Mrs May’s path leads to personal failure and a party out of power
The history of leaders who choose to remain in office governing with the support of the Opposition when their party is against them is a sorry one.
It tends to end in failure for the leader and an extended period out of office for their party.
Theresa May has now decided to follow this path. A man she recently derided as unfit to lead the nation and as dangerous is now the one who will help her resume her lamentable effort to deliver on the decision of the British people in a referendum and on her many promises.
Jeremy Corbyn has spent his whole political career arguing for a system of government that has failed where it has been tried in other parts of the world and one that has no place for the conventions of the British constitution. This is not a cosy arrangement between two parties that have a broadly similar view of politics but one of desperation.
In this way it is worse than Sir Robert Peel’s decision to repeal the Corn Laws on the back of Whig votes. There was then a commonality of constitutional understanding, a policy that in a few years everyone accepted and a narrowness of the political divide that allowed many people to cross it in either direction.
Nonetheless, he won his Corn Law vote on a minority of Tory Members’ support but with a large Commons majority, 327 to 229. He was then defeated on an Irish Coercion Bill by
292 to 219. He resigned and the Tories were out of sole command for 28 years.
Lloyd George was the next leader to try to govern on the back of Opposition votes. Considering that he was the author of the People’s Budget and had made blood-curdling speeches about Tory Peers, especially Dukes, against whom he bore a warm grudge, it was an unlikely alliance but made possible by his war leadership.
Eventually, the Tory backbenchers had enough and the 1922 Committee came into existence following his removal as leader. Since that time the Liberals have never again provided a Prime Minister and Lloyd George himself had a long and unsatisfying remaining career, ultimately hoping to be called back to lead a quisling government if Churchill failed.
Ramsay Macdonald is the next name
Members must stick their membership cards back together for they are the ones who will elect the next leader
in the list. He led a Labour Government from 1929 to 1931 but it split over the need to curb expenditure in the face of a global recession, and Macdonald formed a national government with a minority of Labour MPS following him. In the ensuing general election the Labour Party was trounced, winning only 52 seats against 493 Conservative and 13 National Labour backers of Macdonald. Although the Tories allowed him to remain Prime Minister, he was a figurehead, reviled to this day by socialists, losing his own seat in 1935 and leaving his party out of office until 1945. These historic precedents bode ill for Theresa May’s new approach, and the route she is taking is fraught with danger. The failure of mainstream politicians to meet their promises is paving the way for extremes. The Labour Party has already fallen prey to the far-left and Tommy Robinson waits, poised like a bird of prey, to swoop down on the European elections.
Dealing with Mr Corbyn legitimises his political style and puts the nation’s stable polity at risk.
This is not just bad for the Conservative Party, but more seriously for the country. The nation’s prosperity depends in part on its stability with many financial and legal transactions taking place here because of this security. The move to political extremes undermines this and would make the UK a less attractive location for investment or transactions.
Rumours that John Mcdonnell has plans for capital controls could also lead to domestic capital fleeing and this could happen pre-emptively if Labour success seemed likely.
Perhaps these doleful consequences can be avoided, as Mrs May has promised to resign her office in due time. Parties that keep their base together can recover from humiliation, as Macmillan proved after Suez, and this is in the hands of Tory members, some of whom are resigning in protest. This is the wrong approach.
Conservative Home surveys show that the overwhelming majority of the Party wants a clean Brexit and to achieve this, members must stick their membership cards back together, for they are the ones who will elect the next leader.