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  • Councillor Sajid Javid has resigned.

  • Now that is Ah, pretty shocked piece of news.

  • Certainly it was expected that he would be staying in post that he was one of that group off ministers in the senior most senior officers off state who would be staying in that position.

  • But we are hearing now from our political editor, Laura Kononsberg, that he, in fact, has resigned.

  • Ah, this is Laura's tweet.

  • I'm reading, too.

  • I don't if we can get it up on the screen straight away, but she was saying so Javid has gone reshuffle blown up.

  • If this is a carefully worked out jigsaw off people in particular positions than to lose someone is key is him from a key position clearly means that Boris Johnson will have to to some extent go back to the drawing board.

  • There is Laura's Twitter feed on your screens, Laura says.

  • She hears that Sajid Javid was offered to stay on as chancellor on condition he fired all of his advisers.

  • He refused and turned down the job.

  • So it sounds as though the chancellor was certainly railing against, you know, being told what to do with his personal advisers and we cannot talk to Laura, our political editor.

  • Laura.

  • This is a quite extraordinary piece of news, a quite extraordinary development.

  • It really is.

  • I mean, reshuffle so often end up blowing up on being very unexpected.

  • In the last few minutes, I've heard that the chancellor subject Javid has decided that rather than obey the orders of the prime minister to sack his advisory team, he hasn't said turned down the second most important job in government and has decided to resign in the interim.

  • I'm just hearing that Rishi soon AC, who has been the chief secretary to the Treasury, is likely to be appointed chancellor in his place.

  • But that job of being Forest Johnson's next door neighbor at number 11 was meant to be in number tens design a piece of continuity the chancellor, sergeant David, was meant to be staying on, despite the fact that there had been unhappiness between the two teams, as there so often is here in Downing Street.

  • But this is a really major development on a big difference to the government because, of course, the Chancellor is one of the key appointments, perhaps the most important appointment that any prime minister makes on at this early stage of the morning only a couple of hours into the reshuffle, it has already taken an unexpected turn.

  • I'm just starting their Soviet rap.

  • What do you make of the chancellor having to resign?

  • Dominant rap course dominant round before and secretary expected to stay there in that job.

  • But no doubt, this will all be blown off course Now.

  • What had been expected to be a reshuffle of relatively moderate scale, not too much drama going on has already turned into something extremely different.

  • So obviously Laura and attempt to exert a huge degree of control down to, you know, control over who individual ministers advisors would be.

  • So where was that request coming from?

  • Obviously, yes, from the prime minister.

  • But who was behind that?

  • Wasn't Boris Johnson anyone else behind that request to such a Javad to fire all of his advisers well, without having been in the room and he so it's always hard to tell.

  • But of course, I think the finger will point fairly or not, but pretty directly at Dominic Cummings, who's the prime minister's most senior advisor, that is, I think, an assumption that a lot of people will make.

  • But you know that said, there are lots of people who work in Downing Street, and ultimately it is ministers of prime ministers who make the decision.

  • As the saying goes, Advisors advise.

  • Prime ministers decide, But it is, you know, quite on extraordinary thing toe happen at this stage of a relatively new government not long after the election that essentially the number two in terms of those top top jobs the man who is in charge of the economy, who's who was meant to be delivering a budget in less than a month's time.

  • The budget is in four weeks on March the 11th rather than staying in government, has refused to stay in that hugely important job because he would not accept an attempt to exert more control on him by Downing Street.

  • And ultimately, there's always gossip and chatter about advisers and how they behave.

  • But ultimately prime ministers of ones who make the decisions Boris Johnson may have hoped that Sandy Javid would just suck this up and stay on quite clearly, he's decided that's just not going to be the case, and so therefore we have a big elevation for Richie Soon Act.

  • He was considered in conservative circles as somebody who was a rising star who probe himself during the general election campaign.

  • But for someone with a relatively little level of experience very well respected in Westminster, I would say, But still you know, relatively new member of the government.

