Intriguing: May hadn’t time to attend the debate – but did have time to watch it

Yesterday afternoon, a journalist asked Theresa May whether she’d watched the big TV debate. “I think Amber Rudd did an excellent job,” replied the Prime Minister.

An intriguing answer. The day before, Mrs May had explained that she couldn’t take part in the debate herself, not because she was running scared, but because she would be too busy “thinking about Brexit negotiations” and “meeting voters”. Yet here she was, the next morning, delivering her personal review of her stand-in’s performance. Apparently, Mrs May hadn’t had time to attend the debate – but did have time to watch it.

Then again, we shouldn’t make assumptions. Perhaps Mrs May spent Wednesday evening doing all three tasks at once: thinking about Brexit negotiations, meeting voters, and watching Amber Rudd. It’s perfectly possible. Knock on voter’s door; think about Brexit negotiations while waiting for voter to answer; talk to voter; then watch a bit of Amber Rudd on iplayer smartphone app while walking to next voter’s house. Then repeat, all evening.

The more I think about it, the more impressed I am. That truly is worldclass time management. How people can say Mrs May is having a bad campaign, I don’t know.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was at a company in Cleveland, giving a speech about Brexit. She presented two alternative visions. If she remained Prime Minister, she explained, Brexit offered “a bright future” (for emphasis, these words were emblazoned on the board behind her, in sunny yellow).

If Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister, however, Brexit was bound to go wrong. “Our economic prosperity will suffer,” she scowled. “Jobs will be put at risk … We won’t have the financial means to fund the public services we rely on …”

Sounded worrying. And, according to Mrs May, a Corbyn victory next week is not impossible. So, aboard the Tory battle bus afterwards, I attempted to follow the Prime Minister’s logic.

If a Corbyn-led Brexit is guaranteed to be an economic nightmare, I asked her, would the Tories in Opposition seek to overturn the referendum result, to prevent this disaster?

“The referendum result should be respected,” said Mrs May.

Right. But if a Corbyn-led Brexit was going to ruin the country – as she’s telling us it will – wouldn’t she feel a duty, in the national interest, to try to prevent it?

“I’m not going to predict the election result,” said Mrs May. “I’m working for the campaign until election day. But I do believe there’s an important issue about trust in politicians. People gave their choice.”

So even though she’s telling us that under Prime Minister Corbyn, Brexit will mean job losses, economic damage and no money for public services, she wouldn’t do anything to stop it?

“What I’m doing is working over the next week for the General Election,” said Mrs May. And that was that.

Well, I suppose we’d better hope she wins then, hadn’t we?