Every Tory voter I know wants shot of Mrs May
In these pages yesterday, William Hague made an excellent, commonsensical argument for not altering the rules that govern the election of a Tory leader.
One Leave group has proposed a change, which means that any candidate with the support of 20 other MPS could go forward to the decisive ballot of the membership. At the moment, only the top two choices are put to the party at large.
Lord Hague points out that such changes could help Boris Johnson, who commands more support in the party than among parliamentarians. However, he says there is a danger that the diminished number of Conservative members (124,000) are not representative of society at large “or even of their own voters”. ’Appen as not and maybe, as they say in William’s native Yorkshire, but I’m afraid there are two words that destroy the good Lord’s argument: Theresa. May.
Sorry, but however out of touch or arthritic they may be, Conservative party members simply could not pick a leader more disastrous than the one we’ve got already. After David Cameron’s resignation, all Tory MPS had to do was select a prime minister who would provide the bold, inspiring leadership the country would need to get us through Brexit.
They had one job. And what did they give us? A person who, whenever she opens her mouth, confirms her infallible gift for saying the opposite of what any sane person is thinking.
“What many of us hope is there will be no imminent leadership election in the Tory party,” wrote Lord Hague. Well, you’re on your own
there, sonny. I can’t be the only party member who, whenever the PM appears on TV, either a) adopts the brace position because at least, with my ears between my knees, I can’t hear her, or b) cries out in pain, “Call yourself a bloody Conservative, woman!”
The painful truth is every Tory voter I know cannot wait to be shot of Mrs May, who they view as an embarrassing liability; Vince Cable in drag. And they’re certainly not alone. After her dismaying Chequers fudge, a whacking 62per cent of Britons now have an unfavourable view of the PM.
According to the latest Yougov poll, she has managed to achieve a “favourability” score of minus 37. That’s even worse than after her catastrophic snap general election when she was on minus 34.
Were it not for the sterling efforts of Jeremy Corbyn to be the most useless, anti-semitic, unelectable Labour leader in history, the Tories would be toast.
So, please, no more lectures from William Hague about the importance of allowing Tory MPS to choose on our behalf. The gap between the country and Westminster has never been wider; to win, Conservatives need a leader liked by the people, not just acceptable to Parliament. I joined the Conservative Party to try to make that happen; maybe you should, too.