Gavin Barwell – Wigtown Book Festival

Gavin Barwell had a ringside seat at Number 10. As Theresa May’s chief of staff he was at the heart of the minority Tory government as the then Prime Minister struggled to get a deal done with the EU while fighting off her own mutinous backbenchers. It proved an impossible task and in 2019 she was forced out of office, to be replaced by Boris Johnson, who, of course, promised to “get Brexit done.” A timely chance to learn what it’s like to be at the heart of a government in crisis and a party tearing itself apart.