PAUL BRACCHI: PM's connection to Forsyth extends beyond Westminster

The power couple never far from the door of No. 10: Rishi Sunak’s connection to his new political secretary James Forsyth extends way beyond Westminster, writes PAUL BRACCHI

Why was Downing Street so tight-lipped about the appointment of Rishi Sunak’s new political secretary, James Forsyth?

‘He will have the usual remit,’ is all a No 10 spokesman would say about the posting after the news leaked over the weekend.

Given the importance of Mr Forsyth’s new job – part of which is ensuring that MPs toe the line in the run-up to the next election – it was a distinctly low-key welcome. Might the reason lie in Mr Forsyth’s intriguing connections?

He is not, after all, just a senior journalist: currently political editor of The Spectator magazine (as well as a former columnist for The Mail On Sunday).

Forsyth (right)  is not, after all, just a senior journalist: currently political editor of The Spectator magazine (as well as a former columnist for The Mail On Sunday)

Our new Prime Minister was also the best man at Mr Forsyth’s wedding to Allegra Stratton in 2011. Remember her?

Forsyth and Sunak’s connection extends way beyond Westminster: they are best friends from school as well as godfathers to each other’s children.

Our new Prime Minister was also the best man at Mr Forsyth’s wedding to Allegra Stratton in 2011. Remember her?

High-flying Cambridge graduate Stratton, an ex-Guardian journalist and TV political correspondent, was formerly Boris Johnson’s press secretary.

She resigned over the Partygate scandal in December 2021 after a clip emerged of her joking about lockdown-busting gatherings at a press conference rehearsal.

A clearly distraught Ms Stratton delivered a tearful resignation statement. There could hardly have been a more ignominious fall from grace.

Her departure, however, was also the culmination of a bitter power struggle between Johnson at No 10 and his neighbour at No 11: Chancellor Sunak, her old boss and friend through her husband James Forsyth.

No wonder, many might say, Downing Street didn’t go out of its way to advertise Mr Forsyth’s appointment. It was left to The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson to reveal it on the magazine’s podcast on Christmas Eve, joking that Forsyth had been put ‘down the chimney of No 10 and into Sunak’s stocking’. In doing so, Nelson could have added, Sunak has perhaps gained quiet revenge on his predecessor as PM. This conspiracy has gained traction in Westminster among Johnson loyalists, who see Forsyth’s arrival as part of a pattern.

Those who allegedly helped oust the old PM now seem to be getting powerful jobs with the new one.

After all, a key ally of Boris’s former adviser Dominic Cummings – who has repeatedly questioned his old boss’s integrity since being banished – is reportedly about to make a return to Downing Street as a spin doctor for Sunak’s wife Akshata.

The glamorous Cleo Watson, who served as an aide to Johnson, left just a fortnight after her mentor Mr Cummings ‘quit’.

‘Cleo was responsible for much of the briefing against Boris,’ claimed one of the ex-prime minister’s supporters. Then there is Amber de Botton, who was once head of UK news at ITV, where her team won an award for an explosive series on the Partygate scandal which helped bring about Boris’s downfall. Miss de Botton has been hired as Sunak’s chief of communications.

As for Forsyth and Stratton, the origins of their roles in this saga began at an intimate dinner at Chequers, the PM’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire, one summer’s evening 18 months ago. Boris and his now-wife Carrie were hosting the Sunaks as well as the media power couple.

Only a few months earlier, Stratton, former political editor of the BBC’s Newsnight and ITV correspondent, had joined Sunak at the Treasury as director of strategic communications. She did a brilliant job, by all accounts: Sunak certainly thought so. She was credited with helping him become probably the most popular Tory politician of the early pandemic, and is said to have come up with the nickname ‘Dishi Rishi’, as well as introducing him to Cass Horowitz, a young social media guru credited with building ‘Brand Rishi’.

It did not go unnoticed by Boris. And what happened next was typical of our former prime minister.

Suddenly his voice boomed across the Chequers table: ‘Allegra, you’re coming to work for me. I’m really looking forward to it.’

He then turned to his startled chancellor and mumbled sheepishly: ‘I hope you don’t mind, Rishi?’ Of course, Sunak did mind. He felt betrayed. Not only had Boris not told him he was poaching Stratton: according to Westminster sources, he hadn’t even discussed the matter with her.

Was this the moment when the relationship between the two most powerful men in Britain began to fall apart? Maybe.

Boris’s plan was for Stratton to be an American style-press secretary in the manner of CJ in the hit TV series, The West Wing, answering questions in a smartly converted press centre at No 10 – kitted out with microphones, control desks and cameras at a cost to taxpayers of some £2.6 million.

But it didn’t work out like that. Who could have predicted that her husband would now be following her into Downing Street?

[email protected]

Source: Read Full Article