In the Thick of It

The Private Diaries of a Minister

Alan Duncan

• Publisher: William Collins
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780008422295
• eBook ISBN:
  9780008422271
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

As Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Alan Duncan was once described as Boris Johnson's 'pooper-scooper'. For two years, he deputised for the then Foreign Secretary, now Prime Minister. Few are more attuned to Boris's strengths and weaknesses as a minister and his suitability for high office than the man who helped clear up his mistakes.

Riotously candid, these diaries cover the most turbulent period in recent British political history - from the eve of the referendum in 2016 to the UK's eventual exit from the EU. As two prime ministers fall, two general elections unfold and a no-confidence vote is survived, Duncan records a treasure-trove of insider gossip, giving biting and often hilarious accounts of petty rivalries, poor decision-making, big egos, and big crises.

Nothing escapes Alan's acerbic gaze. Across these unfiltered daily entries, he builds a revealing and often profound picture of UK politics and personalities. A rich seam of high politics and low intrigue, this is an account from deep inside the engine room of power.

2019

Tuesday 1 January – Muscat

The Sultan’s dinner at the Bait al Baraka started at the same time as the new year. He arrived at five minutes past midnight, after we’d been waiting at the tables since 10.45pm. We could have mingled usefully for another hour with all his ministers, and it also meant that we missed out on copious rations of Montrachet and Cheval Blanc as we had to switch to pomegranate juice. But we’re spoilt, so let’s not be churlish.

I was at the same seat I’ve occupied for the last twenty years, in the middle of the right side of the gentle horseshoe top table. HM is obviously in the middle, with five on either side. To his left Sir David Manning, to his right Field Marshal Lord Guthrie, Baroness [Patricia] Rawlings, me, Darwish al Balushi the Finance Minister and HMA Hamish Cowell.

General Sultan had fully briefed HM on our lunch, and choreographed it so that when HM rose to walk to each of the three stages of the buffet dinner I was asked to accompany him. This gave me over half an hour of face-to-face conversation.

It is not so much a buffet as a sumptuous feast with two lines of tables, each perhaps fifteen yards long, groaning with massive platters of lobster, prawns, chicken, etc. That’s just for starters. We come back again for all the main courses beneath domed silver lids. Then puddings and the New Year cake, which is eight feet high. A gold sovereign, as usual, was in my slice, albeit only a modern reproduction.

I manage to cover a lot of ground with the Sultan. He likes the idea of a forward-looking strategic plan for UK–Oman engagement, and likes the concept of it being comprehensive and not just a commitment based on defence and security. So I landed that one.

He was very open about the Netanyahu visit. He felt that the Middle East Peace Process has gone stale and that he could broker some renewed activity. He found Netanyahu ‘flexible’ and prepared to allow Gaza gas to go to Gaza as well as to the West Bank. ‘Netanyahu’s prepared to talk to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] about a two-state outcome, but will not compromise on security.’ I remonstrate politely, suggesting that he will always say such things but in practice considers all the West Bank to be his and he will always continue to annex it with illegal settlements until eventually he controls and owns the whole lot.

US Secretary of State Pompeo will visit on the 14th. HM knows him from when he was head of the CIA.

I said I had briefed General Sultan on Iran, and the prospect of Oman helping us with the IRGC and the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. He likes the idea of trying to help.

Dinner finished at about 2am, and then we had the concert till 4.30am. It was a lively one. The William Tell Overture and the Radetzky March are both good for not falling asleep.

Thursday 3 January – Muscat/Jebel Akhdar

To the Jebel Akhdar, arriving in time for lunch. The Anantara hotel is fabulous, situated on the top of all the craggy peaks, and built where Princess Diana was iconically photographed staring wistfully across the ravine.

Walk from the hotel, but not quite as far as the village of Al Aqur.

