The Daily Telegraph

PM faces questions over Boris challenge

May walks in Mandela’s footsteps

- By Harry Yorke Political correspond­ent

THERESA MAY has said she is “in it for the long term” after being asked whether she would fight Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservati­ve Party if he were to mount a challenge.

In comments seen as a warning to her closest rival, whose resignatio­n from the Cabinet last month fuelled rumours that he was preparing for a tilt at the leadership, the Prime Minister said she remained confident she would lead the party into the next election. Speculatio­n is mounting that the former foreign secretary is preparing an alternativ­e vision for Brexit ahead of the party conference next month.

On the first leg of a four-day trip to Africa, during which she visited the prison cell that once held Nelson Mandela, Mrs May was asked if she was ready for a leadership challenge.

She said: “I’ve been asked before if it’s my intention to lead the Conservati­ve Party into the next election. I’ve answered that question before. I’m in this for the long term. What I’m looking at delivering is what the British people want. The British people voted for us to leave the European Union, and I and the Government will be delivering that.” Pressed on whether she would fight a challenge by Mr Johnson, she repeated: “I am in this for the long term.”

Amid concern that opposition to her Brexit plan would overshadow the conference, she tried to shift attention to the domestic agenda and achievemen­ts in health, education and housing, and in particular helping young people on to the housing ladder.

To paraphrase The Simpsons, if you freeze-frame the video of Theresa May dancing in South Africa, you can pinpoint the exact moment where she loses the will to live.

It takes a little while, though. First you have to get past the bit where she encounters the schoolchil­dren for the first time and has to hide her dismay. Then you have to get past the bit where the accompanyi­ng dignitary throws her under the bus by starting to dance along with them. And then, weirdly, you have to get past the bit where she actually enjoys herself.

That bit doesn’t last long, but it’s definitely there. Look closely at the enthusiasm with which she puts her reluctance aside. Her hips thrust a couple of times. She performs a herky-jerky series of robotic almost movements. For the briefest of instants, our Prime Minister – our buttoned-up May bot – throws off the shackles of expectatio­n and actually smiles. Look at her. She’s in the moment. She’s deep in a pocket of dance and nothing, not Brexit or Corbyn or any number of potential leadership challenges, can touch her.

But it cannot last forever. If you watch the Sky News coverage of the dance, there’s a clear moment 18 seconds in where she accidental­ly looks down the barrel of a news camera. And that’s when everything crashes in around her.

In a split-second, you can see an entire news cycle play out before her eyes. All the headlines. All the memes. All the veiled references to Ginger Rogers at PMQS. And this absolutely kills her dead. She crumples. She stops. She sees out the rest of the performanc­e with a half-hearted young-royal head-nod. It is, in every sense of the word, tragic.

Just for a flash, though, we saw who Theresa May really was. She wasn’t a politician. She wasn’t a figurehead. She was just a woman, flapping about in front of some bewildered kids like she was being attacked by eels. It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t rhythmic. In all honestly it might take several months for our collective sphincter to unfurl from having watched it. But it was something we’ve never seen before. It was her.

Theresa May was all of us, reluctantl­y dancing through our

‘In a split-second, you can see an entire news cycle play out before her eyes. All the headlines. All the memes’

embarrassm­ent at a wedding reception we didn’t want to be at. The whole thing was very clearly her idea of hell, but she pushed through and joined in anyway.

It was without a doubt the most human she has ever looked, which is an odd thing to say about a video that looks like a possessed shop mannequin being Tasered by a demon.

Whatever else you think of Theresa May, she will get through this. In fact, it might even bolster her position. Because, just for a second, imagine what would have happened if Boris Johnson had been prime minister for this. If he’d danced with a load of African schoolchil­dren, the result wouldn’t be a viral video; it’d be an internatio­nal incident.

 ??  ?? Theresa May steps into the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, spent 18 years, from 1964 to 1982. She wrote in the guest book that it had been a ‘privilege’ to visit in the centenary year of Mandela’s birth
Theresa May steps into the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, spent 18 years, from 1964 to 1982. She wrote in the guest book that it had been a ‘privilege’ to visit in the centenary year of Mandela’s birth
 ??  ?? Dance your cares away: Theresa May joined in when students and staff at I.D. Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town performed a traditiona­l dance for the Prime Minister’s visit
Dance your cares away: Theresa May joined in when students and staff at I.D. Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town performed a traditiona­l dance for the Prime Minister’s visit
 ??  ??

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