Mrs May’s chance to nail the Labour lies

WHAT a difference a year makes in the febrile, capricious world of British politics. Twelve months ago, Theresa May was preparing to address her party conference from a position of seemingly unassailable strength. Crowned as Tory leader just three months earlier, she had a working majority in the Commons, a Cabinet that appeared united behind her and a 17-point poll lead over her then laughing-stock of a Labour opponent Jeremy Corbyn.

How that sunlit political landscape has darkened since then. After a lamentable campaign in a general election she didn’t need to call, her authority is significantly weakened. She now governs only by virtue of a deal with the DUP, a resurgent Labour has edged ahead in the polls and there’s endless speculation about her political future, as ministers jockey for position.

But for all the setbacks, the Prime Minister has a chance this week to seize back the initiative. She made a promising start yesterday by announcing a freeze on university tuition fees in england and Wales, a rise in the threshold at which graduates start paying back student loans and an injection of £10billion into the Help to Buy scheme, giving 135,000 first-time buyers a leg-up on to the housing ladder.

These measures are a recognition that too many young people feel they are being left behind by this Government.

They have real concerns over debt, housing and insecure employment and flocked to Mr Corbyn’s banner during the election campaign on the back of the huge lie that their problems would all be solved by a dose of Socialism.

Not having been born in the 1970s – when this very same prescription led to the near-bankruptcy of the nation – they were seduced into believing it.

So it’s now up to the Tories to explain that the inevitable result of Corbynomics – binge borrowing, punitive taxes on business and wealth creation and key industries crushed by the dead hand of state control – is not salvation but economic ruin.

Of course, capitalism is not perfect and people are rightly aggrieved that they have had to pay for the greed and recklessness of bankers – none of whom have yet been made to fully answer for their crimes. But as history has proved time and again, the free market is the only system that can create and sustain prosperity.

If she is to begin winning back the votes of young people – and their parents and grandparents for that matter – Mrs May must convince them that the Tories are the true party of aspiration and fairness and expose Mr Corbyn for the false prophet he is.

Just as importantly, she has to persuade the country that she and her Cabinet can guide Britain swiftly through the Brexit minefield and into a freer, more prosperous future. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson struck exactly the right note of optimism, determination and urgency in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

He said the post-Brexit transition period should not last ‘a second more’ than two years, we should not accept new european Court rulings during that transition and there should be no additional payments for single market access. ‘Am I impatient about it?’ he added. ‘Yes, absolutely.’

This speech is an opportunity for Mrs May to echo Mr Johnson’s confidence and remind us that far from being a problem, Brexit is a historic opportunity.

Above all, Tory ministers should heed Scottish leader Ruth Davidson’s rallying call yesterday and show a united front – and not place their own political ambitions above the national interest. They should know that if they undermine their leader at this crucial time, they risk handing Mr Corbyn the keys to No 10.

For the unmitigated disaster that would wreak on us all, neither their party nor their country would ever forgive them.