Jason Stein, one of Liz Truss’s key advisers, is understood to have been suspended from his job ahead of an investigation into insulting briefings on MPs, including one over the weekend accusing Sajid Javid of “bullshit”.
Truss’s press secretary, responding to questions after Prime Minister’s Questions, said he could not comment on individual personnel matters but did not deny reports Stein had been suspended, saying Truss believed some briefings on parliamentary colleagues were “completely unacceptable”.
Stein is understood to be facing an investigation by the Cabinet Office’s property and ethics unit.
Asked about Stein, the press secretary said: “I won’t go into individual personnel matters, but the prime minister has made it very clear to her team that some of the types of briefings we’ve seen are completely unacceptable about colleagues and the parliamentarians must stop”.
Javid had been scheduled to ask a question at PMQs, and there had been speculation he might bring up the briefing. In the end, Javid didn’t ask any questions.
The comments were reported in the Sunday Times as a “No 10 source” dismissed the idea that Javid had been considered over Jeremy Hunt to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor.
“The prime minister laughed out loud at the suggestion,” the source said. “She’s sat in cabinet with Javid for 10 years and knows who’s good and who’s rubbish.”
Truss’s press secretary declined to say whether Javid had personally complained to the prime minister.
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Stein, who is a special adviser to Truss, has been a fixture at Westminster for years. He was a special adviser to Amber Rudd when she was work and pensions secretary, before resigning over tensions over Boris Johnson’s policy.
Stein later worked in corporate PR and for Prince Andrew. Stein’s reputation survived the prince’s disastrous BBC interview with Emily Maitlis because he had quit shortly before after advising Andrew not to go ahead.
Having previously worked with Truss when she was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stein was an early part of her leadership campaign and led much of the communications strategy, earning much of the credit for her convincing victory about Rishi Sunak.
Stein was contacted for comment.