Kingmaker by Sir Graham Brady

Boris Johnson. Liz Truss. Rishi Sunak.

Five prime ministers, one explosive memoir from the heart of Westminster. Kingmaker lifts the lid on the leadership battles that have defined British politics for a decade and a half. 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 has been 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 is his hand that held the executioner's axe over five consecutive Conservative 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 Tory 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.