Defra – political purgatory?

Mark 13 Comments

I couldn’t help smile at Jeremy Paxman’s opinion of Therese Coffey in this article from last year.  But it was Paxman’s remark that Defra was…

… a place of political purgatory, where ambitious politicians suffer torments in hope of preferment somewhere else

https://www.ft.com/content/17bedfec-da71-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482

…that really caught my eye.

We’ve had some shocking ministers in Defra over time.

Richard Benyon wasn’t anything like the worst minister ever, but all thought that, as an ex-soldier, he was really hankering after a job in the MoD rather than having to fight the corner for game shooting in Defra (Buzzard-licensing and all). He moved out of government, rather than on in government, and so we will never know where he might have shone.

His senior, the Minister of State, Jim Paice was an affable countryman who led the charge for scrapping government trials of bTB vaccination and a shift to badger culling (as promised in the 2010 Conservative manifesto). He, similarly, left government without bothering any other department and now languishes as Chair of the GWCT.

Caroline Spelman was a reasonably good Secretary of State for Defra but made the mistake of trying to fulfull government policy to privatise at least some forests, and she was cut off at the knees at PMQ’s by that old-Etonian gentleman David Cameron (and soon left government too).

We then got Owen Paterson which made life more interesting but only because it became more irritating – a real countryman who knew all the answers to everything because he had had badgers at pets, lived in the countryside and had Matt Ridley as a brother-in-law. At least it wasn’t dull, although the same can’t be said for the two Lib Dems who came into ‘power’ in Defra – can you remember their names? I had to look them both up myself: Dan Rogerson and David Heath  (neither had another ministerial job).

George Eustice appeared in Defra in October 2013 and remains a fixture to this day.  A good operator who has made the Minister of State job in Defra his own.

After Paterson we had the quite dreadful Liz Truss! She was probably the worst Environment Secretary ever and showed no interest whatsoever in the role (see also this). Rumour had it that she hankered after a Treasury role and that is where she has ended up (via Lord Chancellor and Department of Justice) as Chief Secretary to the Treasury where, I have to admit, she does a half-decent job which is in complete contrast to the dead hand that she settled on Defra. Truss provides a clear example of a politician who was hopeless in one role (perhaps more than one) but who can carry it off in another which appears to suit them (her in this case) better.

Rory Stewart was the junior minister at this time and apart from signing off the hopeless and deliberately hopeless Hen Harrier Action Plan he was all talk and little action. He is talked of as a future Foreign Secretary and he is certainly being given a range of political opportunities having passed through Defra, International development, the Foreign Office and now being Prison Minister in Justice.  He might well be a bright star, or shining galaxy, in the making but was a black dwarf in Defra.

Andrea Leadson was parked in Defra by Theresa May after standing aside from the leadership contest and did nothing for her 11 month tenure of the job – she too seems (maybe I am wrong) to be a half-competent Leader of the House whereas she looked adrift in Defra. 

Therese Coffey arrived in Defra in July 2016 and is fairly soon going to reach Richard Benyon’s length of service in the junior Defra role. Coffey has been awful, and awfully disengaged from the issues which are hers, in Defra. As I was heading back towards Oxford after being at Cheltenhanm races and then seeing a ringtail Hen Harrier at dusk above Brockhampton, I heard Coffey sounding quite good on Radio 4 playing a straight bat on Brexit etc. Maybe she would be good at something else because she is not much good at being the biodiversity minister (see Paxman quote with which we started).

Defra has certainly not been a springboard for many high-flying LibDem or Tory political careers – more ministers have disappeared without trace than have gone on to trouble the scorer much. But the fact (a disputable fact perhaps) that Truss, Leadsom and Stewart have all gone on to better performances in other departments does make one wonder who are the politicians who would have shone in Defra that we have never seen. They must be out there, I guess.

Certainly the most talented, most annoying, most hope-inducing and most hope-dashing of Defra politicians is the current SoS Mr Gove. I’m glad my prediction that he would stay at Defra (which seemed quite a brave prediction when made early on Friday morning (see last para here)) was corrent. Partly because it shows that I can still read the politics well (or was it a lucky guess?) but also because the Defra deserves a big hitter who wants to get things done – at least now and again.  Michael Gove will deliver some good things if he stays at Defra – and undoubtedly some bad things too – but he is a player and he is running about on the pitch!



