Tim Shipman - All Out War - The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class

William Collins

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London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2016

Copyright © Tim Shipman 2016

Tim Shipman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover illustration by Morten Morland/Spectator

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780008215156

Ebook Edition © October 2016 ISBN: 9780008215163

Version: 2017-05-04

For my mother, who taught me to read,

and my father, who taught me to think.

Above all, for my wife Charlotte,

who was there and who deserved to win.

By meeting her, I did.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Timeline

Introduction: Demons Unleashed

PART ONE: SKIRMISHES

1 ‘My Lily-Livered Colleagues …’

2 For Britain

3 Dom and Arron

4 Stronger In

5 Cornering Corbyn

6 Guerrilla Warfare

7 The Coup

8 The Deal

9 Boris and Michael

PART TWO: BATTLE IS JOINED

10 Project Fear

11 The IDS of March

12 Designation’s What You Need

13 ‘Back of the Queue’

14 The Economy, Stupid

15 Blue on Blue

16 Turning Points

17 Aunty Beeb

18 Debating Points

19 Labour Isn’t Working

20 Immigration Crisis

21 George’s Monstrous Medicine

22 Breaking Points

23 Wembley

24 The Waterloo Strategy

25 Brexit Night

PART THREE: ALL OUT WAR

26 Fallout Friday

27 Jexit

28 The Dream Team

29 Anyone But Boris

30 Brexecuted

31 Mayniacs v Leadbangers

32 Iron May-den

Conclusion: Why Leave Won

Appendix 1: Boris Johnson’s First ‘Out’ Article

Appendix 2: Boris Johnson’s ‘In’ Article

Appendix 3: David Cameron’s ‘Victory’ Speech

List of Illustrations

Picture Section

Bibliography

Notes

Index

About the Publisher

This book is based on more than one hundred interviews conducted in person and on the telephone during July and August 2016. A number of people have been immeasurably helpful but understandably do not wish to see their names in print, particularly those who work for the civil service, the new prime minister or the Labour Party, whose discretion is a living concern. They know who they are, and I’m grateful. Many of the interviews included ‘on the record’ observations, but most of the time we spoke on the understanding that I would construct a narrative of events without signalling the parentage of every fact and quote. Where I have directly quoted someone, or attributed thoughts or feelings to them, I have spoken to them, the person they were addressing, someone else in the room, or someone to whom they recounted details of the conversation. This means that I have only provided references to quotes or information from published sources and broadcast interviews. Where matters are disputed I have been clear about who is making the claims.

While it is invidious to single anyone out for special thanks, I am immensely grateful to: Iain Anderson, Adam Atashzai, Steve Baker, Arron Banks, Eddie Barnes, Jake Berry, Gabby Bertin, Nick Boles, Peter Bone, Graham Brady, Andrew Bridgen, Chris Bruni-Lowe, Conor Burns, Alistair Burt, Paul Butters, Alastair Campbell, David Campbell Bannerman, Joe Carberry, Douglas Carswell, Max Chambers, David Chaplin, Bill Clare, Ryan Coetzee, Therese Coffey, Henry Cook, Andrew Cooper, Dominic Cummings, Ruth Davidson, Henry de Zoete, Oliver Dowden, Brian Duggan, Sir Alan Duncan, Iain Duncan Smith, Matthew Elliott, Nick Faith, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Nigel Farage, Liam Fox, Mark Fullbrook, Nusrat Ghani, Ameet Gill, John Glen, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, Gerry Gunster, Matthew Hancock, Daniel Hannan, Richard Harrington, Michael Heaver, Patrick Heneghan, Kate Hoey, Richard Howell, Bernard Jenkin, Alan Johnson, Boris Johnson, Hermann Kelly, Daniel Korski, Brandon Lewis, David Lidington, James McGrory, Michael McManus, Lord Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham, Katie Martin, Zack Massingham, Nicky Morgan, David Mundell, Jonathan Munro, Henry Newman, Brett O’Donnell, Sir Craig Oliver, George Osborne, Rob Oxley, Mike Penning, Mats Persson, Amy Richards, Lewis Robinson, Lord Rose of Monewden, Josh Simons, Keith Simpson, Anna Soubry, Paul Stephenson, Will Straw, Lucy Thomas, Gawain Towler, Laura Trott, Nick Varley, Will Walden, Ben Wallace, Graeme Wilson and Nick Wood.

I’m also grateful to several lobby colleagues for passing on anecdotes and advice, including James Lyons, Oliver Wright, Sam Coates, James Kirkup, Beth Rigby, Fraser Nelson, Matt Chorley and Rob Hutton. Laura Kuenssberg gave me prior sight of the transcript of her television documentary Brexit: Battle for Britain , which was broadcast on 8 August 2016. Andy Taylor made several helpful suggestions on structure.

A first-time author has more debts than they can possibly repay. Victoria Hobbs, my agent at A.M. Heath, has been a friend and a professional through various abortive projects, and quickly did the deal, mid-holiday, when this one came up.

At HarperCollins, my editor Arabella Pike embraced the project from the off, and was very understanding of a recalcitrant hack’s flexible approach to deadlines. Special thanks to Robert Lacey, the best copy editor in the business, Joseph Zigmond for sorting the pictures, PR supremo Helen Ellis, and Essie Cousins who keeps the ducks in a row.

My greatest debt is to Gabriel Pogrund, without whom this project would never have been completed. When he got in touch to offer his services I envisaged a keen amanuensis, but he was so much more than that. He began by tirelessly transcribing my tapes, but was also quickly introducing me to key sources, conducting some interviews himself, and always fizzing with ideas. He has been an engine of great industry and insight, and does everything with good humour and judgement. Bénédicte Earl, George Greenwood, Hannah McGrath, Oliver Milne and Thomas Seal also provided invaluable assistance in transcribing more than half a million words of interviews. Hannah also shared some notes on one episode. Harriet Marsden gave me access to her Brexit project, including an interview with Andy Wigmore.

At the Sunday Times I’d like to thank the editor Martin Ivens, his deputy Sarah Baxter and Eleanor Mills, the magazine editor, for giving prominence to serious coverage of politics that also revels in the soap opera of SW1.

We are all products of our education, and I was fortunate to have inspirational teachers at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. None more than my English teachers David and Heather Slater, who taught me to appreciate a good sentence (though not how to write one) while nurturing the subversive aspects of my personality that best prepared me for journalism. At Cambridge, Christopher Andrew, the late Mark Kaplanoff, Joanna Lewis, Peter Clarke and Chris Clark nurtured my love of history. I hope that as a first draft this passes muster.