Support for Maria Miller within the Tory party is disappearing fast. Take the Tory Chair, Grant Shapps for example. Interviewed this morning by John Pienaar on BBC Radio 5 Live (available for 7 days here, with quote below starting at 12:50), Shapps was asked four times whether he backed Maria Miller, whom Michael Meacher called on to resign or be sacked for fiddling her expenses, and four times he declined. The full transcript of this conversation is as follows:
JP: So she’s got your full backing and that of the Prime Minister and she is staying just where she is…that’s what you are telling me?
GS: Well look, I echo the words of the Prime Minister. Ultimately this is a matter for him and for Maria and the PM has been clear that she has gone through this process, made the apology to the House and the PM is satisfied with that.
JP: Yeah. And she has got your 100 per cent backing?
GS: Well listen I don’t put her in the post. I’m here to tell you the facts and the facts are…..
JP: I know you don’t Grant, I’m just asking you as a colleague, a close colleague in the cabinet, does she have your entire backing?
GS: She is somebody who, let’s face it, has worked on a lot of tricky sensitive issues. You referred to them already, Leveson being one of them. So she has a portfolio which has happened to have been particularly complicated …….
JP: Certainly has been complicated Grant. Forgive me if I seem tedious but I have asked what 2, 3 times now and you still haven’t given me a “yes”…Does she have your full backing?
GS: Yet, yes she has gone through a complete process. She has done exactly what the committee asked her to do. I mean she hasn’t ,sort of, said I don’t accept this bit of it or I’m not going to do that bit of it. She has accepted exactly. And the Prime Minister has been clear that he is then satisfied with that and so, of course, I am satisfied with it as well.
This is droning on a bit isn’t it? After all what did the poor defenceless do: give a homeless couple a roof over their heads and took a little bit money out of public funds probably to feed and clothe them and help pay the mortgage. Who would deny her and them that? Lots of people get a little help with their mortgage from the state (taxpayer). As it turned out the homeless people were her own parents and charity does start at home.