Dressing down from whose ‘odd’ manner
WHEN it seemed David Cameron might lose the 2015 Election, some Cabinet members started running ‘surgeries’ in the Tea Room. Being ‘approachable’ to MPs would help, it was assumed, when they came begging for leadership votes.
I noticed one afternoon that Theresa May, then Home Secretary, was holding a Tea Room surgery. Having just had her Immigration Minister James Brokenshire visit Enfield, I dropped by to let her know how well it had gone.
A perfect opportunity to exchange pleasantries.
‘Theresa, I just wanted to let you know that James was in my constituency yesterday evening and was superb.’ ‘Thank you, Nick.’ She could have said: ‘Good to hear that, Nick. How are things locally?’ Or, ‘How is it, after the riots you had in Enfield?’
Or, frankly, anything to have the chance to spend a few minutes with a backbencher whom you don’t know well at all. ‘That’s a nice tie,’ perhaps? Nothing, not a sausage. Politicians like Theresa forget the importance of forging relationships beyond your immediate circle. If she spends five minutes talking to you in the Tea Room, the chances are she’ll forget about it in minutes. But you won’t.
It was difficult to build any personal relationship with her beyond just ‘doing the business’. An odd characteristic for a future PM.
Theresa’s miscalculation in holding the 2017 Election was born in part