  • Ah, huge elevation for him on enormous pressure on you know, this is the kind of thing changing the chancellor is not a decision that any government would ever take lightly.

  • And to lose the chancellor over this sort of power struggle over who's on his payroll is a very, very big political call to make.

  • But some people might remember very early days.

  • One of such as Javid special adviser Sonia Can was fired at that point by the new number 10 operation.

  • Sergeant David made no secret of the fact that he was deeply unhappy about that, and he has refused to allow that to happen again, instead deciding that it's time to move out.

  • So Laura, as far as number 10 is concerned, then the pace of the day the pace of the reshuffle continues.

  • Yes, that's absolutely.

  • And forgive me for just checking down at my phone because I just imports don't want to miss anything happening.

  • But just as I as I understand it, you know this This is a big turn in the reshuffle.

  • You know that we were expecting this to be relatively mid scale, relatively Move along.

  • Not that much to see.

  • Yes, some well known names like Andrea Leadsom an extra McVeigh departing the government.

  • But in terms of the overall set up in the overall direction, as I was saying, with a budget in four weeks, this was not meant to be how the day was meant to progress.

  • But they certainly have found themselves relatively early in the day with a huge drama unfolding.

  • Of course, people will point at this and wonder if number 10 really thought that such a Javid would accept this attempts to exact huge control over him and his wider team.

  • Maybe they believe that actually, he would end up resigning because off that, But you know, as the hours unfold in the days unfold and you know we'll try and be able to find out exactly what went on, but no doubt reshuffle that's already taken a very different tone from what we expected just 10 minutes or so ago.

  • On my reaction to this, I'm sure a lot of people's reaction, as you heard me say a second ago was what an extraordinary piece of news.

  • Lord, this is a chancellor who didn't actually even get to deliver a budget world.

  • I mean, this is a relatively new government, if that's how they want to cast themselves.

  • But sadly, Javid was absolutely meant to be part of that team that have already been some big set piece announcements from from him.

  • And we know, for example, that he was very keen on getting that high speed rail to announcement over the line.

  • Of course, that happened last week, but it's not just the matter of a budget.

  • In a few weeks time, also, the government's been embarking what's known as the spending review rank were literally line by line.

  • Every pound and penny that spent by the government is meant to be looked at and put under the microscope.

  • Andi, you know, chancellors are traditionally, of course, absolutely key to the shaping of any government and its priorities, but also very often the tension between those two buildings behind me between numbers 10 and 11 is very often a defining characteristic off any government.

  • And that's certainly have been rumbling around for a long time.

  • Tensions not necessarily between Boris Johnson and Sandy Javid individually, but certainly between their teams.

  • But this turn of events, you know, I think, will really be quite shocking to some people.

  • One Tory insiders just texted me a couple of moments of just sort of glanced at my phone, saying, This is insane.

  • Saturday, Javid was stability in the government that, you know only we'll only know in the weeks and months to come, whether or not Richie sooner is able to step up to the plate.

  • He is somebody who is widely respected in Westminster, But it's a huge step up for him and also what kind of role such a job would play on the back benches, you know, will he become, as people often do, a thorn in the prime minister's side?

  • Of course, with the parliamentary majority the size of Boris Johnson's, it's not really the case that he is in any way under threat, but he could do without ardent critics, and we'll have to wait and see what sort of job decides to do on the back benches, you know, remember to he wanted to be prime minister.

  • He ran for the leadership as well.

  • So this is really sort of setting the cat among the pigeons.

  • And it may well be the start of something rather, in the end of one man's political time in cabinet.

  • Okay, Laura, thank you very much for that Laura Kuhns book in Downing Street Forests.

  • Laura saying that such a Javid has decided that rather than obey the orders of the prime minister to sack his advisory team, he has instead turned down what is regarded as the second most important job in government.

Councillor Sajid Javid has resigned.

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