Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, Chairperson of the Conservative Foreign & Commonwealth Council (CFCC), hosted the CFCC’s Annual Christmas Reception at the House of Lords on Monday 9th December 2024.
Dame Pauline welcomed all present with a Christmas greeting from Lady (Lynda) Chalker of Wallasey, the Council’s former President.
She then introduced Lord Brady of Altrincham, who would be speaking about his recently published book ‘Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers’.
Lord Brady’s book covers the 27 years of his time as a Member of Parliament and his Chairmanship of the 1922 Committee between 2010 and 2024. Copies of the book were due to become available for CFCC members attending the Reception but the books had not yet reached the House of Lords from the publisher for signing by Lord Brady. Members therefore would be receiving their copies in due course once they have been signed.
In her introduction, Dame Pauline said the very readable book would become an authority for historians, allowing the reader to become better informed on the inner workings of Westminster and, unlike some political memoirs, a book that is not part-fiction.
Lord Brady began his talk with a special mention for Lord (John) Taylor, CFCC’s former Chairman and Chief Whip in the House of Lords. When researching the rules for candidates wishing to apply for Leader of the Party, it said there had to be a minimum of two.
As the only Candidate, thus began his new role in Parliament. John Taylor confirmed that this was how he became elected to the position.
Lord Brady’s decision to write the book was based on not wanting to take to the grave political events while still of interest and in memory. The themes in the book are personal, as they happened, and drawn from his diary. He referred to a number of the anecdotes described in the book. One was to convince Boris Johnson not to accept the version Dominic Cummings had given for unexpectedly travelling to Castle Barnard to have his eyes tested for driving - no one else believed this story. BJ however had accepted it as true because, in his view, DC ‘was not sane’
The book has serious themes. He might have become an FCO minister but instead he became a fervent advocate for Grammar Schools and he resigned for not accepting the party line on the subject.
Chairmanship of the 1922 meant anything but a quiet life particularly when needing to go to Downing Street with bad news to report and the press pack on tail. The book describes in detail his experiences of avoiding the press and explaining to Boris Johnson that he had to go. He also described how he was selected to be Conservative candidate for Altrincham when still a very young man. Two hundred candidates were whittled down to three and at the general meeting of local members Graham was selected after a recount, beating the second placed candidate by a single vote.
A number of questions followed.
From the questions, attendees were provided with Lord Brady’s perspective insight on the short Liz Truss premiership; they learned that apart from sometime struggles with colleagues there was nothing he would share with a wider audience that was not in the book and his reputation in the role was such that advice given to Boris by his Political Secretary was:‘never meet Brady alone’.
Dame Pauline questioned what it would have meant for the Party if the 1922 Committee had not existed.
In answer to the question, Lord Brady said that since Lord North in the 19th century, Prime Ministers had been removed on 20 occasions. The 1922 Chairman was the advisory voice piece of the Party during such times of crisis; as a pressure release it is a safety valve and the only advisory position not appointed by the prime minister of the day and therefore a vital role requiring discretion and firm mindedness.
Dame Pauline closed the formal part of the evening and together with Lord Brady, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a Patron of the CFCC, and Lord Taylor, mingled with those attending in an animated pre-Christmas atmosphere. Thanks go to Melissa Crawshay-Williams for the energy and effort she had put in to ensure the success of the evening and to the attentive House of Lords personnel who worked hard to ensure that all present were well-served with food and drink.
A great evening with a full attendance expertly organised.
William Knight
