How Theresa used her army style shoes to tell Tory rival: We’re at war
The VERY intriguing code behind those eye-catching shoes — and the secrets of her polished new look... as revealed in the first major biography of the PM
IN SATURDAY’S first extract from a fascinating new biography of Prime Minister Theresa May, we revealed how she is a fearless politician who loathed David Cameron’s chumocracy. Here, in the final part, we reveal more of the extraordinary strengths that make her tick . . .
DO THERESA MAY’S shoes hold a hidden meaning? According to a woman who knows her well, her famous kitten heels have at least once provided the key to her real feelings. At the time, May was chairman of the Conservative Party, but growing increasingly disillusioned by the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith. There was no question, however, of criticising him directly.
So before her speech to party conference in 2003, she went into a huddle with her team. The big question under lengthy debate was: which shoes should she wear?
Zoe Healy, then her press officer, recalls that May eventually opted for a pair of kitten heels covered in a fabric more commonly used for Army fatigues.
‘The message wasn’t quite “we’re at war” — but it was clear,’ says Healy.
Did Duncan Smith get the message? Unlikely. But Theresa May clearly enjoyed this small private joke at her leader’s expense.
Her shoes had first made headlines at the previous year’s party conference, when she wore a pair of £110 leopard-print heels. russell & Bromley quickly sold out and May — later credited with the revival of kitten heels — became the shoe queen of British politics.
There was purpose, of course, behind her adventurous taste in footwear. From the start, it was designed to show that she was modern and unstuffy — a world away from the traditional Tory battle-axe.
But, paradoxically, the shoes also gave one of the most reserved politicians in Westminster some much-needed cover. By talking to journalists about her latest pair, she was usually spared from having to discuss anything more personal.
Political sociologist Professor Sarah Childs, who worked with May on boosting the recruitment of women to Parliament, suspects that the sassy shoes were a carefully thoughtthrough strategy.
‘Perhaps Theresa was more in control of her media image than some people recognise,’ she says. ‘I think she was quite astute with the shoes.’
Apart from anything else, they were a good ice-breaker. According to Zoe Healy: ‘Whether Theresa was visiting a prison or a town hall, people would always ask about the shoes. She’d joke that she must have been the only politician in the Western world who, when she entered a room, everyone would look down.’
Healy recalls visiting a farm with her while May was party chairman. ‘We’d been told to wear wellies. Theresa’s were green khakis, and mine were kind of flower-power, festival boots. She looked at me and said [jokingly]: “Oy! You can’t be out-doing Theresa — that’s not in your contract.”’
Over the next few years, even May seemed to be suffering from shoe fatigue.
Former Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan says: ‘Although she quite liked the shoe thing at the beginning, and she liked the attention, it was a means to an end.
‘I remember going into her office and she’d got these shoe-themed cushions — people had obviously given her all this shoe stuff. And I always got the impression that she’s very nice about it, but in the end she was really fed up with it.’ FROM her earliest days as a politician, Theresa May has understood the power of fashion. Once, she deliberately changed her entire image — in order to appeal to working-class voters in Essex.
Standing against her in the 1994 Barking by-election (and winning the seat) was Labour’s future culture minister, Margaret Hodge. ‘My memory of Theresa at the count,’ recalls Hodge, ‘was of woman who chose to dress like an Essex girl.’
It was an impression shared by Jeannette Alexander, an Essex Labour councillor. May, she says, tried to ‘make herself look like an Essex girl, or what she assumed we looked like. She had very blonde hair and a short, cerise-coloured suit.
‘Within a couple of weeks of the by-election, she wore long skirts and pearls — ready for the next seat she tried for.’
Since her teenage years in flares, tank-tops and hot pants, May has always been very conscious both of how she dresses and the messages her choices convey.
According to former Tory minister Andrew Lansley, however, she came under pressure to change her style during the 2001 election campaign. Amanda Platell — now a Mail columnist, but then William Hague’s spin doctor — dared to offer her fashion advice through one of May’s own advisers, he says. The gobetween with this impossible task was Sally Low, who subsequently became Lansley’s wife.
Lansley remembers: ‘Amanda Platell was constantly sending messages out with Sally, saying: “She should wear less leather and wear softer clothes.” Sally would convey the message, but Theresa would say: “Get off out.” ’
Now that May is Prime Minister, her interest in clothes remains as strong as ever. She doesn’t employ a stylist or use personal shoppers. Instead, most of her clothes came from Fluidity, a small boutique in Henley, Oxfordshire, close to her constituency, which stocks accessible designer clothes and upmarket casual wear. And she tones her body with regular work-outs, either with a personal trainer or at a gym near her Berkshire home (which she used to visit three times a week). MAY’S characteristic slight stoop is a legacy from her father, though it may also owe something to a childhood spent bent over her desk in conscientious study. ‘I probably was Goody Two-Shoes,’ she has admitted. Has she ever really changed? When she was Home Secretary, her staff says she would regularly stay at her desk until 1am. But that never stopped her from doing constituency business.
