Heading for a landslide?

A week after Theresa May called a snap general election, the polls put the Conservatives on course for an overwhelming victory in June. One survey gave the Tories 50%, more than 20 points ahead of Labour, and the party’s highest figure since 1991. Such a landslide would hand the Government a Commons majority – at present just 17 – of at least 100. Other polls suggest that Tories could even win a majority of seats in Wales – for the first time since 1850 – and capture up to 11 more Scottish constituencies.

However, polls recorded a sharp dip in the Tory lead – to 40% in a poll for The Mail on Sunday – after May refused to rule out the possibility of tax hikes, and hinted that the “triple lock” protecting pensions might be ditched ( see page 22). She also dismayed right-wing MPS by quashing speculation that she’d drop David Cameron’s pledge to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid.

What the editorials said

Theresa May’s logic in calling this election is “impeccable”, said The Sunday Times. Indeed, it’s surprising she took so long to do so: she has to have a larger majority to smooth the passage of any future Brexit deal through Parliament ( see page 23). Yet the election should be about more than Brexit, said The Mail on Sunday. It’s a chance for May to throw off the constraints of the 2015 manifesto and show off her more “down-to-Earth Toryism”. A proper mandate and a far bigger majority in Parliament would give her the chance to “push through unpopular but necessary solutions” to the crisis in social care, the housing shortage and other pressing issues, said The Economist – and to rid herself of the tag “Theresa Maybe”.

The signs aren’t promising, said The Observer. Instead of addressing the big questions facing the country, the campaign is already developing into a “depressingly negative slanging match”. It seems the PM is determined to focus on rubbishing Labour as a way of avoiding the “difficult questions that her Government will face on the trade-offs involved with Brexit”.