Department

Patrick McLoughlin is no stranger
to the Department of Transport,
having begun his ministerial career
there over 20 years ago. Since then,
McLoughlin has held numerous
positions in Government and Opposition
while working under six successive
Conservative leaders. Crucially, he knows his
party inside out, having spent 17 years of his
Westminster life working in the Conservatives
Whips’ Office.
McLoughlin’s background is markedly
different from some of his colleagues in
Cabinet, and makes him a rare and precious
asset in David Cameron’s Cabinet. He is
proud of his working-class roots, a former
miner who worked shifts at Littleton colliery
in the 1970s. Indeed, when he fought the 1986
West Derbyshire by-election, McLoughlin’s
campaign poster pictured him in full miners’
kit, complete with sweat and grime. Some
of his fellow mining veterans on the Labour
benches can’t forgive him for joining Mrs
Thatcher’s pit-closing party, but McLoughlin
is more than tough enough to look after
himself.
However, the art of whipping in a Coalition
provided more problems for McLoughlin
than he would have liked. When 81 Tories
rebelled over the EU referendum vote in late
2011, an exasperated Chief Whip is said to
have lost his cool. “This is not the f******
Oxford Union. This is not some f******
sixth-form debating society. This is the
bloody House of Commons” he is alleged to
have shouted at one rebelling MP – though
McLoughlin denied the reports.
McLoughlin’s background
is markedly different from
some of his colleagues in
Cabinet
Given the increasing difficulties in numbercrunching,
McLoughlin was probably pleased
to have been promoted to Secretary of State
for Transport in the September 2012 Cabinet
reshuffle. But he faced a baptism of fire just
weeks after his promotion when the West Coast
franchise deal collapsed. The department is still
picking up the pieces amid claims that costs
may eventually total £50 million.
The promotion of McLoughlin came at
the expense of Justine Greening MP, the
march 2013 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 25