The rainbow warror: McVey opens new culture war front

Esther McVey, informally known as the minister for common sense, has not been especially visible since her appointment to Rishi Sunak’s government last November.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

Now, though, she has put her head above the parapet in a big way by calling for an end to the wearing of different coloured lanyards in the civil service and reiterating the duty of civil servants to be politically and ideologically neutral at work.

Is there really a minister for common sense?

It’s a purely informal title, but it has caught on. Officially, McVey is a minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office. But it was made known when she was appointed, that she would have a roving brief to cast what might be called the cold light of sanity on to government ways of working and to nip potential problems in the bud.

In other words, she was being asked to see the functioning of government as members of the public might see it – and perhaps help save it from itself. Given the public’s dim view of government and politicians generally, it is perhaps surprising that the minister for common sense has not made more of a splash than she has to date.

Who is Esther McVey?

Born in Liverpool, in 1967, McVey had a successful career in the media, as a presenter on GMTV, before becoming an MP. She first entered parliament as Conservative MP for Wirral West in 2010, but lost her seat in 2015. She returned to the Commons in 2017, when she was elected to George Osborne’s old seat of Tatton in Cheshire.