Foreign Secretary James Cleverly: Why I believe the voters simply won’t trust slippery Starmer over Brexit
Maybe it’s his Army training. Maybe it’s the cumulative jet lag of a year spent on aeroplanes. But James Cleverly seems unfazed by the Conservative Party’s parlous position in the opinion polls.
Many of his colleagues are busy thinking about life after politics – Alok Sharma this week became the 43rd Tory MP to announce he will be standing down at the next election.
But Mr Cleverly insists he will be ‘staying put’ in the hope of a seemingly miraculous fifth term.
The Foreign Secretary insists his optimism is not based on blind faith, but on a belief that the Government’s ‘tough decisions’ will pay off in time for the election – and a conviction that Labour will ‘crumble’ as the election approaches.
He also recalls that he took over as party chairman just after the Conservatives got 9 per cent in the 2019 European elections.
‘By the end of 2019 we secured what was one of the largest parliamentary majorities in a generation. So you’ll excuse me if I don’t allow myself to be put off by the recent poll position,’ he says.
James Cleverly seems unfazed by the Conservative Party ‘s parlous position in the opinion polls
‘We’re not just blown around by political weather, we make the political weather – we’re in government, we make the political weather.
‘The Chancellor and ministers across Government have been making tough, but right decisions. And we are now starting to see the implications of those decisions play out in the things that people can feel – inflation rates, mortgage rates, those kinds of things.
‘And every single one of our tough decisions has been opposed by Labour. The British people can see through this, the British people can spot hollow opportunism a mile away, and that’s what increasingly they’ll see from the Labour Party. So I’m staying put because I absolutely believe that we have got a route to winning the next General Election.’
A cynic might note that ‘staying put’ will also leave him well placed for a possible tilt at the leadership should Rishi Sunak fall short next year.
Admirers point out that Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt are not the only Brexiteer Cabinet ministers who might still be around to pick up the pieces.
For now though, he is focused on the coming election – and is encouraged by Labour’s recent missteps on immigration and Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary tells the Mail’s JASON GROVES that voters won’t trust slippery Starmer on Brexit
When Sir Keir Starmer let slip that Labour ‘don’t want to diverge’ from EU laws, the Foreign Secretary was quick to hit back on social media, saying: ‘Keir voted remain. Then he backed a second referendum. Then he didn’t. Now he wants to rejoin the EU in all but name. What does Labour stand for?’
He believes that fundamental contradictions at the heart of Labour’s approach to Brexit are certain to unravel before election day.
‘Starmer was my shadow when I was a Brexit minister. And I know that the Labour Party have got some gaping vacuums where their policies should live,’ he says.
‘I’ve watched him closely on European related issues. And despite my best efforts, I still haven’t got a clue – and I doubt the British people will have a clue – what he really feels with regard to the European Union, which is still going to be a massive motivating factor for many British people.
‘What we’ll be seeing from the Labour Party is that when pressed, when under pressure, they crumble and Sir Keir Starmer is going to have to answer some questions that basically he’s spent the last few years dodging such as what is his planned relationship with Europe? Is he going to take us back into the EU?’
The interview takes place in Mr Cleverly’s palatial office in the Foreign Office, which he says is ‘bigger than my first house’.
Despite its opulence, he spends much of his time out of the country, visiting 58 countries in 12 months as he tries to rebuild face-to-face diplomacy in the wake of the pandemic.
The most controversial of those visits was to Beijing at the end of last month, where he ended a freeze in relations by becoming the first British minister to travel to China for five years.
He acknowledges that Britain ‘clearly moved too far and too fast’ in cosying up to China when David Cameron and George Osborne hailed a new ‘golden era’ in relations just eight years ago.
A cynic might note that ‘staying put’ will also leave him well placed for a possible tilt at the leadership should Rishi Sunak fall short next year
But he insists ‘engaging’ with China’s communist regime remains in the UK’s interests. And he bridles at those, including former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who accused him of ‘appeasement’.
Wife who’s the secret to staying fit
The Foreign Secretary has revealed that his wife is helping him shed the pounds piled on from diplomatic dinners as he joins in with her cancer recovery regime.
James Cleverly, 54, spoke movingly last year about his wife Susie’s battle with breast cancer, saying he ‘could not speak or sleep’ when she was first diagnosed at the end of 2021.
Now he has revealed that after months of gruelling treatment, Susie is clear of cancer – and that her recovery regime is helping his fitness too.
‘We are in a much, much better place,’ he said. ‘She’s getting her energy levels back. She’s joined a gym, dragged me down there – it’s brilliant. I’ve actually managed to lose a few pounds.’
In his first year in the job, Mr Cleverly has visited 58 countries and hosted more than 100 foreign dignitaries in the UK – a schedule which he admits has taken its toll.
‘It’s very easy in this job to slip into [a routine of] sit behind a desk, read papers, entertain a foreign dignitary over a meal, rinse and repeat, whilst the pounds gently accumulate,’ he said.
‘There can be a direct relationship between the increase in your waistline and the increase in your global influence. I’m trying to break that.’
‘There’s a contradiction in some of the calls I get from the critics of this engagement,’ he says. ‘Because I’m told that you know, you shouldn’t be meeting the senior ministers. But those people also demand that I raise the case of [jailed Hong Kong dissident] Jimmy Lai, which I did, and the Uighur Muslims, which I did and the treatment of Hong Kong, which I did and so the people telling me I shouldn’t speak to the Chinese are also the people calling on me to speak to the Chinese.’
Critics point out that the most senior figure met by Mr Cleverly on his Beijing trip was vice-president Han Zheng, the architect of the Hong Kong crackdown which broke China’s treaty obligations to the UK. How could he ever trust someone like that?
‘I will always judge individuals and countries on their behaviour,’ he says. ‘Now the point is, China willingly entered into commitments over Hong Kong and they have failed to abide by them.
‘So I base my actions on their revealed preferences and their behaviour. So I go into these conversations with my eyes wide open.’
Nevertheless, he insists it is ‘not inevitable’ that China continues down its current path. Indeed, he claims that Beijing is starting to have second thoughts as its economy suffers the impact of Western firms and countries walking away in protest at its authoritarian approach.
‘The tone is interesting,’ he says. ‘I got to Beijing, I think the day after the Chinese economic figures came out, which showed that their economy was slowing quite dramatically. And this is a point I did raise with them – I said that their behaviour internationally is having the effect that a lot of the countries that trade with them internationally, are taking the steps to de-risk and protect themselves a bit more, including the UK – lots of countries are doing that.
‘And that is having a meaningful negative effect on China’s economic outlook. And that matters to every country, particularly China, whose social and economic model is dependent on nearly double-digit economic growth every year. So their behaviour, their decisions are having a negative impact on them. I highlighted this and they listened very, very carefully.’
For the immediate future, his greatest focus remains on Ukraine, where he announced yet another round of sanctions.
These, he insists, are ‘having a direct limiting factor on [Putin’s] ability to wage war.’ And he appeals to people not to lose faith with Ukraine, despite the slow progress of the counter-offensive. ‘This is not a movie,’ he says. ‘In movies the plucky underdog gets the support from the international coalition and it all, it’s all wrapped up neatly and quickly. But it’s not a film, it’s real life and real-life things are tough.
‘It is taking much longer than any of us would have liked for Ukraine to regain its country back. But we have absolutely got to stick with them until this is done.’
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