May’s 48-hour countdown for survival as she brings in Gove
Embattled PM ‘dead woman walking’
THERESA MAY faces a crunch 48 hours in her bid to stave off the immediate collapse of her premiership after a reshuffle which saw a shock return to Government for Michael Gove.
The Prime Minister will tonight face a meeting of Conservative backbenchers before holding talks tomorrow with Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Mrs May last night put the finishing touches to her new cabinet after her decision to bring back Leave campaigner Michael Gove as Environment Secretary and longtime ally Damian Green as First Secretary, a role that effectively makes him her second-incommand.
And with her political capital all but spent, the Prime Minister played it safe by keeping the majority of senior ministers in their previous roles.
During the election campaign Mr Gove – who one year ago torpedoed Boris Johnson’s leadership hopes and opposed Mrs May’s bid – rated his chances of playing for Bradford City higher than making a cabinet return under Mrs May.
One of the Cabinet’s first tasks when it meets today is to consider the draft ‘confidence and supply’ agreement sketched out with the DUP.
Finalising that deal with Mrs Foster is critical to Mrs May’s hopes of seeing off the threat of another general election in the short term and opening the Brexit talks on schedule.
Mrs May is expected to face tough questions when she meets backbench MPs at a meeting of the 1922 committee today. The Prime Minister will hear concerns over the conduct of the Conservative election campaign which saw the party lose its Commons majority rather than secure the landslide victory Mrs May had expected when she called the election three years early.
Some MPs are also likely to express discomfort over the pact with the DUP and its members’ views on issues such as climate change, same-sex marriage and abortion.
While the prospects of an immediate challenge to Mrs May were played down yesterday, Conservatives lined up to make it clear her time as party leader will be limited.
Former chancellor George Osborne suggested her premiership could collapse within a matter of days. He said: “Theresa May is a dead woman walking. It is just how long she is going to remain on death row.
“I think we will know very shortly. We could easily get to the middle of next week and it all collapses for her.”
Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, said: “I think it is fairly clear that Theresa May cannot lead us into another election, obviously we don’t know when that is going to happen.
“I don’t think we should rush that but I do think if we are going to have a leadership contest in the Conservative Party what we cannot do is have another coronation like last summer.
“Our members have just worked their socks off for seven weeks and to think that we as a parliamentary party could shut them out of a future leadership contest would be deeply discourtous to them.”
Amid continued speculation that cabinet ministers were lining up behind a possible leadership challenge from Boris Johnson, a series of messages from the Foreign Secretary to MPs calling on them to back Mrs May emerged.
In the messages obtained by ITV, Mr Johnson is said to have written: “Folks we need to calm down and get behind the Prime Minister.
“She won more votes than anyone since Margaret Thatcher. I can’t remember us having anything like 43 per cent of the vote.”
He also said the public “do not want another election” and labelled Mrs May a “woman of extraordinary qualities”.
A confidence and supply agreement with the DUP would allow the Government to pass the Queen’s Speech and the Budget.
It is just how long she is going to remain on death row. Former Chancellor George Osborne, who described the PM as a ‘dead woman walking’.
THE PROSPECTS of a mass return to the Labour frontbench by Yorkshire moderates have been played down despite Jeremy Corbyn defying their expectations during the general election.
Mr Corbyn insisted he was “open to everyone” as he basked in an increase in Labour votes and seats but Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell maintained the “winning team” would not be broken up.
The Labour leader has been urged to build on the party’s performance last week by recalling moderate figures to the party’s frontbench team to broaden its appeal and give it the best chance of winning the next election.
Some of Labour’s biggest-hitters, including Yorkshire MPs Hilary Benn, Dan Jarvis, Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh and Rachel Reeves, have been marginalised under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
The shadow cabinet came under severe scrutiny during the election campaign with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott peforming particularly poorly.
However the campaign also raised the profile of some of Mr Corbyn’s team including shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth.
Mr McDonnell said Labour would “draw on upon all the talents” when it considers its new frontbench.
He added: “Our shadow cabinet at the moment was a winning team.
“It’s just won, effectively, votes that no one predicted we would so I don’t want to break up that winning team.”
The weekend saw moderates move to spread the credit for Labour’s results beyond Mr Corbyn to the wider party alongside acknowledgement that the party leader had performed better than expected.
Don Valley MP Caroline Flint said: “He did, I think, in terms of both his leadership bid but also as the leader of the Labour Party make the point of how you can galvanise young people.
“And there is one thing for sure that certainly did happen.”
Ms Flint said there were “lots of reasons” for Labour’s positive performance among young voters, acknowledging “Jeremy has an appeal”.
While Labour has managed to show a more united front since Mr Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader last year there remain fundamental differences with many of his own MPs on a range of issues.
Despite retaining the Trident nuclear deterrent remaining Labour policy – and featuring in the party’s general election manifesto – Mr Corbyn has struggled to reconcile that with his own lifelong opposition to nuclear weapons.
The lack of clarity over Trident would likely be one of the major obstacles to many moderate MPs returing to serve on the frontbench.
Previous critics of Mr Corbyn in Labour’s ranks have admitted to underestimating the party’s leader since the election results showed Labour had increased its number of seats by 30 and increased its share of the vote by almost 10 percentage points.
However, the weekend also saw the first questions raised from within Labour over whether the party’s performance was good enough.
Labour’s 262 seats still left the party a long way short of the 326 needed to form a majority government meaning the party has now failed to win three general elections in a row.
Former Shipley MP Chris Leslie, who now represents Nottingham East, said it was not a “famous victory” and the result was “not good enough” as it left the Conservatives in power.
Labour’s results, which included the party winning four seats in Yorkshire, are widely considered to have secured Mr Corbyn’s immediate future.
However, tensions are likely to grow within the party over how it builds on the advances it made last week and puts itself in the best position to win over more of the centre-ground voters most pundits agree will be needed to take power.
Our shadow cabinet at the moment was a winning team. Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell.