The Prime Minister’s failures may help to unite the party again

The road of life, the saying goes, is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision. As the obituaries on the Prime Minister’s political career pour in, this is the biggest lesson of the Theresa May saga. Trying to be all things to all people and failing to take a clear position on Brexit, Mrs May alienated both sides, leading to a bizarre situation where Remainers think she’s a “hard Brexiteer” while Brexiteers are convinced she is a Remain plant, committed to scuppering the 2016 referendum result.

So which side is right? We will never know, because Mrs May never managed to articulate where she stood on the most important political question of our generation and perhaps beyond. In the process, she deepened the rift within an already divided Conservative Party. But is that division irreparable?

A few weeks ago, I’d have said yes. But perhaps witnessing the consequences of Mrs May’s colossal failure to unite the party has finally shaken her parliamentary colleagues into comprehending the destruction they collectively face if they cannot come together. As the leadership contenders set up stall, some surprising alliances are beginning to form. After a period of welldocumented animosity towards Boris Johnson – including reportedly blocking him from attending the Scottish Tory conference earlier this month – the committed Remainer and influential leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson indicated this week that she is willing to work with the former London mayor if he becomes prime minister.

Ms Davidson isn’t quite offering to run Boris’s campaign but the frost is beginning to thaw. Similarly, rumours have been rife for a while that Boris may well offer Amber Rudd – the arch-remainer who famously declared during the referendum campaign that he “isn’t the man you want driving you home” – the chancellorship in order to reach out to the Remainers.

It is of course far from clear that the pro-brexit Tory grass roots would accept Ms Rudd being handed the keys to the Treasury after Philip Hammond’s use of the department to shape – or, according to some, stop – Brexit. But it shows the willingness of leadership hopefuls to bridge the Brexit chasm that Mrs May presided over.

Unlikely accords are being forged elsewhere, too. Remainers such as Maria Miller and Helen Grant are reportedly supporting the leadership campaign of Dominic Raab, the Brexiteer darling, who also enjoys the support of prominent European Research Group members such as Suella Braverman and Andrea Jenkyns. This would have seemed impossible only a few weeks ago.

The divisions in the Conservative Party are deep and the healing will take time. But I cannot help feeling that Mrs May’s ruinous reign has now set her party in the right direction.

FOLLOW Dia Chakravarty on Twitter @Diachakravarty; READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion