The Spectator

Letters | 16 November 2017

Also in Letters: don’t blame the SNP for the state of Scottish schools, living with disinhibited dementia and Macron’s mistake

issue 18 November 2017

Chairman May

Sir: Theresa May is the only politician with a mandate to lead, yet doesn’t seem capable of leading (‘Stop the rot’, 11 November). More than at any time for decades, the country needs leadership. This seems like an intractable problem but the solution is simple. Theresa May should stop trying to be both chairman and CEO and relinquish the latter job to someone with the energy, ideas and conviction she lacks. There is an obvious candidate: Michael Gove, the only member of the government who seems to relish governing and one of the leading figures in the Leave campaign. He should be made Deputy Prime Minister and given full authority for policy in three key areas: preparing for Brexit, getting houses built and shoring up Universal Credit.

May can allow him to focus on these things by taking care of administrative matters — scandals, repelling Jeremy Corbyn, keeping the CFO in line, being the public face of the government, etc.

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