Dramatic sunset as we gather for drinks on the glass-edged platform which now constitutes Diana Point, all exquisite but for the property in the distance owned by Sheikh Tamim, the ruler of Qatar. It’s under construction but offends the natural view by being too much of a tall tower. It is out of keeping. The hotel sets up dinner for us on Diana Point surrounded by gas-heater obelisks as the temperature drops dramatically, and with blankets on our knees.

Two amusing stories about the Sultan from Patricia. First, he was once given a bullet-proof Range Rover as a gift, which had all the latest bells and whistles on it. HM ordered the Royal Guard to take it out into the desert and fire at it. They did so, upon which it promptly exploded in a massive fireball. Hmm!

Second, during the Arab Spring in 2011 there were noisy protests all over the Arab world. Demonstrations in Oman were rather more tame and genteel, although those at the Sur roundabout continued for some weeks. The students at Sultan Qaboos University wanted to organise a protest march and cordially asked the Sultan for permission. He said, ‘Of course you can demonstrate. Where?’ They said where, and he said yes. ‘On which day?’ They named the date and he said yes. He then said all of that is fine, and you will start your demonstration march at midday. They did so, and wilted after less than an hour!

Friday 4 January – Jebel Akhdar/Muscat

Our room is lovely. It sits on the corner with a staggering view across the ravine and catches both sunrise and sunset.

Over lunch, go through with David Manning his dinner conversation with the Sultan. Our notes compare well.

Two-hour drive back to the Kempinski Hotel in Muscat.

Dinner at the Chedi with William and Ffion who are holidaying there. As a guess at who might eventually succeed May, he punted for Sajid and I punted for Gove. His father’s funeral last week went as he would have wished – no religion. They are having a few days’ rest, adhering to their strict rule of no meetings that resemble public life or duty.

Saturday 5 January – Muscat

Bronzage. Leave at 12 for the Bait al Baraka. Lunch around the pool with Erik Bennett, Brigadier Mohammed bin Sulaiman, Field Marshal Lord [Charles] Guthrie, CDS General Sir Nick Carter, Sir David Manning, Sir Richard Dearlove, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord [Jock] Stirrup, Christopher Geidt and Richard Moore. Quite the top team.

After a relaxing afternoon we gather in the Majlis at 8pm. Puligny-Montrachet, Cheval Blanc and Pétrus on offer. You never quite know when the wait will end, so it’s not easy to judge how to pace the slurping. Somehow we managed.

Christopher was called in for an audience at 10.30pm. We then walked down the corridor flanked by diamond-encrusted artefacts in exquisite display cases to have the Privy Council from 11pm to 1am. It hummed along perfectly, exactly as planned, which is a first.

Over dinner with the Sultan, I likened Leave/Remain to Sunni/Shia, describing Theresa May as the sensible Ibadi in the middle. (Whereas most of the Arab world divides starkly into Sunni or Shia, the Omanis are Ibadi – mild-mannered religious centrists akin to the Methodists.) The Sultan smiled appreciatively. But I was frank in admitting that we had no clue how it would unfold, and there was a danger that the government might collapse within weeks.

Our feast took place in a magnificent new receiving hall, lasting until 4.30am, during which Charles Guthrie struggled to stay awake.

Monday 7 January – Muscat/London

Returning to London, the Commons debate on the Brexit Deal has started again. We’ll have a week of it. But I just cannot see how we can possibly win the vote on the 15th. It’ll be 2–1 against. So what then? Heaven knows. It’s going to be a mess of pottage.

Tuesday 8 January – London

The Commons yesterday was non-stop Urgent Questions, courtesy of Speaker Hobbit. The EU debate will start on Thursday. Nicky Morgan and Yvette Cooper have tabled an amendment for today to the Finance Bill which ingeniously would prevent the government from spending anything on preparing for a No Deal exit without the permission of the Commons. More generally positions are so deeply entrenched there just seems no way that we can win support for the Deal in time for next Tuesday’s vote on it. Down down the slippery slope we steadily slide.

Jane Holl Lute, UN envoy to Cyprus. There’s clearly no prospect of unification talks resuming. For the moment they remain doomed.

