May’s successor must keep the moderates close

THERESA MAY is worried about her legacy. She needn’t be. She has a long list of achievements: the worst election manifesto ever offered by a government; the highest rate of ministerial resignations in history; not just the largest but also the second largest parliamentary defeat of the modern era; the shortest list of concrete policy achievements of any government in the past 50 years. In the dying days of the May regime, her administration has added another achievement — and no, it’s not her newly created but not-long-for-this-world Office for Tackling Injustices.

Last night, and for the first time ever, a Prime Minister failed to secure the support of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the division lobbies. Of course, the occupants of Numbers 10 and 11 have fallen out before, and chancellors have resigned in protest at policies. But never before has the number two in a British government deliberately and very publicly defied their own government’s whip, and remained in office. That is what Philip Hammond did yesterday. He abstained on the amendment tabled by Labour centrist Hilary Benn and Tory moderate Alistair Burt that makes it harder to use the prorogation of Parliament as a way to deliver a no-deal Brexit. He then took to Twitter to explain why.

The Chancellor’s abstention, and that of three other Cabinet ministers and a clutch of junior ministers, contributed to the Government losing the vote by a majority of 41. The practical consequences are few. How the May government disintegrates in its final hours is of limited interest. The battle to defeat those who, in the name of restoring parliamentary sovereignty, want to avoid Parliament meeting, still lies ahead.

But yesterday pointed to the enormous challenge facing the new premier, almost certainly Boris Johnson. For just as the hard Brexiteers organised themselves into a fifth column under the misnamed European Research Group, so too the Tory moderates are now organising into a large and rival voting bloc. Close to 40 of them rebelled yesterday. Their leadership is swelling as the likes of Mr Hammond, David Gauke and Rory Stewart head for the back benches. Mrs May yesterday had some advice to her successor on how to handle the members of the government she lost control of. It is advice that Mr Johnson would be wise to disregard completely. For her spokesman said that while the current PM was “obviously disappointed” in the rebels, he added with an air of menace: “No doubt her successor will take this into account when forming their government.”

Mr Johnson should take yesterday’s voting into account, but not in the way a vengeful Mrs May suggests. He should look actively to include these Tory rebels in his new government — for without them he cannot govern. He should avoid her mistake, made in the first days of her failed premiership, and reach out to be the leader of the whole party rather than simply appease the hardliners, as she did, with undeliverable red lines and empty ultimatums. To win the party ballot he had to pivot Right, to lead he must pivot to the centre. Mrs May didn’t do that until she was already doomed. Now her parting advice to her successor is to purge further the rebellious moderates. If Mr Johnson follows it, his premiership will be as unsuccessful as hers.