Theresa may

Ahead of the summer recess, there was concern among Tory high command that the long holiday could result in seven weeks of leadership plotting. But worried Mayites can rest easy as instead what’s transpired instead is an endless free-for-all over the government’s Brexit position. Every day hacks now take a comment from a minister on one aspect of Brexit and then try and work out whether or not the whole Cabinet agrees with them. Today it was the Prime Minister’s spokesman who stepped up to the plate. After some confusion last week over the government position on immigration (after Brandon Lewis said freedom of movement would end by 2019 but his Home Office boss

If the last few months should have taught us political commentators anything, it is to be wary of making predictions. So, this is more of a report on what people are thinking than a prediction. But, as I write in The Sun this morning, there is an increasing confidence among May loyalists that she can make it to the end of the Brexit talks. One of the things that gives those charged with maintaining party discipline hope that May can do this is that whenever a leadership contender is seen to be plotting, it hurts their standing with Tory MPs. The old Tory adage that he who wields the dagger,

It used to be said that loyalty was the Conservatives’ secret weapon. While other parties might descend into internecine warfare, the Tories would always, when circumstances demanded, show just enough respect for their leader. The words ‘loyalty’ and ‘Conservative’, -however, lost their natural affinity during the Major years. Since then, to borrow a phrase from the left, the leadership of the party has descended into a state of permanent revolution. After the failure of her general election campaign, Theresa May seems to have become a tortured prisoner of her cabinet. Talks of leaks are exaggerated. It’s quite true that our political editor, James Forsyth, was able to disclose a row

Given how miserable things are for Theresa May at the moment, with her Cabinet behaving like children, her backbenchers urging her to use the authority she doesn’t have to tell those ministers off, and a policy free-for-all caused by having no majority, today’s final PMQs before the summer should have been extremely painful for the Prime Minister. But while Jeremy Corbyn has arguably been a key factor in this whole miserable situation coming about for May, he is still quite handy when it comes to helping her survive what should be deeply miserable sessions in the Commons. The Labour leader had a good series of questions which linked the Cabinet

Theresa May is to rebuke her Cabinet tomorrow for the way its members have been behaving over the past week. What started as ‘warm prosecco’ plotting, as Damian Green put it, has now moved to open insults being traded over top notch champagne at Westminster parties and ministers telling journalists the gory details of Cabinet meetings. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said this morning that ‘what I would say is of course cabinet must be able to hold discussions on government policy in private and the Prime Minister will be reminding her colleagues of that at Cabinet meeting tomorrow.’ Given the way the Conservative party operates in febrile times, chances

The May-Davis partnership used to be one of the strongest aspects of the government. She had brought him back from the political wilderness to be Brexit Secretary, and he was loyally working on the strategy for the negotiations. Even after the election went so wrong, Davis raced down to London to see her. But, as I say in the Sun today, Cabinet Minister reports that there are now tensions in this relationship. ‘The chemistry is not good now’, one tells me. Another says ‘that relationship has cooled’. The cause of the problem is Davis’ allies touting him for the leadership, and sooner rather than later. Those close to May don’t