Why the fear of scrutiny, Prime Minister?
THERESA May breezed into Wales yesterday as part of her tour of the UK exactly a year ahead of Brexit.
The Prime Minister met business leaders but made it clear that she wasn’t interested in being robustly scrutinised by journalists. Number 10’s press office required reporters to submit a single question nearly 24 hours in advance of her visit to the new Aston Martin plant at St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Asked, during an allocated interview slot of less than three minutes, how she responded to concerns that leaving the single market and customs union will have a devastating impact on the Welsh economy, she delivered a superficial, non-specific, upbeat message designed to reassure everyone she met across the UK that Brexit should be regarded as a great opportunity.
She also insisted it would be possible to conclude a bespoke deal for the UK that will allow us to maintain strong tariff-free trading links with the EU while negotiating great new deals with countries across the world.
There was no time left to ask her about other matters, like the revelation in a National Audit Office report that she personally vetoed the electrification of the main railway line between Cardiff or Swansea, or what the explanation was for continuing delays over the Swansea Tidal Lagoons scheme.
After her brief trip to south Wales, she headed back to London.
Speed-dating used to be confined to singles events at nightclubs or cheap TV programmes.
It wasn’t meant to make the transition to political journalism, but these days it seems to be a preferred means of engagement for the Prime Minister and her advisers.
If Theresa May wanted to convince me that she’d cracked Brexit, she could hardly have gone about it in a more inept way.
A day before she arrived in Wales as part of her four-nation Brexit tour of the UK – which was taking place exactly 12 months in advance of our departure from the EU – I was asked by a Number 10 press officer to send in the single question I would be allowed to ask her.
This I did – knowing that if I failed to do so, I wouldn’t get a question at all.
Surely this made New Labour control freakery – which I also experienced – appear positively benign. What faith can one have in a political leader who wants to know all the questions they will face in advance?
It also gave me a sense of deja vu from the general election campaign last year, when I had a previous encounter with Mrs May. At that time she visited a community centre at Brackla in Bridgend, a constituency the Conservatives were hopeful of snatching from Labour after an early poll that showed them 10 points ahead and on course to become the largest party in Wales for the first time since the 1850s, when not even most men could vote.
Locals were excluded from the community centre, Tory activists from across south Wales held up placards describing Mrs May as a “strong and stable” leader, and while a lot of journalists were in the audience, only a select few were allowed to ask questions.
On that occasion, I was one of the chosen few and was asked by a press officer for the general theme of my question an hour or so before the event.
I said I’d be asking about the Single Market, but didn’t mention that I’d be asking the Prime Minister about a covertly taped meeting she had with Goldman Sachs employees a month before the referendum in which she had herself expressed fears that companies would close down factories and relocate if the UK left the EU. When I asked her what had changed her mind since her visit to Goldman Sachs, she waffled unconvincingly.
This time I thought the shape of the visit might be similar. Certainly the request for the actual question I intended to ask took things a stage further into the realms of control freakery. But I assumed there would be sufficient numbers of other journalists present to enable a range of questions to be put to her.
In fact, I was wrong. The format wasn’t the same. There was no initial short speech from Mrs May designed to whip up support from her tribal supporters. No such people were in evidence as I turned up at the North Gate of what used to be known as RAF St Athan.
The bus that took me there from Cardiff was a few minutes late, but I wasn’t too concerned as journalists are invariably asked to turn up quite a while in advance of when they are scheduled to meet celebrities of whatever kind.
I called the Number 10 press officer and she arranged for someone working at Aston Martin to meet me at the entrance. We went upstairs and I was ushered into a side room with five other journalists, none of whom I knew. I presumed they were from London, there for the whole trip. They were inputting copy to their laptops and weren’t in the mood for conversation. The press officer was friendly (sometimes they aren’t!), and got me a glass of water. She told me I was the only newspaper journalist from Wales who would be asking a question of the Prime Minister.
A few minutes passed and I was asked to follow her along the corridor. I was a bit surprised that the other journalists didn’t come with me, but was soon ushered into another similarly sized room where I could see around five other people including the Prime Minister.
Were the others journalists? Perhaps not. I shook hands with Mrs May and sat down.
