Name your own D-Day Theresa!
That’s D for Departure says this top Tory in a dramatic personal intervention
She should make it clear she won’t fight the Election
IHAVE never hidden my view that after Theresa May’s botched General Election, and her resulting collapse in credibility, another leader might be better placed to serve the party and country. Her loss of authority makes it excruciatingly difficult for the Prime Minister to demand obedience from her Cabinet – as this month’s reshuffle demonstrated. Some Ministers simply refused to accept the jobs she tried to give them; others routinely ignore agreed policies.
Yet despite these forthright views, I had not contemplated submitting a letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee, calling for a leadership election.
So what on earth has held me back?
Previously, I had thought Mrs May herself should decide when to stand down. Forcing a contest – through the mechanism of 48 Tory MPs writing to Sir Graham – would create an unpredictable timetable for a leadership election. It could be triggered at any moment. And since country comes before party, I held the view that instability should be avoided at all costs.
After all, there is a far more existential threat than a suboptimal Conservative Government, and that is an extreme Marxist one under comradesin-arms Corbyn and McDonnell.
That is why I argued that MPs who had concerns about leadership should be listened to – but not mobilised into a rebellious force, which could lead to a haphazard leadership challenge.
But it is becoming increasingly T clear that we cannot continue to muddle along like this. HIS uninspiring leadership manifests itself not only through the lens of Cabinet disarray, but through a void in big and bold ideas capable of projecting Britain beyond the trials and tribulations of Brexit.
So while I have not submitted a leadership letter to the 1922 Committee, an increasing number of my colleagues have. More are going in this weekend.
No one knows quite how many. But when the figure represents 15 per cent of the parliamentary party, Sir Graham has no choice but to spark that leadership election; no matter how deleterious the timing.
Which is why the moment has come for the Prime Minister to wrest back control of that timetable. And to do so before it is too late. Mrs May should name a date.
In truth, it doesn’t need to be an exact day. Merely making it clear that she won’t fight the next Election as leader would utterly transform the political landscape and her premiership.
By removing uncertainty, she would instantly create political space to pursue and achieve some of her very laudable objectives, such as those she first outlined on the steps of Downing Street.
Many colleagues, including some in government, privately admit her effective leadership deadline is the day we leave the EU – little more than a year away. However, establishing now that Mrs May won’t contest the next Election would effectively extend her premiership until much closer to the 2022 General Election, still more than four years away. And it would give the party time to calmly contemplate a successor.
It is often said there is a great deal of talent in the Conservative Parliamentary Party. This is true, but too many of the brightest and best remain on the backbenches. And where ministerial appointments have been made, too often they look like square pegs in round holes.
Acknowledging that Mrs May fighting the next election is off the table would allow an open and healthy examination of the leadership potential of others. Putting the best in the right ministerial posts would give individuals an opportunity to be tested in order to shine or fail. But either way, to answer the question – who’s next?
And on this point, I should be clear. When I called for a change at the top, it wasn’t – as some might assume – a ‘Trojan horse’ for a leadership candidate that I was quietly backing. Nor was it a negative response to the kind of Brexit being pursued, either too hard or too soft.
Rather, it was due to a recognition that we are unlikely to resolve the current lacklustre performance through wishful thinking alone. And that we urgently owe it to the country to provide strong leadership during these complex times.
Some will say we cannot change leader while Brexit negotiations are in full swing. Maybe. But Britain changed Prime Minister during the war, when Neville Chamberlain was ousted in favour of Winston Churchill: not a decision the country had cause to regret.
Either way, making the leadership timetable clear would stabilise this premiership and provide our European partners with certainty about who will complete these Brexit negotiations beyond next year.
Others say that by conceding she won’t fight the next Election, Mrs May is as good as declaring her premiership a lame duck.
Yet, despite misgivings in 2015 when David Cameron let slip he wouldn’t fight the following Election, F it did not hamper his power once back in No10. INALLY, it isn’t as if the status quo is actually working. Even during this relatively quiet month of January, without Brexit talks in full swing, speculation surrounding the leadership has been in danger of smothering the good work this Government is doing elsewhere, such as helping to get more people in work than ever before and reducing public borrowing to the lowest figure since the turn of the century.
The Prime Minister still has the opportunity to write her own timetable. By speaking up now she can regain the initiative, put herself back in control of her Cabinet and achieve some of her wider programme.
Clarifying her intentions will help Mrs May regain control of the levers of power, gain some time and – most importantly – stop the flow of those letters to Sir Graham.