Meet Oliver Dowden, the man running the UK while Rishi Sunak is away

LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has finally taken a vacation to California, leaving his mediator in charge.

Oliver Dowden, known as “Olive” to his friends, was called up to be Sunak’s deputy prime minister in April after his predecessor Dominic Raab resigned. But, who is the minister who now remains with his hand on the tiller? POLITICO has your back.

‘pair of safe hands’

Dowden’s day job is to oversee the UK’s powerful Cabinet Office under the elegant and slightly nonsensical title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Cabinet Office tries to coordinate work across different government departments and get top ministers to agree on business through the civil service machine.

In your inbox since you took that job: contingency planning for another winter of discontent as public sector workers staged rolling strikes; and the little matter of the coronation of King Carlos III.

Old friend and veteran Tory MP John Hayes reckons Dowden is up to the task of replacing Sunak. Dowden, Hayes said, knows how Whitehall works “as well or better than anyone” and would be a “safe pair of hands” as Sunak heads to foreign shores.

As David Cameron’s former deputy chief of staff when Cameron was prime minister, Dowden dealt with “a lot of ups and downs, emergencies and crises,” said Hayes, who worked closely with Dowden at the time.

“He is very calm and capable, clearly very capable, and he knows how to deal with the various vicissitudes of the job,” Hayes added.

Dowden was educated by the state, something that is not the case in a British political scene dominated by posh private school types. His father worked in a factory in Watford and his mother as a pharmacist in St Albans.

However, his route to the top of politics is a bit more tested: Cambridge University, then a stint in the Tory research department.

Beyond Olive, Dowden has earned a few more nicknames in her time. Cameron dubbed him “the undertaker” after he “played an important role in figuring out how to handle the individual cases of Conservative MPs who got into trouble” over their spending, author and commentator Andrew Gimson told Profile on TV. the BBC late last year. .

He had “the melancholy task of helping determine which congressmen we won’t get and which we’ll save,” Gimson said. Noteworthy for any Tories contemplating a summer of scandal.

irregular PMQs

Dowden has already had a few attempts to replace Sunak, with mixed reviews.

Answering the Prime Minister’s questions in the House of Commons saw him draw criticism from sharp-penned Parliamentary sketch writers.

Juan Craza, the guardian scribe, compared Sunak’s aide to an “80s holiday camp entertainer who gets mercilessly trashed by an audience that’s madly bored”, adding: “Blood sports are less cruel than letting Dowden fend for himself.” for half an hour”.

in the Times, Quentin Letts said Dowden exuded “the antiseptic finesse of a British Airways cabin attendant” when he substituted for the prime minister in the chamber.

POLITICO’s Andrew McDonald himself prayed for the ending during a low energy sparring session and rated the poor guy 4/10.

But what he lacks in public speaking skills, Dowden seems to make up for in political nous.

In 2019, he was one of three rising stars, along with Sunak and Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, dubbed the “three musketeers” by their colleagues after they endorsed Boris Johnson’s leadership early in a joint meeting. article.

Dowden was handsomely rewarded with the post of Cabinet Secretary for Culture and made a name for himself as Johnson’s main anti-wake warrior.

In that role, he openly warned museums to “retain and explain” controversial statues linked to slavery and strongly championed the “Land of Hope and Glory” chant (colonial tones and all) on the final night of the balls. graduation.

He also ordered the Union Flag to be flown over UK government buildings every day, in a mockery of calls for Scottish independence.

She was out in the cold during Liz Truss’s tumultuous and brief stint at the top of British politics, but her loyalty to Sunak, her rival-turned-successor, has certainly paid off.