Allegra Stratton appointment is another Boris mistake

So Boris can sometimes choose good people. Charming, tough and clever, Allegra Stratton is at least as able as any female in the front echelon of Tory politics. Were she in the Commons, she could expect to rocket through the ministerial ranks. Someone would already have tipped her as the next female Prime Minister. Speaking of next PMs, she has done an excellent job for Rishi Sunak.

Plaudits for Boris, then? No. Despite Allegra Stratton’s qualities, it is a thoroughly bad appointment, because the job should not exist. Her press conferences are bound to dominate the political agenda, distracting attention from more measured political initiatives.

There has never been such a Prime Ministerial spokesman, not even Bernard Ingham or Alastair Campbell. Bernard knew Margaret Thatcher’s mind, partly because he shared many of her values and instincts. But he did what he could to stay in the background. When he was forced into the open, during the Westland helicopter furore, he hated it.

Campbell was less addicted to the background. More left-wing than his boss, by temperament he was a political activist who became more influential than any predecessors in a similar role. He not only understood Tony Blair’s thinking; he sometimes decided what it should be. Someone who observed him and the PM in Jordan early in the Blair era was surprised at how deferential the PM was to his press chief, asking him what she should be saying. It is not as if Alastair Campbell was an Arabist.

But this was all unhealthy. It only encouraged the Blairites in their ambition to turn the whole of Whitehall into a glorified press office, which inflicted lasting damage on civil service morale. Dominic Cummings has not helped to encourage a recovery. The Blairites also undermined the authority of Parliament, not that most of them cared.

Under our system, many ministerial briefings come via the Lobby, comprised of senior political journalists. The whole process is shrouded in anonymity, which helps to respect the primacy of Parliament. Ministers are supposed to make policy announcements in the Commons, not via the press. There has been an element of hypocrisy in this, especially in recent years. There have even been leaks from the Honours list. Successive Speakers have become exasperated at ministerial breaches of protocol. Ministers are called to order, apologise, and then behave – for a few weeks. But like many British improvisations, the system more or less works.

Now everything will change. Unless Allegra Stratton is going to bore for Boris, which seems unlikely, she is bound to be questioned into trespassing, in public, on announcements which should be made in Parliament. The Speaker will complain, loudly and clearly.

Speaker Hoyle started with one great advantage. He was not John Bercow. Yet even without that assistance, he would have flourished, because he is so obviously the right man for the job.  He commands respect – and affection – for one simple reason. That is how he treats the Commons. Sir Lindsay is shaping to be the best Speaker since George Thomas, and he is a much better human being than that complicated old humbug. So if he summons Ministers, conceivably even the Prime Minister, to account for their transgressions, there will be no protests and plenty of support.

Parliamentary management is already one of the weakest aspects of the Bojo regime. He enjoys the House when he can indulge in some Oxford Union knockabout. Otherwise, he seems to have as little respect for it as the average Blairite. This communicates itself to MPs. Johnson versus Hoyle: that would be a walkover for the Speaker.

Allegra Stratton has a further problem. Will all respect to her, she is only the monkey. People will want to hear from the organ-grinder, even if this one has many simian qualities. She too might want to hear from her new employer. As she is going to be his spokesman, it would be helpful for her to know what he actually believes. It would also be helpful for him to know what he believes.

On Covid, his instincts have been all over the place. Assuming that there are to be further lock-downs, it would be useful to have a Prime Minister with moral authority. That would only be possible if he could sincerely claim to have mastered the detail. These new regulations will affect a lot of lives and livelihoods. If people come to feel that they are not being taken seriously, there will be trouble. Boris is a good actor. But can he pass the ultimate thespian test? Can he fake sincerity?

Regulations and being taken seriously should remind us that Boris does not always select good colleagues. Suella Braverman, the Attorney-General, is earnest and likeable. She is trying to do her best. But it is not good enough. I have yet to talk to a senior lawyer who thinks that she is up to being AG. She was appointed because she was a female Brexiteer who was loyal to Boris. That is not an adequate qualification. This matters, because lawyers tell me that much of the stuff emanating from government is confused, badly drafted and in some cases contradictory.

We live in an era where the judiciary is often ready – perhaps too ready – to indulge in judicial review. Ill-thought out legislation is a standing temptation to review-minded judges, and who could blame them? In the Blair years, Blair’s babes would surround their master at photo-calls, gazing adoringly at him – and some of them regarded themselves as feminists. Before talking about Boris’s babes, we would need to clarify our terms. So let us simply conclude that an Attorney-General needs more than loyalty.

During the Iraq War, political loyalty was the undoing of a previous AG, Peter Goldsmith. Although he was a good lawyer, he did not distinguish himself in government. I wrote then that he was so invertebrate that he would go on kissing the PM’s feet even while Mr Blair was kicking his backside. Today, we need a better Attorney than that. There is a sound one available, Lucy Frazer, who was briefly Solicitor-General, but my tipping her will no doubt destroy her chances.

No-one would ever refer to Allegra Stratton as any Prime Minister’s babe, and it will be fascinating to see how she performs. There are suggestions that she was appointed to remove her from Sunak’s excellent team. Boris is not at ease with able ministers. If so, he should concentrate on improving his own performance and stop indulging in jealousy.

It may also be that too many people in the Boris Downing St have watched too many episodes of the West Wing. If so, they are ignoring the difference between an American President and a British Prime Minister and Parliamentary party leader. The political cultures are too different. Despite all her strengths, the Stratton appointment is an unviable transplant. Despite her abilities, it will not strengthen the Government.