Kingmaker

Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers

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Kingmaker

By: Sir Graham Brady

Narrated by: Sir Graham Brady

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About this listen

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

THE BESTSELLING INSIDER STORY OF WESTMINSTER'S BLOODIEST POWER BATTLES

'Myths are debunked, prime ministers exposed and secrets revealed ... essential' The Times

'Refreshingly honest' The Telegraph

'Entertaining and approachable' The Spectator

David Cameron. Theresa May. Boris Johnson. Liz Truss. Rishi Sunak. Five prime ministers, one explosive memoir. Kingmaker lifts the lid on the leadership battles that have defined British politics

The last fourteen years have seen turbulence at the centre of politics that is perhaps unique in British history. From coalition to Brexit, Covid to Partygate, Trussonomics to this year's election, our government has never felt so fractured. And as Prime Ministers have come and gone, one man has been at the heart of every leadership challenge, seeing all, but saying nothing. Until now.

Sir Graham Brady was the Chairman of the 1922 Committee since 2010. As the leader of the group with the power to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party, it was his hand that held the executioner's axe over five consecutive Prime Ministers' heads.

Elected to Parliament in 1997 as the youngest Conservative MP in the house, Brady comes from a lower middle-class background and fell into politics age 16 when he joined a campaign to save his grammar school. This book is the story of how a boy from Salford came to be the definitive political insider.

With unique access to every key decision-maker of the past fourteen years, it offers insights into the character and choices of successive Prime Ministers and the administrations they led. Ultimately, it reveals where our most recent leadership failures originate, and asks hard questions about who will be fit to lead us tomorrow.©2024 Graham Brady (P)2024 Bonnier Books UK

Sir Graham BradySir Graham BradyIthaka

Corruption & Misconduct

Politics & Government

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Sir Graham Brady pulls of quite trick here. He manages to take us through some of the most unedifying and chaotic years of politics and reduce them to a breezy chatty confection.
He doesn’t seem to be a ‘Kingmaker’ just a rather ineffectual back bench MP who hasn’t really evolved his thinking from moment he felt good about passing his 11+ and getting into grammar school, the subject of grammar schools becomes a book long and career long obsession.
The unforgivable thing about this book is his lack of any deep or critical thinking about to the damage that has been done to politics during the tenure of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak
There are some laugh out loud moments, mainly whenever he complains about the media flagging his penchant for holidays, the book is pretty much structured round moments when he is away on holiday and with alarming regularity he is at Gatwick or Heathrow
In short it’s a memoir that is rather forgettable from a career that is rather forgettable and only notable because of the frequency his party managed to make a mess of electing a leader.