Oliver Dowden: the person behind Sunak’s Election call?
Oliver Dowden is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, a post that does not officially
exist, which is entirely appropriate
Dowden has nasty right-wing politics but these are invariably trumped by the bigger reality that he is an idiot.
Looking at commentary on why Sunak called an Election for July 4th (I have no inside Tory sources…) its clear that while he may have had the idea in mind as far back as April he only told senior Cabinet members this week and didn’t bother to tell Tory MPs at all. Its remarkably difficult to find a Tory arguing that Sunak’s call was unequivocally a good idea.
The Sunday Times which as a Murdoch paper remains even now sympathetic to the Tories is nevertheless often well informed. It suggests that the person who backed Sunak’s idea and encouraged him was Dowden.
This cant of course be verified but given what we know of Dowden’s career it is plausible
He appears on Kuenssberg on Sunday morning from time to time to ‘defend’ the Tory line. A recent visit saw him declaring that Tory bigot Lee Anderson could have remained as a Tory MP if he had apologised for making Islamophobic remarks, while he felt only very slightly concerned about similar views expressed by Truss and Braverman. Former Tory Co-Chair Sayeeda Warsi tweeted that Dowden’s comments were ‘mealy mouthed’ amounting to an acceptance that Islamophobia is OK in the Tory Party.
On April 7th he claimed that selling arms to Israel wasnt illegal even though it became clear that he didn’t know what the actual legal advice was (Dave Cameron’s dept)and defended now ex-Tory sex pest William Wragg
Dowden has form
When he was Culture Minister (February 2020-September 2021) Oliver Dowden opined on his then favourite subject-culture wars. He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph (16.5.21) that he was not a Maoist but a Moreist.
By this he meant (he claimed) that he was in favour of more statues not less and more history. Dowden’s statements are sometimes amusing. There seem to have been very few (if any)statues erected on his watch any more than, despite his insistence, there was any great move to take statues down. Further the ‘more history’ Dowden wanted most definitely does not include any more detail about British imperial activities.
Dowden also noted that he believed that museums and cultural institutions should be free of Government meddling and to make sure he set up a committee to, er, well meddle. Its primary purpose was to promote Dowden’s Moreist perspective.
He purged the wrong kind of person from Trustee Boards. Indeed so blatant was he that Charles Dunstone, who is believed to be not unfavourable to the Tory Party, resigned as Chair of the Royal Museums, Greenwich in protest.
In one of many Tory re-shuffles Dowden was replaced as Culture Minister by Nadine Dorries and he then became Chair of the Tory Party (September 2021-June 2022) In this role he produced a range of baffling waffle although in context this was during the latter days of the Johnson Premiership.
He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 25th October 2022 by Sunak. He has certainly cultivated the Tory Hard Right particularly when he was Culture Minister but his Ministerial career suggests someone promoted far beyond his competence who can only last for a limited period in any role before the sack occurs.
He faced Angela Rayner at PMQs on 24th April and John Crace’s analysis of his performance is here:
With luck and determination a pending General Election may mean he has to look for his next job outside of Parliament even though his Hertsmere seat appeared until recent Tory polling to be a safe one
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