Senior Liz Truss Adviser Suspended After No 10 Source Briefed Against Sajid Javid
Liz Truss leaves 10 Downing Street (Alamy)
2 min read
A senior adviser to Liz Truss has reportedly been suspended after a 10 Downing Street source was quoted as saying the Prime Minister believes Conservative MP Sajid Javid is "shit".
Jason Stein had been Truss's acting director of communications before it was reported by the BBC on Wednesday that he had been suspended and due to face an investigation from the Cabinet Office's Propriety and Ethics Team.
Her press secretary refused to on "individual staffing matters" but confirmed that the Prime Minister had spoken to her No 10 team about "completely unacceptable" briefings to the press.
"I am not going to get into individual staffing matters but the Prime Minister has made very clear to her team that some of the briefings that we have seen are completely unacceptable about parliamentary colleagues and they must stop," they said this afternoon.
Asked whether Javid, the former cabinet minister, had complained to Truss about the hostile briefing over the weekend, they said: "I am not going to go into potential private discussions between MPs and ministers."
They said they "don't know" whether Truss had spoken to Javid "directly".
In a Sunday Times report published over the weekend, a 10 Downing Street source was quoted as saying Truss "laughed out loud" at the suggestion that Javid was in consideration to replace Kwasi Kwarteng when she fired him as chancellor last week, and that she thinks he is "shit".
A government source confirmed that Stein's suspension, which is yet to be officially confirmed by No 10, is linked to that briefing about Javid.
PoliticsHome understands that Javid was planning to ask Truss a question about the briefing at today's Prime Minister's Questions but decided not to after successfully persuading Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to suspend Stein.
PoliticsHome has asked Stein for comment.
A source who is familiar with Truss's inner circle said that Stein was "one of the few people" that the under-pressure Prime Minister "actually speaks to now" amid the crisis facing her leadership.
ITV's Political Editor Robert Peston reported that Stein was confident he would not be sanctioned, which, he said, "carries the implication that others in Downing Street are to blame."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
