A party in flames and why it must be Theresa

YESTERDAY, surely, witnessed some of the most unedifying scenes in modern politics. A day of rank treachery. Of rancid opportunism. It was a day in which the already devalued currency of political discourse sank to a new low.

Indeed, after a referendum campaign characterised by vicious animosity, absurd hyperbole and risible mendacity, Britain is in turmoil and the public’s trust in politics is at rock bottom. The Tories, who only 14 months ago won a famous victory, are tearing themselves to pieces, while an Opposition that defies parody engages in a gruesome civil war.

Forget Labour. It deserves its ignominy. No, it’s Conservatives and the wider public who are crying out for a steadying influence to calm the fever and heal the divisions pulling the party and country apart. That is why it has to be Theresa May for the leadership. In normal circumstances, this paper would hesitate to declare its hand before the closing stages of a leadership contest. But whatever these times may be, they are anything but normal.

Among the five candidates vying to succeed David Cameron, the Mail believes only Mrs May has the right qualities and experience for riding the storm – and possibly ushering in a new, cleaner, more honest kind of politics.

True, as she is the first to admit, she is not the most exciting of politicians. But, frankly, voters have had enough political excitement in the past few weeks to last them half a lifetime.

There are also many other things which Mrs May is not. These, too, may be numbered among her strongest assets.

A vicar’s daughter, she is not a member of the privileged classes, but had to make her own way in the world after state schooling. (Indeed, one of her strengths is that she is an unashamed champion of selective secondary schooling, which used to give a leg-up in life to so many like her who were born with few advantages but their brains.)

She is not clubbable, either. She does not belong to the Westminster chumocracy, which has corrupted our politics with jobs for flatmates and cronies. If she wins this contest, we can be confident that those she promotes will be chosen on merit alone.

Nor is she a divisive, ideologydriven Right-winger. Indeed, her credentials include solid and pragmatic social achievements such as the Modern Slavery Act, which clamped down on the vile trade in human beings.

Crucially for Scots faced with the SNP trying to exploit the current turmoil by agitating for independence, Miss May is a rock-solid supporter of the Union.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell, writing elsewhere in today’s paper, says: ‘I firmly believe Theresa is the best candidate to secure Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom. We need as UK Prime Minister someone who can be a unifier and command respect.’

Above all, she is not a believer in gimmicks, focus-groups or conjuring policies out of the air, twisting and turning to feed the 24-hour news cycle. If she can introduce a new, more serious, more truthful politics, she will be thanked by millions of Britons utterly disenchanted with the political process. So much for what she is not. What she is, is a serious-minded woman with an ethic of public service and an enormous capacity for hard work and attention to detail.

In this respect, and in her steeliness, she is somewhat reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher. With her political experience honed in the furnace of the Home Office – the graveyard of many a lesser Cabinet Minister – Mrs May is also brave. For example, she was unafraid to risk hostility by challenging the might of the Police Federation, while she succeeded where all her predecessors had failed in deporting the hate preacher Abu Hamza. It is worth remembering, too, that she has been in charge of counter-terrorism, at a time when the worldwide threat from suicide bombers and other politically motivated murderers has never been higher. In this, touch wood, she has been formidably successful to date.

Certainly, her record on controlling immigration has been questionable. But then she has been frustrated at every turn – not only by the EU’s rules on freedom of movement, but by a Chancellor who has actively promoted migration for its contribution to a lowwage, labour-intensive economy.

What makes her different from so many of her colleagues is that she has her heart in bringing the numbers down. She really gets it – just as she gets the public’s utter distaste for the cynical, career-obsessed, Blairite school of politics by deception and spin.

Indeed, in announcing her leadership bid, she struck precisely the right note – a note silent in the Tory Party for far too long. ‘If you are from an ordinary working-class family,’ she said, ‘life is just much harder than many people in politics realise. Frankly, not everybody in Westminster understands what it’s like to live like this and some need to be told it isn’t a game. It’s a serious business that has real consequences for people’s lives.’ Never have such words more needed to be said.

Yes, of course, many supporters of Brexit might have preferred the favourite for No 10 to be a believer in their cause – while Mrs May campaigned (albeit sotto voce) to Remain. But she has never given reason to doubt that she is a woman of her word. So when she bluntly declares ‘Brexit means Brexit’, indicating that she will not back away from last week’s vote or try to fob the public off with ‘Brexitlite’, this paper believes she is telling the simple truth. She promises to put a campaigner for Out in charge of the negotiations for EU withdrawal. Which brings us to Michael Gove – surely the ideal candidate. This paper has enormous respect for Mr Gove. As Westminster Education Secretary, the Scot put up a heroic fight to improve standards in schools, while he has served with great promise as a reforming Justice Secretary.

He also brought high intelligence and his habitual courtesy to the Leave campaign, patiently making the arguments and elevating the quality of the debate. Indeed, he can claim a large measure of the credit for the result.

But with the best will in the world, we cannot see Mr Gove as a Prime Minister for these turbulent times. Indeed, a great irony of his surprise decision to throw his hat into the leadership ring yesterday is that in the very act of doing so he raised question marks over the qualities so many have come to admire in him: consistency, strict adherence to principle and, yes, trustworthiness.

This is a man, after all, who declared repeatedly and categorically that he had no ambition to take the top job – even offering on one occasion to sign a statement to that effect, on parchment in his own blood. That he had good reasons for wishing to sabotage Boris Johnson’s bid for No 10, the Mail does not doubt. Though a magnificent showman with strong popular appeal, the volatile former London mayor has often given cause to question the reliability of his word. Indeed, in an ill-judged newspaper column on Monday, he appeared already to be back-tracking on the Leave campaign’s pledges to curb migration within the EU. We have long had grave doubts that he was a serious enough politician for these serious times – and whether he was capable of the devotion to public duty and attention to detail now called for.

As for the remaining rivals for No 10, Andrea Leadsom also campaigned persuasively for Leave, while she has an impressive CV as a former City bigwig.

But let’s face it, as a junior minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, she lacks the necessary political experience for the highest office. Before the referendum campaign, most of the country had never heard of her. Dr Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb, two men with solid Scottish links, have no serious hope of victory. Their decision to stand smacks of attention-seeking, career-driven self-promotion, a trait of the Westminster bubble with which the public is heartily fed up. Which leaves only Mrs May. The Mail has no doubt that if she wins, we will find plenty to disagree with her about in the months and years ahead. (And if she wins, we sincerely hope she will bring senior Brexiteers into her tent.) But with the referendum wounds still raw, the markets jittery, the future uncertain – and Westminster increasingly resembling a madhouse – what the country needs most of all is a solid and steady hand on the tiller. For the sake of a Conservative Party at risk of imploding, a tolerant, give-and-take Britain we all love – and a new era of cleaner, more honest politics – this paper believes MPs and the nation should unite behind Mrs May.