Theresa May: living on borrowed time
Conservative MPS have “a new nickname for Theresa May”, said Ben Riley-smith in The Sunday Telegraph. They’re calling her “the Caretaker Prime Minister”. After May’s electoral humiliation, and her flat-footed response to the Grenfell Tower fire, none of her colleagues are expecting her to fight another general election as leader. But at the same time, the Tories are nervous of ousting her too soon, lest it triggers the collapse of the Government and ends up installing Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street. For now, it suits all of the party’s various factions for her to remain in post. The “hard Brexiteers” are happy for her to stay as long as she keeps pursuing their favoured model of EU exit. PRO-EU Tories, by contrast, are hoping that her weakened position will force her to compromise. As for the potential leadership contenders, they “know that the one seen plunging the knife in Tory leadership contests rarely ends the victor”.
The sooner May goes, the better, said Matthew Parris in The Times. She’s a “busted flush”; everything she says and does will now be seen through the prism of failure. Some of the criticism of her apparently standoffish response to last week’s fire was unfair. “Of course she felt for those poor victims, just as we all do. But she hates stunts and fears unscripted situations.” Unfortunately for her, though, an ability to think on one’s feet, engage with the public and show empathy are essential requirements for a prime minister. Only when May is replaced will her party, and the Government, be able to start repairing their fortunes.
The problem right now, though, is that there’s no obvious person to replace her, said The Economist. The most prominent candidates, Boris Johnson and David Davis, are both “divisive”. The former is regarded by critics as “an unprincipled bumbler”; the latter as a “popinjay” – “the only man who can swagger while he’s sitting down”, as one put it. Tories in favour of a softer Brexit would love to install Amber Rudd as leader, said James Forsyth in The Spectator, but the trouble with her is that she has a very precarious majority: “if 174 voters in her constituency changed their minds, she’d lose her seat”. May’s position seems pretty safe for now, said Stephen Bush in the New Statesman. Many Tory MPS think that her unpopularity may actually bring some advantages. The theory is that she can act as what one called a “sin-eater”, absorbing “as much flak and dislike as possible, while the party quietly U-turns on its fiscal plans, resolves the Brexit issue and is able to go into the next election with a fresh face and a clean slate”.