MP Andrew Griffiths, who worked for May in the mid-2000s, says she memorised the entire rail timetable for trains running between her constituency of Maidenhead and London — ‘So when a new timetable comes out, she knows whether her constituents are getting a better or worse service.’
He adds: ‘Even after she became Home Secretary, she’d never jeopardise the time that she’d spend knocking on doors [in Maidenhead]. It always had to go in the diary; it was always the priority. Theresa was a detail person — she’d go through every line of every document until she was happy. Many of our colleagues get on with a wing and a prayer, whereas Theresa delves deep into the detail.’
Former Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who confronted May across the Commons for five years, believes this micro-managing approach has done her few favours.
‘She’s a grown-up, sometimes surrounded by people who play childish games, and she wants to be serious about things,’ she says. ‘The problem is she tends to be cautious and controlling, doesn’t share with other people and doesn’t delegate and can often end up taking a long time to take decisions.’
However, Tory ex-minister Cheryl Gillan thinks this is unfair. May, she says, always took time to get to know her staff’s strengths and weaknesses before delegating important work to them. ‘In a way, I think it was showing her caution,’ says Gillan. ‘She’s a woman who’s always played her cards quite close to her chest. She’s not out to make people love her or like her.’
Many of May’s former colleagues
She even dressed like an Essex girl to try to win a by-election ‘She’s never wanted to be one of the boys’
would agree, though they found her an excellent boss.
Former staffer Shaya Raymond says: ‘The problem with Theresa is she can come across as slightly cold. She’d never do a meeting on a sofa; when it comes to work, it’s professional to the umpteenth degree.
‘She wasn’t the sort of person to go for team drinks. It was a very formal working relationship; we never really had a relationship where we would send each other friendly, chatty emails.’
Another ex-colleague adds: ‘She was very good to work for. She was very nice, very friendly, but she was never someone you could have a warm, open relationship with.’
Baroness Jenkin, who co-founded Women2Win with May in 2005 to help promote women in the party, agrees that May doesn’t have much in the way of small talk: ‘Honestly, no. You can’t really have that chatchat, because her time is too precious, she’s too serious, and she’d feel I was wasting her time.’
Interestingly, however, Jenkin feels that — unlike Margaret Thatcher — May has no preference for male company.
‘Thatcher was a man’s woman, and that was the secret of her success. She liked men more than she liked women. And I don’t think that’s the case with Theresa.’ IS THeReSA MAY shy? The consensus seems to be that she isn’t — merely reserved and selfcontained. Unlike the majority of colleagues, she’s shown little interest in socialising, let alone visiting any of the Commons bars.
eric Pickles, who worked closely with May for a year at on the transport brief, says: ‘I used to nag her to go into the [Commons] dining room. She wouldn’t do that — she wouldn’t do the [Commons] tea-room.
‘It’s not that she’s not a pleasant person, it’s not like she’s not rather good company, it isn’t like she isn’t actually a laugh. I think she found it uncomfortable and superficial.’
Other MPs go further and say she’s unclubbable. She’s never felt the need for a clique like Cameron did — though advisers have strongly urged her to create her own network.
As eric Pickles puts it: ‘Most business in this place is transactional: “You do this for me, I’ll do that for you. You want this thing through a shadow cabinet?
you want this thing through a Cabinet? Well, you know, let’s talk about it, because there’s something I want.”
‘She won’t do that. She’ll only do things on their merit. So even if life would be made easier for her, she won’t do it unless you’ve got a reasonable case. But if you’ve got a reasonable case, you’ll never find a more reasonable woman.’
according to MP Griffiths, she’s totally uninterested in Westminster gossip and has never felt the need to be ‘one of the boys’. She values being respected for her talent rather than for her connections.
‘She just did her own thing, and some people found that difficult to understand,’ he says. ‘other people dismissed her because of that, but she never felt the need to play the games in order to get up the slippery slope like others. to a certain degree, she did it the hard way. In Westminster, you see the cliques and groups, you see the patting on the back, the way that so often people coalesce around a rising star. theresa just got on and did the work.’
eric Pickles wonders if anyone in Westminster has ever really got to know her.
outside of work, though, May, of course, has many friends.
