Given that they saved the Party’s bacon, you would expect senior figures to say and do whatever it takes to keep them on side.
The Home Office is poorly placed to manage the post-Brexit systems of the future. Which means an independent inquiry into the past. Which means making necessary evidence available to it.
He is uniquely placed to start to rebuild trust – and that task is essential to our Party’s future.
It’s wrong to claim that May and Brexit have brought new problems for the Conservatives in London. These were clear in 2015 under Cameron.
“Are you seriously saying we should not have a system that checks whether people are legitimately in this country?” our Executive Editor asks the Guardian columnist.
The new Home Secretary won’t toe the Downing Street line as his predecessor did. His appointment is thus a sign of weakness at the top.
“I think she’s got a massive amount to contribute at the very highest levels of government in the years ahead.”
The former Culture Minister says that there had already been a slide before the last election, and that the challenge will be greater after Windrush.
He says that what she was aware of was a broader “ambition” to remove more illegal immigrants – not a target.
But the Liberal Democrat leader says that voter opinion “is now running ahead of the politicians” after Windrush.
The Home Secretary’s future is entangled with the calculations of May and the complications of Brexit.
It has fascinated me since growing up in a single parent family on the outskirts of Belfast – before attending the lowest-performing secondary school in Northern Ireland.
Plus: Local elections – Jacqui Smith and I step in where the BBC won’t go. And: my advice to Rudd? KBO – as Churchill used to put it.
We must oppose illegal immigration. But making life harder for legitimate residents helps nobody.
The Conservative Government is also going to have to get back to its DNA – cutting taxes. Reductions for those on incomes below £45,000 would send a powerful signal.