Theresa May would never sell herself as a great orator. But that was a good speech, perhaps the most significant of her lifetime in Tory politics.
It was an address that achieved three things. It confirmed that she is sticking to her Chequers Brexit strategy – not that she even once uttered the controversial ‘C’ word. And she tried to acquire some wiggle room from sceptical members, so that she can offer the rest of the EU compromises on both the future trading relationship with them and the insurance policy, or backstop, to keep the Ireland border open.
Second, it planted the Tories in the centre of politics, with a pledge to end austerity and loosen the borrowing cap on local councils for housebuilding. Importantly she attacked Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour for vacating what she would see as the ‘patriotic’ centre ground – and resisted the pressure from some in her party to battle Labour from the far right (symbolically, she repeated her promise to give workers some kind of representation in the boardroom).
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