PM’s Brexit unity plea
As ex-Chief Whip says she ‘must resign’, May reaches out to Corbyn
THERESA May will relaunch her leadership tomorrow with an appeal to Labour to help deliver Brexit.
In a surprise move, the Prime Minister will reach out to Labour, saying Jeremy Corbyn has a duty to ‘contribute, not just criticise’ after her snap election produced a hung parliament.
Mrs May is seeking to shore up her leadership amid renewed speculation she could face a challenge within months. Former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell did not deny a reports yesterday that he told a private meeting of MPs that the PM had lost all authority and must quit.
Downing Street has also been forced to deny rumours she could quit this summer. Justice Secretary David Lidington yesterday urged Tory plotters to calm down, saying rumours were being fuelled by MPs who had enjoyed ‘too much sun and too much warm prosecco’ at summer parties in Westminster. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the vast majority of MPs understood that provoking a leadership challenge would be a disaster. In a speech tomorrow, Mrs May will insist that her desire to continue in office is ‘undimmed’ despite last month’s shattering election result, which saw her surrender her Commons majority.
But she will also acknowledge her weakened position in Parliament, with an appeal to Labour to help deliver ‘bold’ reforms. She will say Britain faces a period of ‘great national change’ in the wake of last year’s Brexit vote. But she insists she retains an ‘unshakeable sense of purpose’ to build a fairer country.
Some ministers fear they could be left presiding over a ‘zombie parliament’ unable to agree on anything.
But the Prime Minister will urge other parties to co-operate on a range of issues, including Brexit. Mrs May will acknowledge that the election result was ‘not what I wanted’, and has left her facing ‘a rather different reality’ in Parliament.
She says it is vital for the Tories to ‘win the battle of ideas, both in Parliament and the country’. But she will add: ‘I say to the other parties in the House of Commons, come forward with your own views on how we can tackle these challenges as a country. We may not agree on everything, but through debate and discussion… ideas can be clarified and improved and a better way forward found.
‘It is in that spirit that we will take this agenda forward in the months ahead.’ Mrs May will say that Britain is at a ‘critical time in our history’. And she will warn her party that it faces a choice between being ‘timid or bold’.
‘We can play it safe, or we can strike out with renewed courage and vigour, making the case for our ideas and values and challenging our opponents to contribute, not just criticise,’ she will say.
The appeal to Labour will be seen as a high- risk strategy designed to prevent the Government’s legislative programme grinding to a halt.
The acknowledgement that Mrs May could need opposition support to drive through her programme will underline fears that she may be forced to compromise on aspects of Brexit. Her speech tomorrow will be delivered as she launches the Taylor report on the so- called gig economy, which is expected to call for stronger rights for people in insecure jobs.
She will cite it as an example of the kind of issue where political parties can work together.
Diehard Tory Remainers are plotting with Labour to force Mrs May to back down over her insistence that European judges should be barred from meddling in the UK after Brexit. The Prime Minister has said the European Court of Justice should have no role in the UK once it leaves the EU.
But ahead of the publication of the Repeal Bill on Thursday, exculture minister Ed Vaizey yesterday wrote an article with Labour MP Rachel Reeves calling for compromise over the role of the court – allowing the UK to continue participating in the Euratom treaty, governing nuclear co-operation.
WITH the repeal Bill due to be published on thursday, this will be a truly momentous week in British politics. the legislation will begin the process of unshackling this country from the eu, restoring our sovereignty and ending the supremacy of the european Court of Justice over our elected Parliament.
for the tories, it’s a chance to get Brexit back on track after the shocks of the general election and the Grenfell tower tragedy. they must regroup, work to rebuild their battered reputation in the eyes of the public and prove they have the vision and resolve to govern the nation for the next five years.
But depressingly, some in the party seem more interested in indulging in backstage conspiracies, recrimination and petty squabbling than serving the national interest.
the latest tory plotter to emerge from the shadows is the former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, best known for having resigned his post in ignominy after abusing Downing Street police officers in the ‘Plebgate’ affair.
A longstanding supporter of Brexit Secretary David Davis, Mr Mitchell has been busy telling fellow MPs that theresa May is ‘dead in the water’ and should be replaced. this paper has huge respect for Mr Davis but, at such a vital moment in our history, his friends do him no favours by suggesting he could challenge for the leadership. the job is not open.
this kind of disloyalty doesn’t only serve to undermine Mrs May, it risks tearing the tories apart. the last thing the party – and more importantly the country – needs right now is a fractious leadership contest.
According to the latest opinion polls, Labour already has an alarming eight-point lead, which means the prospect of a Corbyn-led government is no longer a distant shadow. It is menacingly real, and if the tories allow themselves to descend into civil war, it may become inevitable.
In recent weeks we have seen what Mr Corbyn’s ‘kinder, gentler politics’ really means. Vicious bully boys linked to the sinister Momentum movement intimidating moderate Labour and tory MPs alike, hard-Left internet trolls spewing out anti-Semitic abuse on social media and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell urging supporters on to the streets to topple the Government by force.
Meanwhile, the sheer lunacy of Labour’s economic policy was underlined yesterday when a spokesman admitted that the party’s ambition to wipe out student debt would cost around £100billion – more than the entire annual education budget – plus £9.5billion a year to pay for the abolition of future university tuition fees.
Add this to Labour’s pledges to lift the welfare and public sector pay caps, renationalise key industries and extend free childcare and you have a recipe to bankrupt Britain in extremely short order. this is the threat that all tory MPs should be working to neutralise.
tomorrow, Mrs May delivers a speech designed to relaunch her leadership. In it, she will reach out to other parties to join her in tackling the challenges facing this country – particularly Brexit – through ‘debate and discussion’.
It’s a sincere invitation, but with the massed ranks of Parliamentary remainers hoping to sabotage the repeal Bill in the Commons and the Lords and Mr Corbyn interested only in seizing power, it will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.
What she should be able to count on, however, is the support of her own party. Mrs May is the best qualified leader they have and has just won the second highest number of votes ever polled by any party in a general election.
Instead of playing into Labour’s hands with their incessant plotting, they should roll up their sleeves and get behind her.