Britain can only pray May’s sad exit heralds a new Tory dawn

BATTERED, betrayed and beleaguered, Theresa May announced her departure from the political stage yesterday with a rueful tear.

She had tried – as usual – to keep her emotions in check.

But by the end of her short valedictory speech in the Downing Street sunshine, they could be contained no longer.

Were they tears of regret, exhaustion, sheer exasperation at the failure to deliver on her Brexit deal? Probably a combination of all three.

Yet for all her frustrations and the devastating disappointment of a burning ambition unfulfilled, she bowed out with the dignity and integrity which has defined her premiership.

Under the bludgeonings of chance, she may have been bloodied, but she remains unbowed.

Unlike most of the hypocrites and showboaters around her, this Middle England vicar’s daughter has always been driven by duty and dedication to public service.

Initially a Remainer, she subsumed her own desires to the common good – recognising that the referendum result had to be honoured for the sake of democracy. She set about constructing a compromise plan which would take us out of the EU in an orderly fashion. One which would uphold the spirit of Brexit, but also maintain the close relationship to Europe that Remainers feared was at risk.

It was a formidable challenge, but she very nearly pulled it off. The Mail believed her withdrawal deal was an imaginative practical solution to the Brexit conundrum. We still do.

Yes, there were issues with the Irish backstop, the financial cost and how soon we would be able to set our own independent trade policy.

But it ended free movement, vast subscription payments, many trade restrictions and the primacy of the European Court. Above all, it would have got us out.

Instead, thanks to the vanity, intransigence and myopia of MPs across the House, here we are three years on from the referendum, still languishing in a slough of Brexit despond – without even a signpost to point the way out.

Indeed it often seemed as though Mrs May was the only adult in a chamber of petulant, attention-seeking children.

Bitter Tory Remainers, mule-headed Brexit zealots, pathologically unbiddable Democratic Unionists, Labour and the Scottish Nationalists interested only in bringing down the Government regardless of the cost, all conspired in a deadly alliance to kill the deal. Yet when the Commons ‘ seized control’ of the Brexit agenda, those same MPs were exposed as an impotent rabble – unable to agree anything.

True, Mrs May made mistakes of her own. The disastrous 2017 election campaign in which she lost her majority. Not securing full Cabinet backing for her Chequers agreement before announcing it publicly. Failure to recognise the backstop would never get past the DUP. There’s no doubt however, that she always acted in good faith, which is more than can be said for most of the vipers around her – both in Westminster and Brussels.

How sickening that ministers and exministers were falling over each other yesterday to offer tributes to their outgoing leader. Such cant. What a shame they couldn’t give their loyalty and support when she and the country most needed it.

An honourable Brexit was in our grasp. But the political class spurned it – placing personal prejudice and hubris above pragmatism and the national interest. Around the country they are despised for it. It’s hard to think of any time when politicians were held in such low esteem. They were given a simple job. They flunked it.

But the world must turn. As Mrs May leaves the job she described as ‘the honour of my life’, someone else must take up the torch.

And there is no shortage of candidates. Chancellor Philip Hammond was only half-joking when he said he was the only Tory MP not thinking of throwing his hat in the ring.

With almost unseemly haste, the starting tapes went up yesterday and the race is on. Boris Johnson has already emerged as the man to beat, but history tells us that the ante-post favourite frequently falls before the finish.

The Mail looks forward to hearing from all the contenders their blueprint for Tory renewal.

From the ashes of the May premiership must arise a reinvigorated and reunited party. The ability to inspire is a sine qua non for the next leader.

The Parliamentary arithmetic will not change, but they must first and foremost have a viable plan for leaving the EU. Until this open wound is healed, it is hard to see how the country can move on.

Secondly, they must be capable of beating Jeremy Corbyn – who poses an infinitely greater threat to the health and well-being of our nation than any conceivable Brexit outcome.

And it’s not enough to say how bad and damaging his policies are. The new leader and his or her Cabinet must project an alternative vision, a OneNation Conservative vision based on enterprise, family values, personal responsibility, freedom and mutual respect, where the state is our servant not our master.

They must also defend the Union against the attempts of narrow nationalists to break it up. And they must offer a bold economic, fiscal and industrial strategy to build on the Tory successes of the past nine years – to drive Britain forward in the brave, post-Brexit world.

We’ve had enough of stasis and gloom. We need dynamism. We need optimism. And we need hope.

Today, Mrs May’s premiership may be regarded as having been a gallant and well-intentioned failure. If – as is eminently possible – it leads to a new Tory dawn, history will judge it differently. As the prelude to a great success story.