Senior official Nigel Baker re Ecuador. Annoyingly Assange’s forcible exit from the Ecuadorian embassy has been delayed. Ecuador’s government lawyers are now saying that it requires a Presidential decree which will take at least a week or two.

To HofC. Meet the new Ecuador Ambassador Jaime Marchán-Romero. His principal mission is to get Assange out of the embassy – it has been six years – and although he had been aiming for tomorrow, as I’d just learnt it’s going to take longer. A tad frustrating, but we’ll get there.

One-on-one meeting with Jeremy H. He was thoughtful, as ever, about Brexit, but openly exasperated. He had been against concluding the negotiations so early, he had been against putting the meaningful vote so early and he had then been against pulling the meaningful vote. She had not taken his advice on any of them, and it has cost us. But his view was that we must ‘hammer on’.

I talked him through my Oman visit. I can’t quite get him to engage and realise that I’m the only one who can deliver a deal with the Omanis. He keeps on fretting that Burt might get annoyed. Alistair knows nothing about Oman and doesn’t know any of the people who matter. It is just absurd that our deeper interests are frustrated by the pettiness of ministerial turf. Had I been given responsibility for the Gulf from the start, our entire set of relationships would be in a stronger state.

I updated him on Ecuador/Assange, Turkey (suggesting he meet Erdoğan, possibly by us going together to Ankara), Russia (how do we get going again with them?).

Government defeated by seven on the No Deal amendment on the Finance Bill.

Watch the Channel 4 docudrama Brexit: The Uncivil War. It exaggerates the persona and importance of Dominic Cummings, but some of the characterisations aren’t bad, especially those of irrepressible Leaver Bernard Jenkin and Leave.EU bruiser Arron Banks. The portrayal of Bernard is more convincing than the real thing.

Wednesday 9 January – London

Chat about the programme with Stephen Parkinson at the back gates of Number 10. Was it really like that in the Leave campaign? He says Cummings was a dominant figure, but the drama did rather overstate it.

Phone call with my old school friend Michael Morley. He is rather dejected by our leaving the EU. He advocates Remain, Reform, Redistribute, and thought the scene in the docudrama when a woman in a focus group burst into tears in a cry of despair was eerily accurate. Many Leavers were expressing anger and frustration at their economic powerlessness, hence his ‘redistribute’ call.

The Speaker will accept the Dominic Grieve amendment to the programme motion for the renewed debate on the postponed decision on the exit Deal. A programme motion is designed to determine the timetable of a debate or bill, i.e. it will take place on specified days for a precise number of hours. But Dominic has dreamt up a clever amendment which says that if the Deal at the end of the debate is voted down, then the PM must return to the House after three days to outline her Plan B. The amendment bears no relation to the subject matter of the motion to which it has been attached. Deeming the amendment to be in order is unprecedented; it has probably been accepted contrary to the Clerks’ advice; and doing so is undoubtedly an act of Bercow bias.

Ministerial team meeting. JH as always is astute in his analysis and shares it freely with us. His view is stimulating. Tusk and Macron stupidly think we might yet be forced into holding a second referendum; the Commission want the Deal to go through and so have become allies of a sort; the Irish think No Deal would deliver a united Ireland; the EU think the Deal will eventually go through, but that it will require an extension to the Article 50 deadline of 29 March. But a government defeat has weakened the government; Bernard Jenkin doesn’t think that Parliament could stop No Deal; Dominic Grieve and Nicky Morgan think that parliamentary procedure can stop No Deal, whereas the ERG think it cannot; in the Cabinet, those who are Brexiteers (Fox, Gove, Leadsom) are committed to the Deal; but the ‘out and out’ Brexiteers on the backbenches (Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Davis, Duncan Smith, Baker) are increasingly for No Deal … ‘out and out’ is indeed what they are.

In terms of how we might successfully stop No Deal, Jeremy’s hunch is that the government would be threatened by a vote of confidence if we were heading for it. We might find ourselves on the cliff edge facing either No Deal or No Brexit. Either would destroy the Conservative Party, so we must have a deal.

