‘Strong’ government needs a true leader not a follower

THE “strong” government Theresa May wants us to elect won’t necessarily be a good one. And one of the ways to keep any government on its toes is through a strong Parliament, not one that simply acts as a rubber stamp.

A big Conservative majority at the election will not alter the position of the EU in the Brexit negotiations. The Prime Minister’s mandate, which she already has, stops at Dover. What it will do is lessen the force of Westminster’s scrutiny over a deal, the content of which we are still clueless about.

London voted decisively and sensibly to stay in the EU. With this in mind we have two options: we can either put our trust in a Prime Minister who campaigned for Remain but is now Brexit’s purveyor-in-chief, who repeatedly said she would not hold an election and who has not fulfilled her pledge to enfranchise long-term expats.

Alternatively, we can ensure we get a cohort of MPs who accurately reflect the level of dissent over Brexit and take seriously the desire — which many Leavers say they hold dear — of ensuring that we have a robust legislature, one which holds the Government to account in the perilous months ahead.

THERESA May appears to have convinced her voters that she is a “strong” leader by simply repeating the word over and over again — but her record shows otherwise.

During the referendum she was too cowardly to make a stance — she was famously described as a “submarine” because it was not clear whether she was pro- or antiBrexit. When she was Home Secretary she appeared to shift the blame for Home Office failings on to junior ministers, while her staff ensured that she never faced a Jeremy Paxman-style grilling.

When the net migration figures were released she would send out her immigration minister to explain why she had failed, yet again, to deliver the promised cuts in net migration.

Now she refuses to attend the leaders’ TV debate ahead of the election. If May really wants to prove that she is a strong leader, she should face up to the British people and her political rivals.

WITH some voters Theresa May can’t win. She is criticised as being an “unelected” PM after taking the reins from David Cameron, yet when she decides to run another election to provide her and the Tories with a legitimate mandate for Brexit, she is widely condemned.

It will not matter come June 9, however. With a 23-point lead over Labour, May will finally have the backing from the electorate to guide us through these testing times.