No10 won't say what new 'common sense' minister Esther McVey will actually do

14 November 2023 , 12:30

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Esther McVey was brought back into the cabinet by Rishi Sunak yesterday (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

No10 has today refused to say what a cabinet member brought in to provide "common sense" will actually do.

Rishi Sunak raised eyebrows when he opted to appoint Esther McVey as a minister without portfolio. Insiders said she would be in charge of pushing back against the "woke" agenda in a bid to placate the Tory right, who are up in arms about Suella Braverman's sacking.

Asked what former Work and Pensions Secretary Ms McVey would be doing, the PM's official spokesman declined to answer. He said: "Roles and responsibilities for junior ministers get set out in the days following a reshuffle."

But her husband said Ms McVey will be tasked with tackling a "blob" in Government dealing with "this equality, diversity and inclusion thing".

Her official title is Minister of State (Minister without Portfolio) in the Cabinet Office. However Government insiders revealed she had unofficially been given the title "minister for common sense". Quizzed about this, the PM's spokesman said: "That's not her public title." He went on: "I've seen the same source quote you have it's the not the same title we set out yesterday."

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As a result of taking on her new role, it is believed, she will have to quit her second job as a presenter on GB News. Earlier this year she and husband Philip Davies, a fellow Tory MP, were found to have broken Ofcom rules on impartiality during an interview with Jeremy Hunt.

New Tory Party chairman Richard Holden told Times Radio Ms McVey was brought in to "represent a part of that broad panoply of opinion that the Conservative Party represent". It is understood she will oversee a review of spending on "woke" causes such as diversity officers in the Civil Service.

Mr Holden told BBC Radio 4 that Ms McVey is a "plain-speaking northerner from Merseyside, I think she's a great addition to the broad team". He went on "What Esther is going to be doing is bringing that extra dimension to it. We are a broad church of a political party, we want all parts of the centre right in British politics to be represented. It's the nature of our democracy.

"What we don't do is have small splinter parties ahead of a general election and then a deal cooked up behind the scenes. What you see is a broad church, Conservative party with a common goal, united together in what it is deciding to put forward to the country. Esther is part of that."

Husband Mr Davies told GB News: “You don't have to be a political genius to work out that the Conservative Party's not in the best of shape at the moment, if you just look at the poll ratings. It's incumbent upon anybody who is asked to get involved and join up and try and help the situation.

“That's really the basis upon which Esther wanted to help the Prime Minister. We've got a big year ahead of us to try to bring things round and everyone needs to put their shoulder to the wheel to try and do so.”

He said Ms McVey would have to "put her stamp" on the new role, stating: “The idea will be that she'll be able to work with government departments to try and bring forward some common sense measures, and no doubt they'll always be a role for somebody in the Cabinet Office, to squash any ideas that are coming through that are not sensible and common sense. The Cabinet Office has that role to try and promote good things and squash bad things.”

He added: “There's an awful lot of stuff - non-common sense that goes on in government. Her job is to do what she can to try and put a stop to some of the nonsense that we see being, bring a bit of common sense back to things. There's a huge amount of taxpayers money wasted on this equality, diversity and inclusion thing, in national government and local government.

“There's no doubt she's got her work cut out, because there's a huge blob in there in government who are very keen on all that.”

Last year Ms McVey was among 40 Tory MPs who signed a letter demanding cutting diversity and inclusion officers, saying this could save taxpayers more than £500 million and get back one million working days "lost" to diversity training. Four years ago she launched the Blue Collar Conservatives group, which champions free speech and tax cuts. She served as Work and Pensions Secretary in 2018 under Theresa May, during which time she was heavily criticised over her cuts to disability benefits.