Harrogate MP opens up on battle between loyalty and principle and how Liz Truss is doing

Speaking after the end of this week’s turbulent Conservative Party conference, Mr Jones said the fact he had voted for ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak to be Boris Johnson’s replacement did not mean he did not respect the abilities of the eventual winner in a leadership contest which, he said, ought to have been much shorter.

"We got through our bit quickly in Parliament,” said Mr Jones.

"But the leadership campaign was too long. It was critical we had a speedy transition period.

"As I said in public at the time, I voted for Rishi Sunak but Liz did show political acumen.

"People shouldn’t write her off or make assumptions.

"She is a more nuanced and complex character than comes across to the public sometimes.

"At international affairs, she won more trade deals than expected and, as foreign secretary, she quietly resolved some long-standing issues, including the release from an Iranian jail of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.”

Mr Jones, who has won the Harrogate and Knaresborough seat four times and held a series of Government posts in the past, is no slavish adherent of the new Prime Minister who has been under constant fire, partly from her own side as well as the Opposition, almost from the moment her choice of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled the Mini Budget on September 23.

"It’s not a straight left and right thing when it comes to the new Prime Minister.

"Liz Truss had said and done things already which would seem to come from opposite sides of the divide between public spending and the free market.

"On some foreign policy issues she is already more open and conciliatory than under Boris Johnson.

"But the new Prime Minister has built a team of loyal people around her from one direction.

"If you broaden the base of people coming in you usually get a better outcome.

"But she’s a bit of a political survivor. She’s served under four different Prime Ministers.”

Born in Ilkley but a long-time Harrogate resident, such has been the dizzying pace of political change in Britain in recent years, Mr Jones is now a bit of a political survivor himself.

The summer saw him elected to the Conservative Party's influential 1922 committee executive in July in a vote by colleagues and peers.

But any notion that this 58-year-old politician, who voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 Referendum, has become any kind of “wise old man”, gets short shrift.

Now serving under his fourth Prime Minister, he has no regrets in the role he played in the unfolding of the events that brought Boris Johnson’s demise.

Still, the straight line he took on Partygate through six months of controversy and heated rancour was not the result of a knee-jerk reaction.

He took a decision that the issue was fundamentally about standards and that, in his words, a rule maker could not be a rule breaker.

But, despite his early condemnation of Boris Johnson’s behaviour and support for a full enquiry, Mr Jones admits to being torn between principle and loyalty.

"It went against my instincts to vote against my own Prime Minister.

"It was done with a background of conflicted emotions on my part

"Loyalty is very important in the Conservative Party and I share that value.

"It’s not that Conservatives think they are the natural government in this country but it has a drive to be in power and it’s less about ideology or used to be.

"I was measured in my response to Partygate because there should be a high bar for changing Prime Ministers.

"But I was very upfront about my views to my own party.

"You have to have the courtesy to say what you think to people’s faces if you believe something.

"It was an issue of conduct. I saw behaviour in Downing Street which I thought was unacceptable.

"This applied to the team and the team leader.

"When Boris Johnson got a fixed penalty notice for breaching lockdown rules it wasn’t something that could be shrugged off.

"It was a legally fixed penalty but, oh my goodness, it wasn’t just a fixed penalty like a speeding ticket.

"You cannot be a rule maker and a rule breaker at the same time.”

In the next part of this interview, Mr Jones talks about the state of crisis-torn Britain, his own views on the Mini Budget and what he thinks the priorities are for dealing with the country’s problems.

“People are feeling anxious, as are businesses. I know because they are telling me that.

"We are going through a major period of upheaval. It’s all fundamental stuff.

"The Brexit turmoil added to the extreme turbulence in our political turbulence and rapid changes of personnel.

"Then there was the pandemic, followed by war in Europe, inflation unseen since the 1970s and huge rises in energy prices.

"This had all added to the nation’s sense that we are in a different place now.

"It’s been a period of profound change.

"The inbox that faced Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister was astonishing and unprecedented.

"I think people now want a sense of reassurance.”