Within a second or two it was clear to me that there wouldn’t be a Bridgendlike speech and that the others weren’t there as reporters for an interview.
I said to the Prime Minister: “My go, is it?”
She responded: “It is – unless you thought I was going to ask you questions,” cueing laughter from the others round the table.
I said: “It sometimes happens with politicians”, and put my question.
“Many take the view,” I said, “that leaving the Single Market and Customs Union will be devastating for the Welsh economy, which more than England’s relies on manufacturing car and aircraft parts for export. What would you do for Wales, and companies based here, to offset such economic concerns.”
Mrs May launched in to her carefully rehearsed patter: “First of all, I think there’s actually a bright future for Wales and for the whole of the United Kingdom when we’ve left the European Union. I think there will be opportunities open to us. What I’m doing today in my tour of the four nations of the UK is talking to people like parents in the north east of England, I’ve talked to a business in Scotland, businesses here in Wales, farmers in Northern Ireland ... is [sic] hearing directly from them as to what they, how they see Brexit, what they want from Brexit. But also talking about the real opportunities that would exist to trade around the rest of the world.
“So we’re focusing now in our negotiations with the European Union on ensuring that we get that good economic partnership with the EU which will enable businesses here in Wales and elsewhere to continue to trade with the European Union.
“But also ensuring that we’re seeing those markets developed elsewhere.
“Here at Aston Martin – Aston Martin have been on both my trade delegations to Japan and China, because those are important markets for the future.”
She drew her comments to a close, but I wanted more – even on this topic. I was very well aware that Aston Martin executives had expressed concern as recently as last November at the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee that if the Brexit deal wasn’t right, the company could find it difficult to export cars to the EU.
I chanced a supplementary point: “But late last year Aston Martin was expressing concern itself about after Brexit.”
Mrs May said: “I’ve just been sitting around the round table with businesses, hearing about the opportunities that they believe do exist in other markets around the world, and yes, we want that good economic partnership with the European Union.
“But I think that is achievable not just because it’s good for the UK, but because it’s good for the rest of the European Union as well. Many people were sceptical we could achieve the deal and the arrangement in the joint report in December. We did it.
“People wondered whether the implementation period would be agreed. We’ve done that.
“Now we’re moving on to agree a good economic partnership for the future.”
By now I was aware that I had outlived my welcome. Mrs May’s fixed smile had disappeared and I was getting “hurry up and go” looks from the press officer.
I got a bit of laughter myself, though, when I launched into another point: “Some describe what you’re trying to achieve as ‘cakeism’ [having your cake and eating it]?”
The Prime Minister said: “No, what I’m aiming to achieve is the best result for the United Kingdom, the best result for businesses, for farmers, for people here in Wales, and across the whole of the UK. I also want to ensure that we maintain that good internal market in the UK, that’s one of the issues that’s been raised with me by a business here in Wales as well, and that we strengthen
the bonds between us. This is the moist successful union in the world. I think there are real opportunities for us once we leave the EU, and my tour is about talking to people about those opportunities and then ensuring we deliver on them.”
When I started to ask another question about the revelation that Mrs May had intervened personally to stop the electrification of the main railway line beyond Cardiff to Swansea, it was made perfectly clear that my time really was up.
“Sorry, sorry, we’re really pressed for time,” said one of the press officers. “We’ve really got to move on to the next one.”
And that was it with the Prime Minister. I didn’t even get to say goodbye, but was edged towards the door.
Talking to me about her decision on rail electrification wasn’t on Mrs May’s agenda. Nor was it on the agenda of Stuart Andrew, the junior Wales Office Minister I was offered the opportunity of a consolation phone chat with.
A Wales Office official rang him to see if he’d field questions on that topic, but he wasn’t up for it. I could only talk to him about the report on S4C published this week or about the significance of the Prime Minister’s Brexit tour.
The S4C report and reaction to it had been widely covered, so I opted for the latter.
Mr Andrew, the MP for Pudsey in West Yorkshire, did Mrs May proud, saying there were excellent reasons for believing we would get a bespoke Brexit deal that gives both us and the EU what we want.
And I’m a bent banana.