LET’S CALM DOWN AND REMEMBER THAT MRS MAY WON!

This morning, an isolated Prime Minister is facing the loneliest and toughest week in her life. her many enemies scent blood in the fetid, feverish, shark- infested waters of Westminster and circle for the kill.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson is reported to have the backing of five current Cabinet ministers to launch an opportunistic leadership challenge.

in Europe, senior politicians and officials openly mock the collapse of Mrs May’s authority. in Britain, polls say that plenty of British people want her to quit — and several hundred thousand people have signed an online petition calling for her to do just that.

Embittered former Education secretary Nicky Morgan, sacked by Mrs May in her victory reshuffle last July, denounces Conservative plans for a life-saving deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, while former Chancellor George Osborne (also sacked by Mrs May) describes her as a ‘dead woman walking’. Michael heseltine, a former Deputy Prime Minister, snipes from the sidelines.

To add to this tragicomedy, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says that he is ready to form a minority government, and his sidekick Emily Thornberry insists Labour ‘won’ and describes Mrs May as a ‘squatter’ in No 10.

What a pathetic and shameful spectacle! What a disgrace to British government and democracy. i regret to say that some parts of the media and political class have taken collective leave of their senses. it’s time to calm down. it’s time to take a long breath, and to coolly appraise the facts.

Yes, Mrs May did a great deal worse than expected in last Thursday’s General Election. Yes, Jeremy Corbyn did put in a strong and confident performance. Yes, the Tory campaign was the worst in recent history. And yes, there must be an inquest into what went wrong.

But this setback is anything but the existential calamity claimed by excitable Westminster voices, anxious Tories and Mrs May’s sworn political enemies.

Let’s not forget that the Conservatives polled 13.7 million votes compared to just over 11 million two years ago. indeed, Mrs May secured no less than three million more votes for the Tories than David Cameron managed in 2010, when he ended 13 years of Labour government.

And she gained a staggering 42.2 per cent — repeat 42.2 per cent — of the national vote. That is not far off the 43.9 per cent achieved by Margaret Thatcher in the epoch-making 1979 General Election that changed the course of British political history.

Most important of all, Mrs May won the General Election and (though this important point has gone largely unnoticed, not least by Ms Thornberry and other deluded Labour enthusiasts) Jeremy Corbyn lost it. she may have sacrificed 13 seats, but Mrs May is still the leader of by far the largest party in Parliament.

This gives her the constitutional right — indeed duty — to form a government. With the support of the DUP, Mrs May has an overall majority in Parliament. That is, in truth, all that matters.

it means that she can run the country and enter confidently into negotiations on Brexit when they start on June 19.

i have to say that i greatly admire the brave way Mrs May has chosen to plough on. There has been a trend in recent years for Tory politicians to give up the ghost after a setback — think of David Cameron after the Brexit referendum result a year ago, or Michael howard’s resignation as Tory leader in 2005.

Or, indeed, Osborne’s decision to ditch his safe Tatton constituency after his Cabinet sacking last year. (it is hard to exaggerate the scale of Mr Osborne’s persistent and calculated treachery to a party that gave him such opportunities. The Tories are well rid of him.)

i believe that Mrs May is staying on purely for patriotic reasons. she realises that to quit now would at once throw Britain into chaos. The Tory Party would be forced into another leadership election, which would eat up several months of the time and energy desperately needed for the Brexit negotiations.

(On this issue, i have some advice for Boris Johnson: if you are seriously thinking about a leadership coup at this moment in time, don’t.)

There is no reason why Mrs May should not continue as Prime Minister, and every reason why she should do so. Certainly, her authority has been damaged by the disappointing election results and her confidence is fractured. But i believe that over time — and if she listens to others — she can start to build it back.

Certainly, she needs to change her style. For her first nine months as leader she was much too isolated — a trait encouraged by her atrocious lieutenants, Nick Timothy, architect of the disastrous Tory manifesto, and Fiona hill, who controlled access to Mrs May. Their ‘resignations’ on saturday were welcome.

Gavin Barwell, the former housing Minister who takes over as Chief of staff, will do a much better job.

he knows the Tory Party like the back of his hand. he is a man of business. And unlike the pair he replaces, he does not bear grudges.

News that Mrs May has appointed Damian Green as effective Deputy Prime Minister is also welcome. These appointments mark the return of sanity to the Tory high command, after a long period of hysterical turbulence.

The grown-ups are back in Downing street — and, as long as Mrs May adopts a more collegiate way of working, of including and involving her Cabinet, the country can return to an even keel.

Crucially, Mrs May must mend her broken relations with Chancellor Philip hammond after the personal abuse he suffered at the hands of hill and Timothy. But that should be easily done.

There has been a great deal of talk of an early General Election. That is possible, but highly unlikely. history shows that minority governments can survive for a surprisingly long time. The Cameron/ Clegg Coalition endured the full five years, from 2010 to 2015.

ABETTEr analogy is the minority Labour government that clung on from 1974 to 1979, first under harold Wilson and then Jim Callaghan. it was a tense, dramatic time of financial crises, late-night, knife-edge parliamentary votes, and confrontation with the trade unions. But it survived.

Mrs May’s administration — boosted by new appointments bringing energy and intellect — can survive, too: battered and bruised, but resilient.

rebuilding relations with her Cabinet is one thing, but Theresa May needs to do more — to reach out to the country as a whole. Because this isn’t just a tough week for Mrs May: seven days before the Brexit negotiations begin, it’s a period of incalculable consequence for Britain.

if the wrong decisions are made, then this country might be sucked into a political and economic vortex from which it could take decades to recover.

it is the time for deep moral seriousness and conviction. We have to stop playing politics as if it were an episode of the TV satire The Thick Of it.

it’s time to govern. And if Mrs May truly has the stomach for the task — and i hope she does — then the Tory Party and the country as a whole need to offer her our support. As another female Prime Minister once said in another context: ‘There is No Alternative.’