James Forsyth James Forsyth

All by herself

As the Prime Minister tries to sell her Chequers plan, almost nobody is backing it – or her

issue 29 September 2018

Few people would choose to celebrate their birthday by listening to Philip Hammond speak, but that is the pleasure that awaits Theresa May on Monday. On Tuesday she must suffer in silence as Boris Johnson derails Tory party conference with an appeal to ‘chuck Chequers’.

It’s hard not to pity the Prime Minister. She is now horribly isolated. Both in her own cabinet and in Europe, she has few allies. As she tries to sell her Chequers plan, almost nobody is backing it or her. Other prime ministers have endured difficult periods. Few have faced them with as little support. It is no coincidence that Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Tories, now says she doesn’t want to be PM. She has seen inside No. 10 — and knows that it is ‘the loneliest job in the world’.

The Salzburg snub last week, when Brussels rejected Theresa May’s plan for a future relationship between Britain and the EU, made the Prime Minister seem not only weak but abject.

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