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13 Replies to “Defra – political purgatory?”

  2. We should give Jim Paice the credit he deserves: the forest sales fiasco was his, with poor Caroline Spellman who could well have been the best of this sad bunch caught in the crossfire.

    The comments on access vs influence are spot on : as ever, nice Mr Gove will be being very, very polite.

    But if you want to make a politicians eyes glaze over, ask them for money – and ever since Lawton nature conservation has done nothing but ask for money. In what I thought was a typically kind put down, I remember Elliot Morley responding to a tentative request for cash with ‘ you wouldn’t believe how many people’s problems I could solve for just £1 million’.

    On the flip side, identifying and getting behind the political agenda is one good way to get on. Strangely, there’s substance to Therese Coffey’s 500,000 hectares of new habitat – its the sum of the Natural Capital Committee headline proposals, including 250,000 has of woodland ‘located near towns and cities’, 140,000 has of peatland restoration and 100,000 has of wetland creation. Which done right could get us quite a long way to restoring biodiversity. Topped off by the fact that NCC demonstrate quite clearly that all this benefits, not costs, the economy – which may be why there’s increasing evidence that this is where Defra is heading. There’s a powerful logic: faced with the biggest change in 70 years, Defra has to have a bit more to go on than balancing the competing demands of sectoral landuse. And, what few seem to have realised, the countryside will have to bid for money in open competition for the first time in 70 years, in what must surely be a very hostile fiscal climate. Both farming and conservation risk losing their shirts.

    David Milliband really kicked this off with his CPRE speech in 2007 and it has since grown under Dieter Helm’s leadership. The Foresight landuse project which followed Milliband (after he had left Defra) restored the sectoral status quo – with nature conservation’s active participation – but the message clearly stuck in the civil service – where else did the NCC come from ?

    I just hope nature conservation engages, all guns balzing for wildlife, before the window closes. I saw a (critical) comment about NE staff transferred to Defra to work on Brexit issues. If I was running NE I’d have my whole policy team over at defra, hammering on the door to be in on the once in a lifetime opportunity. In the meantime, I continue to search my many and varied conservation mags for the words ‘Natural Capital’ and ‘Natural capital Committee’.

    1. Depends on who or what organisation might be regarded as representing ‘nature conservation’? Usual suspects have either been gagged or so obsequious in the hope of crumbs (maybe a tad cruel but it’s late) can anyone see them ‘all guns blazing’? Happy to be proven wrong and a whole host of legal challenges lined up ;0

      Minded that Gove is a politician and wants easy wins that will not upset either his own personal agenda or various vested interest advocates in his party? He’s unlikely to seek out complex or contentious issues so it is unlikely to deliver real public or wildlife benefit unless cash flows into usual channels? Would be delighted to be wrong ….

        1. ‘Toe-curling stuff’

          Therefore perfect for the swivel-eyed loons in the audience. Credit where credit is due, the speech writers had done their homework.

  6. Mark – a good recital of ministers, thank you for refreshing my memory – oh for the return of the likes of John Gummer and Micheal Meacher – I think they were the best we ever had – though remarkably Micheal Gove is at least thinking about his role.

  7. Gove may only be at Defra until the meaningful vote of course. If the Pizzacake group fail to extract any concessions from May before the UK & EU sign off the deal on Sunday, there may still be resignations from their numbers. Though as he refused the jump on Friday it seems unlikely he’ll do so.

    If he votes for the deal (as he presumably will under Cabinet rules) and it’s defeated, where does that leave him? If May falls there will be a leadership election and he will certainly be a candidate.

    In the very unlikely circumstance of May winning the meaningful vote, Gove may stay on at Defra, though he may be also be eyeing a promotion.

    I wonder if there’s some personal enmity between Truss and Gove.

  8. We need someone on the inside. I nominate Mark Avery ! Why have you never become an MP Mark Avery. Instead of wasting English Natures time by freedom of information requests and then asking FOI requests about the timing of their replies you may be able to improve the governments attitude towards wildlife conservation. Or maybe even get a job as director of conservation with the RSPB.

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