notes that the levelling-up maps displayed exclude Scotland and Wales altogether, concluding, “We remain very England focused”. Who’d have thought it!

In February 2021, he tries but fails to intervene at cabinet. On the same day he picks up the draft Tory Senedd election manifesto, “The more I read it, the more I conclude how bad it is”.

Quite an admission.

Finally, he laments, “I continue to fail to be heard.”

Peevishness

In his own words, he conveys ineffectualness, peevishness and resentment towards more dynamic colleagues.

His account of remediation on coal tips is a matter on which memories will vary radically.

At no point in this diary does he convey any sense of defending Wales, pushing its interests or fighting its corner in Whitehall. Outside his job title, the word “Wales” hardly features at all.

He was delighted at a royal visit to notice “Union Jacks as well as the Dragon”.

If he truly wanted the union to flourish, he could have worked with the Welsh Government better to demonstrate the benefits of co-operation between unionist administrations.

When partygate stories first break in December 2021, he writes: “An odd story that I don’t think is resonating with the public. Is having a beer with colleagues you have spent all day with really a breach?”

I was so stunned I had to read this twice.

Power isolates ministers and the effect is cumulative, but crikey!

Did he never step into his local? Did he ever stand at a bus stop, speak to neighbours in the corner shop?

Later, when the row about the non-dom tax status of Sunak’s wife breaks, he asks plaintively, “Why is this in the public interest?”

No quality matters more in politics than judgement and this is the very asset SH seems to lack most.

Chief Whip

SH was happier as Chief Whip than in the Wales Office. He’s a cavalier and tolerant of foibles, loyal to his boss and unencumbered by ideology.

He’s on the right side when a Tory MP shamefully links London’s Sadiq Khan to terrorism and he shows solidarity with the LGBT group in the Tory party when it comes under pressure.

With foresight he noted Kemi Badenoch lives “in a permanent state of outrage”.

A lack of grace towards political opponents mars his outlook. At the King’s coronation, he says Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s First Minister, “looked like he was hosting a barn dance”.

Curiosity stirred; I went online to check…Yousaf wore a smart kilt as Scots often do at ceremonial occasions: why would that attract comment?

His time as Chief Whip was spent minding the deck chairs and rebuffing shameless requests for honours from departing MPs.

In other times, SH’s remainer, light-ish blue, grouse moor credentials might have reflected mainstream Conservatism; his misfortune was to be active when they were possessed by howling madness.

He’s nice about his friends, David TC Davies, Alun Cairns and Craig Williams, and equivocal about the overly chatty Robert Buckland.

He takes pot-shots at his more outlandish colleagues and is mostly mean about Labour opponents.

He shows a soft spot for Plaid’s Ben Lake MP who, surely, will not be thrilled to read, “I suspect that were he to live in England, he would most likely be a Conservative”.

There’s an odd interplay in these pages between excitement and world weariness. The world of red boxes, government cars (albeit with drivers unable to locate Pembrokeshire), privy councils, Downing St, the Cenotaph, brushes with royalty and swanky invitations – all induces a touch of vertigo.

There’s a “shucks, little old me, who’d have thought it?!” tone. But this faux modesty doesn’t inhibit some self-praise.

On 6 March 2020 he attends the Welsh Conservative Party conference, listens to Paul Davies and Byron Davies and then confides, “But I think my speech went even better”. Well, congratulations Cicero!

Mean spiritedness

What could have been an enjoyable romp through the Conservatives’ last days is sullied by mean spiritedness.

With little to say about policy in Wales he offers personal gibes, perhaps mistaking animosity for conviction.

Here was an opportunity wasted; Simon Hart might have bucked the trend and built co-operation between the Welsh and UK governments during tricky times, demonstrating the value of the union.

As it turned out, without intending to, he makes an eloquent case for finally abolishing the post of Secretary of State for Wales.

Ungovernable: the Political Diaries of a Chief Whip by Simon Hart is published by Macmillan and can be purchased here.