Grant Shapps' interesting year.

Grant Shapps

I find myself in the strange situation of almost feeling sorry for Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport.

Over the last few weeks Boris Johnson has thrown him under a bus twice; he has used him as a disposable doormat. It will be interesting to see if Grant Shapps will come back for more or will decide that enough is enough and will try to regain some self-respect.

Grants Shapps has had a chequered past in politics. There were allegations that he amended his Wikipedia details; that he operated a company under an assumed name while being an MP; that he failed to respond to concerns about the conduct of a conservative party official.

2020 is an interesting year for Grant Shapps. In January he was interviewed at London Bridge station. It was the day on which the annual increase in train fares came into effect. His opening remarks were “As a commuter myself…”

I wrote to Grant Shapps asking how he defined himself as a commuter, other than travelling from home to his place of work in central London. He did not reply. His travel to work arrangements are a chauffeur driven car between home and work. The car and driver are provided by the Government Car Service which is funded by the taxpayer. His other travel needs, his constituency is Welwyn and Hatfield, are also funded by the taxpayer.

I wondered whether the provision of the ministerial vehicle should be regarded as a benefit in kind ie should he pay tax for the use of it? It appears that he would not have to make a contribution towards his travel to work costs because the ministerial red box which accompanies him has to be protected from any security breach. The safest way for the box to travel is by car and therefore he does not incur any travel to work costs. Rail fares increase every year and yet Grant Shapps considers himself to be a commuter without having to pay fares, stand on cold station platforms waitng for late and cancelled trains.

In May the Guardian and the Daily Mirror revealed that the Prime Minister’s top gopher/spokesman Dominic Cummings had decided that, suffering from Covid-19, he needed to leave London and self-isolate with his family in Durham. Dominic Cummings had decided that the Stay Home instruction did not apply to him so he left Downing Street to go to his London home where his wife had Covid 19, he returned to Downing Street for the afternoon, then he drove to Durham.

The fact that Dominic Cummings had broken the lockdown policy was big news. It was such big news that a retired teacher thought it was odd that he had seen the Cummings family in Barnard Castle which was about 25 miles from Durham.

Newspapers were alerted to this sighting and published the story that Mr Cummings had not stayed on the family farm but had made an excursion. Downing Street were asked to comment and this gave Grant Shapps the opportunity to show that he could be trusted with managing the news rounds over the weekend. He had been briefed by Downing Street so he felt he was on firm ground when he denied to each news outlet that the Cummings family had left the farm. He was very robust in his denials and tried to convince interviewers that the upgrade of the A66 was a more interesting subject. They, like most of the general public, were fairly unenthusiastic about the future of the A66.

The story of the Barnard Castle excursion did not die, it appeared to have “legs”. Some days later we were treated to the bizarre spectacle of Dominic Cummings giving a press conference in the Downing Street Rose Garden and explaining the reasons for his departure from London and his excursion to Barnard Castle. The public were asked to believe his explanation that the 50 mile drive with his family in the car was an eyesight test and health check.

Poor Grant Shapps must have felt betrayed by those he trusted. The only alternative is that he was lying when he confirmed the Downing Street story knowing it to be untrue. If he had lied to Parliament and been found out he would have been forced to resign however lying to the whole country is not a resigning matter these days.

Grant Shapps had another moment in the sun in June when he confirmed in all news interviews that Boris Johnson would not extend the food voucher scheme for disadvantaged children through the summer holidays. He must have been dismayed when he heard, about 3 hours later, that the scheme was being extended because Boris Johnson had only recently found out about it and had spoken to Marcus Rashford.

Clearly the Downing Street operation is not as good as it used to be or someone is being economical with the truth. If Boris Johnson did not know about the campaign, why was Downing Street briefing against it? The Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon (Tory), had written to Boris Johnson several days earlier suggesting that the scheme be extended. Tory MPs had expressed their unease to government Whips about the closure of the scheme.What is the point of writing if nobody reads the letters?

I have written to Grant Shapps seeking a reply to my earlier query about his commuter status. I have also asked him what he knew about Dominic Cummings. I await his reply. I think I may be waiting for some time. I shall pursue the question of whether a chauffeur driven car to work is a benefit in kind. Civil servants who had to use their own cars for official business were taxed on their travelling claims because the mileage rate was seen as a benefit in kind.

Conclusion. There isn’t one. At what point will it become apparent to the British people that we are governed by a bunch of chancers and charlatons? I have to use the words of that well known political philosopher Terry Thomas “What a shower, what an absolute shower!”

Maxine Leyland: London ARMs