Childish Boris in a wheat field, ministers on manoeuvres... and the madness of this orgy of Tory in-fighting

THERE has been an unedifying beauty contest taking place at the Tory Party Conference as would-be alternative prime ministers parade their charms in the hope of ingratiating themselves with the rank-and-file.

I describe it as ‘ unedifying’ because for the time being we have a Prime Minister who is striving to do her best in an almost impossible situation. The last thing she — and the country — need is for her to be undermined at such a crucial juncture.

But that is exactly what a succession of senior Tories have been doing over the past couple of days. They have been shamelessly promoting themselves, while in most cases proclaiming their loyalty to the plainly wounded Mrs May.

There is one exception. I suppose the best thing that can be said about Boris Johnson is that he does not even pretend to be loyal. At least he does not wrap up his treachery in insincere protestations of admiration.

But it is not acceptable for this recent senior colleague of Theresa May to call her Chequers plan — and in effect the Prime Minister — ‘deranged’. As well as contributing to the mounting impression of Tory divisions, Boris damages his own credibility by using such wild saloon bar language.

His gambolling through what looked like a field of wheat in Oxfordshire yesterday — apparently mimicking what Mrs May, the vicar’s daughter, has described as her ‘naughtiest’ moment— was pretty childish.

Then there is the seemingly dependable Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, who before the Referendum was a convinced Remainer without the slightest Eurosceptic leanings. On Sunday he likened the EU to a Soviet jail. Isn’t that going a bit far?

Mocking

Mr Hunt was trying to burnish his newly acquired Brexit credentials. But it was silly to use such inflammatory language. The EU is bossy, overbearing and sometimes bullying. But it is not the Soviet Union.

To advertise that he is a leadership candidate waiting in the wings, Mr Hunt was also photographed hand-in-hand with his attractive Chinese wife, Lucia. The message appeared to be: Here is a nice couple for No 10 should the party faithful tire of the existing occupants.

Philip Hammond has also been on manoeuvres. Although the Chancellor has had a rocky relationship with the Prime Minister, he was commendably supportive in his speech yesterday. But he has been tossing brickbats at Boris Johnson, describing the former Foreign Secretary as incapable of ‘ grown- up’ politics in an interview with the Mail.

Let’s think about that for a moment. Until July Mr Hammond, like Boris, occupied one of the four great offices of State. Yet here he was mocking a recent senior colleague for his failure to grasp detail, as well as for his plummy voice.

Putting together Boris’s description of Mrs May as ‘deranged’ with Mr Hammond’s assault on Boris, we are left with a spectacle of Tory in- fighting which is virtually unprecedented.

Outside the feverish confines of Birmingham, the general public will be amazed that the party of government should so rashly expose its divisions. Talk about Cabinet unity!

Other ambitious senior Tories also stirred the pot yesterday in a calculating way. The usually admirable Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab probably went further than he should have done when, having defended the principles of Chequers, he suggested there were ‘ alternative’ ways of delivering Brexit.

Another contender, Sajid Javid, also departs from the official line in today’s Mail when he says that a Canadatype deal (vehemently rejected by Mrs May) has ‘a lot to commend it’. The Home Secretary backs Boris Johnson’s right to speak out, which will not please No 10.

Note that Mr Javid, a former Remainer, is an improved second to Boris Johnson in the latest ConservativeHome league table of leadership approval ratings. The politically gymnastic Jeremy Hunt is in third place, his standing having soared in recent weeks.

There is, of course, no reason why any of these senior Tories should not aspire to leading their party. There may well be a vacancy at some stage in the future – and possibly very soon if Theresa May can’t get through the House of Commons whatever deal she is able to obtain from the EU.

That said, all this posturing and machinating is very likely to destabilise her already delicate position when she is only weeks away from critical discussions with the EU. This is really not the moment to challenge her approach.

I say this as someone who is more than a little sceptical of her ability to secure a reasonable deal from the EU on the basis of Chequers. If she confounds my expectations by doing so, it is equally hard to see how she could get any agreement through the Commons.

Discipline

Surely, though, she should be given a chance over the coming weeks without having her hand weakened by jostling rivals in her own party who scarcely disguise their overweening ambition to replace her.

Here, believe it or not, the Tories have something to learn from Jeremy Corbyn’s previously fractious Labour Party. Last week, at its annual conference in Liverpool, it succeeded in maintaining a semblance of remarkable unity.

Needless to say, I am not calling for the intimidation or threats of deselection that have apparently succeeded in quelling potentially rebellious Labour MPs. That is not the Tory way.

But a modicum of party discipline is vital if ministers are going to persuade the country that they are working together to achieve the best possible deal rather than spending their time conspiring against the Prime Minister.

It’s worth repeating one of the basic laws of politics: Voters do not like divided parties. I have no doubt that the Tories will not be easily forgiven if they turn in on themselves in an orgy of domestic strife.

Support

Of course, disagreement on such an enormously important issue as Brexit is inevitable. Yet it is not inevitable that Cabinet ministers should pick public fights with former colleagues, or that they should be ostentatiously laying out their wares at this particular moment, or that they should undermine the Prime Minister.

Theresa May has admittedly proved herself remarkably resilient. One can only imagine the incredible pressures that are bearing down on her. Her ability, so far, to absorb them marks her out as an unusual politician.

Moreover, she is fortunate that none of the noisy pretenders to her throne is an obvious prime minister inwaiting, far less a neglected genius. In their different ways, they are all of them flawed.

But they can still inflict horrendous damage on their party and their country if they insist on politicking. Their time may come. Now is the moment for them to support the Prime Minister.