A furious row breaks out in the Commons, with over an hour of points of order. The Speaker behaves abominably. He has clearly defied the Clerks’ advice by allowing Dominic’s amendment to the programme motion, but his manner of behaving in the Chair is ghastly. The points of order should have been wrapped up after a few minutes, but he lets it run and run. It is humiliating for the Commons. Towards the end, he is accused of bias and of displaying a ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ sticker in his car. He says the car belongs to his wife and not even someone on the Tory benches should regard their wife as a chattel. He has no decorum. It is grandstanding partiality.

We later lose the Business Motion vote by nine.

Download on Oman with diligent officials Julie Scott and Helen Winterton. Amazingly, there is massive progress. Julie actually has a draft text for a comprehensive agreement with them. Oh joy!

Give Burt a full Oman debrief. Instead of being appreciative, he behaves rather chippily, showing no understanding of how significant this step is, yet demands I keep him informed. I really am doing my best not to go behind his back, but his territorial snippiness is disappointing. But I keep my cool.

Attend the PM’s reception in Number 10 with James. The rather loveable Andrew Bowie has become the PM’s new PPS. I say to Theresa it’s a very good appointment … ‘he’s just the right height’. She laughs. Result … a laugh from Theresa!

Thursday 10 January – London

Chat with Hamish Cowell in Muscat. I express surprised pleasure at the state of the draft agreement.

Ministerial meeting to discuss preparations for No Deal. Steve Barclay in the chair. It’s all rather perfunctory, but is lightened by some texts from Mark Lancaster. ‘So boring. I can see you are distracting yourself by staring at Steve Barclay.’ Bloody Lancaster – typical tease – because, looking around the room, I couldn’t see him. Then I realise that whenever I looked towards where he was, up towards the windows behind someone, he swerved sideways so as to obscure my line of sight. I text back: ‘I couldn’t bloomin’ see you.’ ML: ‘He probably used to be good eye candy.’ Me: ‘Less so these days.’ ML: ‘I was enjoying hiding from you.’ Me: ‘SB is a sort of “not quite George Clooney”.’ ML: ‘It’s the voice – lacks a degree of sophistication.’ Me: ‘Precisely!’

Dearlove and Guthrie have published a joint letter criticising the Deal on the grounds that it compromises intelligence and security. It’s total crap. I text Richard Dearlove, ‘Nice to see you in Muscat. I avert my gaze for half a second, and out pops your letter on Sky!’

Dinner with Abdulaziz [al Hinai] in Harry’s Bar. No alcohol for me. I give him the Privy Council read-out, which he appreciates. John Scarlett is at the next table. He is angry with Dearlove for dragging SIS into politics. I doubt Dearlove has any fans left in Vauxhall.

Friday 11 January – London/Rutland

An hour on the front bench for the EU debate, opened by Sajid and due to be closed by Jeremy. Usual sectarian nonsense on Europe.

To Rutland Council to see Councillors Oliver Hemsley and Gordon Brown to thrash out some of the facts about St George’s Barracks. I am adamant that they need some early work on what the design criteria are going to be. Stone and slate? Higgledy-piggledy streets? Some thatch? We need to build local confidence in the project. At the moment it faces ferocious opposition, and threatens to destroy our control of the Council in next May’s local elections.

Briefly home, then to Melton for the R&M Executive Meeting. Unfortunately Brexit has brought out some nasty qualities in some of our members.

The unpleasant Geoffrey Pointon – fat, ugly and eighty – has tabled two resolutions, one to call for an annual public meeting to meet the MP, something that can happen anyway were they ever to ask, and another to set up a sub-committee to ‘propose the processes to select a candidate to succee...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Biographical Note
• About Brexit
• Introduction
• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• 2020
• Appendix: ‘Why This Lifelong Eurosceptic Is Now Voting to Stay In’, 23 March 2016
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Illustrations
• Picture Section
• Index
• About the Author
• About the Publisher