If you think it’s too soon for conversations about who is having a good war then you’ve forgotten Westminster runs on ambition, opportunity, gossip and speculation.
Clearly Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has gone from electoral oddity – playing the president in a TV comedy to actually being president – to 21st century hero.
Closer to home, we’ve a prime minister who has been itching to emulate Churchill all his life. Yet, faced with more proper world level crises than any leader deserves since entering Number 10 – Brexit, Covid, war in Europe – he’s been found to be flimsy on each occasion.
This time, there’s a strong suspicion that his hands may be tied by the amount of Russian money that’s flowed into Conservative Party coffers.
Among other accusations Johnson’s faced over the years is the claim that he deliberately packs his cabinet with nonentities and mediocrities. Come the coronavirus pandemic, the likes of Robert Jenrick and Dominic Raab were shown to be hardly equal to the scale of events. But war in Ukraine has spurred some to raise their game.
Some surprising people have stepped up
Liz Truss’s stint as foreign secretary seemed just an opportunity to add to her already extensive Instagram account, showcasing carefully curated photos of her bestriding the global stage.
Then the Russians said the whole reason they threatened to break out their nukes was because Truss was cool with UK citizens making for Kyiv to join the resistance. It would be unfortunate to go down in history as the woman who triggered atomic apocalypse.
But, getting up the nose of Putin’s regime is undoubtedly a mark of honour. And let’s not pretend, so soon after International Women’s Day, that the fact the UK’s foreign secretary is female isn’t a particular affront to a Kremlin regime that embodies toxic masculinity.
Grant Shapps is perhaps the most underrated Tory out there. After delivering David Cameron a majority in 2015 as Conservative Party chairman, Shapps fell out of favour, only to pick his way through the Brexit minefield and find a role in Johnson’s cabinet which he has kept throughout.
He brought some competence and plenty of confidence to the travel travails that Covid presented and has carried that through to his response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Able to keep his cool
Then there’s defence secretary Ben Wallace, whose reputation swells with each passing day. He keeps his head down and gets on with the job.
Tom Tugendhat makes sure all and sundry are aware that he was in Afghanistan, Wallace wears his service lightly
He emerged from the Afghanistan debacle with reputation enhanced, in part because he only had to outperform the aforementioned Dominic Raab, who spent too much of the crisis on holiday, but insisted he’d not been partaking of watersports because “the sea was closed”.
Wallace is a former Scots Guard. Able to keep his cool even under the toughest conditions, like when Martha Kearney interviewed him on Radio 4’s Today programme last week, quoted at him comments from his Conservative colleague Tom Tugendhat and pointed out that Tugendhat had a military background.
Wallace resisted what must have been a near overwhelming urge to refer to his own time in the army. For, while Tugendhat makes sure all and sundry are aware that he was in Afghanistan, Wallace wears his service lightly.
Wallace could be the key to keeping Scotland
Similarly, his stint as an MSP in Holyrood is rarely mentioned. But it gives him an understanding of devolution unparalleled among MPs representing English seats. And it gives him unquestionable unionist credentials.
Should there be a Scottish independence poll imminently, Wallace will have a significant role to play
Boris Johnson has crashed the union in the name of Brexit. He is, for all intents and purposes, banned from going north of the border by the Scottish Conservatives. And the SNP regard him as one of the most effective arguments in favour of independence.
The fact Nicola Sturgeon is eyeing a referendum next year is not entirely unrelated to the fact she no doubt expects Boris Johnson to still be PM at that time.
Should there be an independence poll imminently, Wallace will have a significant role to play. The question is whether that will be as defence secretary or something a rung or two higher on the political ladder.
In response to Westminster whispers that he could just be the sort of person to replace Boris Johnson, he insisted he’s no interest in the top job, which is the wise response – and therefore only fuelled the Wallace bandwagon further.
The war in Ukraine is a miserable business. Much like this time two years ago, as Covid took hold, most in politics want Boris Johnson to respond effectively and successfully. But, the same people look at his record and anticipate bumbles at best and horror at worst.
Back in 2020, there was no likely or credible replacement. That is no longer the case.
James Millar is a political commentator, author and a former Westminster correspondent for The Sunday Post
