A former MP who held an influential position in the Conservative party has revealed what he really made of two Tory prime ministers.
Sir Graham Brady, who was chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee, told the he had found Boris Johnson to be “casual with the truth to the end” and Liz Truss “peculiar”.
As chairman of the backbench committee, he oversaw no confidence votes in both Johnson and former prime minister Theresa May.
The former Altrincham and Sale West MP, who is about to publish his memoir Kingmaker, said there were “important things to get on record”.
He was famously tight-lipped during his 14 years at the helm of the committee, which he said was the only way he could do the job without betraying confidences.
Sir Graham, who decided not to stand in July’s general election, said he was now able to share his “trenchant views” over a turbulent period in British politics.
“It’s my story, I think it should be told”, he said. “I think there are some quite important things to get on the record.
“They may possibly be, in some instances, views that would have developed over time and changed into slightly different judgements.
“But I didn’t think there was any point in making things up or holding too much back.”
‘Party turmoil’
He told North West Tonight that he believed his party had been punished in the end by the electorate for the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
He said he had disagreed with the extent of lockdown restrictions, but acknowledged the pandemic “was a hellishly difficult time to be prime minister”.
As for the reasons for the Tories’ loss in the Labour landslide election in the summer, he said the “the turmoil within the party and the fact that we changed our leader so often” had been crucial.
“The brief but damaging period of the Liz Truss premiership with the mini-budget and the consequences from it, obviously caused significant problems.
“But I would say more fundamental than that… is the repeated lockdowns during covid had a series of consequences for the country,” he said.
Sir Graham, who now sits in the House of Lords, said he had left politics because he was, at 57, “still young enough to pursue other opportunities”.
- Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers will be published on 26 September.