‘This personal vitriol has no place in politics’
PM condemns language used against her by some unnamed Tory Brexiteers as colleagues voice disgust
THERESA MAY has condemned the “dehumanising” and “derogatory” language used against her by some Tory Brexiteers, as senior MPS demanded that the culprits be exposed and have the whip withdrawn. The Prime Minister last night hit back over the briefings against her last weekend over her handling of Brexit, with her official spokesman stating that she would not “dignify” the attacks with a response.
It came after a number of unnamed MPS claimed on Sunday that the Prime Minister was entering the “killing zone” in her approach to negotiations with Brussels, with one warning ominously that “the moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted”. Another said that Mrs May should bring “her own noose” to a meeting of backbench Tory MPS, due to take place tomorrow, whilst a third said that “assassination was in the air”.
The comments have appalled MPS on both sides of the Commons, with several expressing their disbelief. They included Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, who said last night that he hoped those who had used the offensive language were “discovered” and had the whip withdrawn.
“The person or persons who directed violent language at (Mrs May) have thoroughly disgraced themselves,” Mr Baker told MPS. “I very much hope that they are discovered and I hope that she will withdraw the whip from them.”
His comments were echoed by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, who called for the “full weight” of the Conservative Party to be brought down on those responsible.
Yvette Cooper, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is vile and dehumanising language towards a woman MP, towards a Prime Minister who, no matter how much you might disagree with her, is someone who is doing a job in public life.
“Nobody should be subject to that kind of violent language which I think is normalising violence in public debate at a time when we lost Jo Cox, we have had threats against Rosie Cooper, we have had other violent death threats against women MPS.”
Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the health select committee, said: “Shame on the spineless cowards on my benches who hide behind anonymity to use such disturbing and violent language about their own colleague and Prime Minister. Have they learned nothing following the assassination of Jo Cox?”
However, a senior government source told The Daily Telegraph that there were no plans for a probe, adding that an inquiry would be unlikely to uncover who made the remarks.
Mrs May’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has always been very clear that we must set a tone in public discourse that is neither dehumanising nor derogatory. Personal vitriol has no place in our politics.”
Aformer Tory minister has come in for a lot of stick in the past 48 hours. The anonymous MP predicted the Prime Minister’s imminent demise in particularly lurid terms in one of the weekend papers: “The moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted. She’ll be dead soon.”
Is that kind of language acceptable nowadays? It’s very personal and very unpleasant, yes, but it’s vivid, too, and effective – here I am writing about it. As it happens, I don’t agree with the sentiments expressed. I’ve known Theresa May since 1992, when we both first stood for Parliament. She’s an impressive woman, doing her best in near-impossible circumstances, and a tough cookie, too. Sticks and stones may break her bones, but words will never hurt her.
So should the ex-minister now fall on his own heated sword and take to Twitter to apologise for his intemperate turn of phrase? I don’t think so. In an age awash with politically correct virtue-signalling, I don’t want every politician signing up to the snowflake agenda. It’s rather refreshing to find a fellow who speaks as he finds.
And eye-catching invective has a respectable pedigree. When Mrs May and I first entered the world of politics, Norman Tebbit was one of the big beasts of the day. Michael Foot described Tebbit as “a semi-house-trained polecat”. Tebbit declared Foot’s Labour Party as “dead”, before correcting himself: “not dead, just brain-dead”. Tebbit was partial to a personal jibe. He dismissed Foot’s successor, Neil Kinnock, as nothing more than “a windbag, whose incoherent speeches spring from an incoherent mind”.
When I was elected in 1992, the colourful Sir Nicholas Fairbairn took me under his wing. The former solicitor-general for Scotland advised me: “Never mince your words or you won’t get noticed.” Certainly, he never minced his. He described John Major as “more a ventriloquist’s dummy than a prime minister”. He dismissed two of Major’s would-be successors succinctly: “I don’t like [Kenneth] Clarke and I don’t trust [Michael] Heseltine – Clarke’s a bounder and Heseltine’s a spiv.” He said of the generally loved Willie Whitelaw: “He is the living person I most despise because he represents what I despise most – sanctimony, guile, slime and intrigue under a cloak of decency, all for self-advancement.”
In fairness to Fairbairn, he said what he said on the record. It’s easy to be waspish in the shadows. Someone once said of one of Mrs May’s would-be successors, David Davis: “He is the kind of man who would throw a drowning man both ends of the rope.” I think I know who said it, but I’m not sure.
This week, another former contender for the Tory leadership told me gleefully: “The Prime Minister has completely united the party – we all despise her and want her to go.” But beleaguered Tory prime ministers have always had their detractors. A fellow Tory said of the cadaverous Sir Alec Douglas-home: “I have seen better-looking faces on pirate flags.” Reginald Paget said of Sir Anthony Eden: “He’s like an over-ripe banana – yellow outside and squishy inside.”
What’s wrong with the present ex-minister’s line about Mrs May is not that it’s vicious and nasty, which it is, but that it’s anonymous, not witty, and essentially untrue.