PM shocked us all – and even herself

NO ONE expected Theresa May’s Election announcement on Tuesday. Judging by her performance in the past two days, you could be forgiven for thinking she hadn’t expected it herself.

When Prime Ministers plan bombshell changes on raising taxes and curbing pension rises, they usually spend months preparing the ground. Mrs May has dropped two bombshells in 48 hours – in addition to ruling out cutting overseas aid after repeated large hints that she would do just that.

It would be wrong to say the Tory election campaign is in chaos. But only because they face little threat from Labour and the Lib Dems.

A perfectly good economic case can be made for dropping over-generous tax and pension pledges in David Cameron’s 2015 manifesto. That’s not the point. When Mrs May went back on her promise not to call a snap Election, claiming she had to because Labour and the Lib Dems would sabotage Brexit if she didn’t, most gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Now it seems Brexit is not the only factor: she also wants to free herself of costly commitments made by her predecessor.