Sandra Burling, a friend since 1992, says: ‘actually, she’s very funny. I don’t think that comes across often. She’s always stayed really grounded and a very normal person. She doesn’t have that arrogance or that big ego that you see in some people when they become successful.’
She has a small, supportive circle of longstanding friends, but when she held a party for her 50th birthday in 2006, many constituents were nvited, including her local butcher. ‘I remember a lot of constituents there, and thinking: “I’m not sure I’d have a lot of constituents [if it were my party]”,’ says Baroness Jenkin. ‘My guess is she doesn’t have a very wild social life.’
at least part of the reason is her strong marriage: the Mays are so close they try to dine in the Commons, so they can thrash out the issues of the day.
andrew Griffiths says: ‘I don’t think they needed anyone else. they must undoubtedly be the tightest couple in Parliament. For theresa, Philip has been there through it all — the door-knocking, the black-tie dinners, the late nights in Parliament.’
they first met at oxford university, at a Conservative association disco, when theresa Brasier (as she was then) was in her final year and Philip was still a firstyear. Previously, she’d had other boyfriends — indeed, she once spoke of smuggling men into her college at night, when they were strictly banned from the premises.
one of May’s closest university friends, alicia Collinson, says: ‘none of them were quite what she wanted. none were special. then, in our final year, Philip came along. [then] there was Philip and nobody else.’
after university, May worked for the Bank of england as an analyst, while Philip opted for a stockbroking firm. they married in 1980, joined their local Conservative association, and happily spent much of their free time knocking on doors and canvassing their neighbours.
May had been married for just over a year when her father, anglican vicar Hubert Brasier, was killed in a car accident. Within a few months, her mother Zaidee, who had multiple sclerosis, had also died. the small circle that sustained theresa May had suddenly shrunk to just one. But it was enough: in the absence of parents and children, Philip became her family.
no one else would be particularly close to her until her 50s, when she met her two devoted advisers nick timothy and Fiona Hill. until then, May relied increasingly on her husband for political advice.
Griffiths recalls: ‘Many’s the time when I’d spend days and days toiling on a party conference speech, honing every word, going through it with her, perhaps putting together a little team, and we’d draft the speech exactly as she wanted it.
‘and then she’d drive to party conference with her husband Philip, and I’d get the call, knowing there would be a re-write. She’d discussed it with Philip: it just didn’t feel right, and she wanted to re-write the speech. He was her sounding-board, and she valued his opinion.
‘there’d then be a late-night drafting session, which would result in theresa practising the speech using an ironing-board in the room as a makeshift lectern. It would be 2am grafting. and Philip would be part of it. So they’re not just a couple: Philip is part of her politics.’
So comfortable is Philip May in his role as a supportive husband that he’s attended many meetings and coffee mornings organised for the spouses of tory MPs. He’s invariably been the only man present, but he’s never looked awkward or out of place. HoW do her colleagues around the Cabinet table regard theresa May now?
Leaving Brexit aside, some have chafed at her team’s tendency to try to control all government statements. at one point, ministers were even required to clear all speeches and interviews in advance. But her personal handling of the Cabinet has already won a great deal of approval.
Liam Fox, the International trade Secretary, says: ‘She’s got a very steady but light touch. there’s quite a good flow of ideas back and forth. It’s becoming clear we’re going to have a lot of meetings, because theresa likes to thrash out everything and it then gets fleshed out in a very logical way. Her way of working means discussions run until the discussion’s finished, rather than: “I’ve got an appointment in 45 minutes.”
‘that’s such a refreshing way of doing business because there will be a genuine debate. She’s not one who says: “Well, this is what I think first. Does anyone dare to disagree with me?” Which is how Margaret thatcher used to do things. It’s very much: “Here’s the problem, what do we think?” and then she’ll sum up at the end.’
It’s all very different from David Cameron’s way as Prime Minister.
‘She’s going to have proper Cabinet government,’ says Cheryl Gillan, ‘whereas I always felt, with her predecessor, it had all been decided elsewhere — possibly in the kitchen over a lasagne. that’s not healthy.
‘She’s had the opportunity of sitting in Cabinet for many years and seeing a completely different style, which was basically dominated by two people in the front deck and several people in the row at the back. I think she will bring in everybody.’
n ADApTED from Theresa May: The Enigmatic prime Minister by Rosa prince, published by Biteback on February 13 at £20.© Rosa prince 2017. To order a copy for £14 (offer valid to this Saturday) call 0844 571 0640 or visitmailbookshop.co.uk. p&p is free on orders over £15.
‘The Mays are the tightest couple in Parliament’