Mail Weekly Column: 11 July 2022
They say that a week is a long time in politics. On Wednesday a colleague turned to me and said, "what a week this day has been!" It is hard to disagree.
On Wednesday I joined a number of colleagues who had reached boiling point and wanted a change in leadership at the top of politics. That is a tough decision to come to and one that I agonised over. Some will, perhaps fairly, say that I took too long coming to it. Others, again fairly, think I shouldn't have acted at all. I can only follow my heart and listen to my constituents, and I am comfortable with my conscience that it was the right call.
My own view is that trust and probity is crucial, and that you can't afford to lose it. A change affords us the opportunity to win that back. Now we have a choice to make - one I will come to in a moment.
Before I do, I thought it worth sparing some praise for the Prime Minister, despite my decision this week.
I'm not sure I've ever met anyone like him before - he has a charisma which is very strange indeed. I've been in rooms with him and opposition politicians and you can see them almost melt in his presence. On Tuesday in Parliament I attended the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, bringing together church leaders and parliamentarians from all parties to celebrate faith and the work that churches do in our communities. I was sat - quite randomly - between a Labour whip and a very, very Corbyn-ite Labour MP. Of course, the topic of the PM's future came up. In hushed tones, the far-left MP whispered to me, "you know, I actually like Boris in spite of myself!"
And his achievements shouldn't be dismissed. For two years parliament sat in deadlock, unable to move on from Brexit. He got a deal and got it through. He won a whacking majority in the General Election and knocked down the red wall. He has put levelling up front and centre of British politics, resulting in nearly £100million in capital funding coming to Furness alone. He rolled out an amazing vaccination programme. He supported Dreadnought and our nuclear industry. And he's stood shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, genuinely leading the international response. For those things I think we should be grateful.
But it was time for a change, and to restore trust. And now I face a choice. We're not just electing a party leader, but also a Prime Minister. Over the next week or so MPs will whittle down the choices to two candidates.
I would be really interested in your views on who should lead the country now and who the best candidate is. I'm speaking to them all and want to hear how they will support communities like ours, and help guide the country through the cost of living crisis amongst other things. But you will have other concerns too. Drop me an email at simon.fell.mp@parliament.uk and let me know what you think.
