Theresa may

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May would be wise to listen to David Cameron

Theresa May has few friends at the moment. But while her Christmas card list might be dwindling, her tally of critics is growing rapidly. Yesterday, John Major urged the Prime Minister to ditch a deal with the DUP or risk jeopardising the peace process in Northern Ireland. Now, David Cameron has waded in, calling for the PM to adopt a ‘softer’ approach to Brexit in the wake of last week’s election disaster. The former PM also said that his successor should change tack and ‘listen to other parties’ on the best way of leaving the EU. So, just another ex-Tory leader with too much time on their hands determined to take up the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Tory leader runners and riders: Who could replace Theresa May?

Theresa May has granted herself a brief reprieve by saying ‘sorry’ to Conservative MPs. But while the Prime Minister’s apology won her some breathing space, in the long term little has changed: the PM’s Downing Street days are numbered. Who could be next in line to take over as the new Tory leader? Boris Johnson Boris remains the bookies’ favourite despite being badly bruised by last year’s bungled bid for the top job. The Foreign Secretary has thrown his weight behind May for now. It’s difficult though to ignore George Osborne’s assessment that Boris is in a ‘permanent leadership campaign’. Boris knows he has popular appeal on his side and his back-to-back wins

Tuesday

Katy Balls

May makes Baker Brexit minister – what does she mean by that?

Theresa May has just appointed Steve Baker as a junior minister to the Department for Exiting the EU. A lead Brexiteer, Baker’s appointment will help to calm nerves among Leave-backing MPs that May is now heading for a ‘soft’ Brexit. The Eurosceptic MP replaces David Jones, who has been sacked as a Brexit minister. Jones was also a hardcore Brexiteer so Baker’s appointment suggests that Jones was not axed as part of a pro-Remain cull, as previously suggested. Baker was instrumental to the Leave campaign. The chair of Conservatives for Britain, he was deployed by Vote Leave as a ‘flying monkey’ to turn up the ‘pressure on David Cameron’ in the Commons – and Baker

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

More money for Northern Ireland? At least the DUP and Sinn Fein can agree on that

Well, Arlene and Theresa have met for negotiations about the DUP/Tory deal that a million people got so exercised about, they signed an online petition to have it stopped. And you know what? There is no indication, not a whisper, since those talks broke up, that abortion was so much as mentioned; nor indeed gay marriage. Indeed, the whole notion that the DUP might be out to subvert gay marriage in mainland Britain, let alone do anything about the abortion laws (which undeniably need revisiting – tightening), was simply risible. So much for the scary talk from Ruth Davidson (who proclaimed that one of the things she put above party

Steerpike Steerpike

Was this Tory MP watching a racy clip in the Commons?

Parliament is back – but already some MPs are bored. One Tory backbencher was snapped glancing at his phone during the opening session in the Commons this afternoon. Yet the picture of the MP watching a clip on his mobile – which was tweeted out by Anna Soubry – raised a bigger question: what on earth was he watching? The unnamed MP appeared to be watching a racy video on his phone, with rumours flying around about what exactly was keeping the politician so occupied. Mr S. isn’t sure – although he can’t help but think that whatever the honourable member was up to, it doesn’t look to be Parliamentary business… Update: It

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Jeremy Corbyn is now bookies’ favourite to be next UK Prime Minister

Well, this is going well. As the Tories pretend that all will be well under a reprogrammed Maybot, the expectations outside SW1 are rather different. Let’s say someone moves against her, the other candidates start to move too – and before you can say Boris the party has formed another circular firing squad. What happens? What if the Tories can’t keep it together and there’s another general election? The bookies have decided: Jeremy Corbyn is more likely than anyone else to succeed Theresa May. Now the bookies get things wrong almost as regularly as pollsters, but expectation matters a lot in politics – and business. If most Tories think Corbyn is close

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Sir John Major makes life even harder for Theresa May

When he was Prime Minister, John Major found his predecessor Margaret Thatcher to be an ‘intolerable’ backseat driver. Yet no matter how polite he has been to his successors as Conservative leaders, he hasn’t been all that helpful to the two who’ve ended up, by hook or by crook, becoming Prime Minister. Previously he has criticised David Cameron’s approach to governing, and today he raised serious concerns about the prospect of a pact between the Conservatives and the DUP. Speaking to the World at One, Sir John said: ‘Let me make several points about it. I am concerned about the deal, I am wary about it, I am dubious about it,

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

People have had enough of the Tory right

Go back ten years and you could never imagine green campaigners greeting Michael Gove’s return to government with a mixture of contempt and despair. It feels like another age, but in the last decade Gove, Cameron and Osborne decided the only way to stop the Tory party remaining in opposition was to force it to come to terms with modern Britain. ‘Detoxifying the brand’ – to use their advertising agency jargon – meant Conservatives should stop giving the impression that ethnic minorities weren’t truly British. They should help all people, rather than just the comfortable. Most of all, Conservatives must stop being John Stuart Mill’s ‘Stupid Party,’ which resists new

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Michael Gove signals a shift on the government’s Brexit stance

Is Brexit going soft? In the aftermath of the election, some are worried that might be the case. While others are hopeful that a hard Brexit (i.e. leaving the single market) is now off the table. Michael Gove’s interview on Today was a reassurance that whatever type of Brexit Britain does end up with, a consensus is being sought out. Gove made it clear that the majority of Brits, by voting for Labour and the Tories (82.4 per cent backed the parties last week), opted to vote for parties committed to Brexit. This is a sensible rebuke to those trying to read into voters’ lukewarm enthusiasm for Theresa May a sign

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Theresa May’s mistake? Putting style over substance

There are many lessons to learn from the utter calamity of the general election, but here is just one: be cautious of any politician who asks you to judge their ideas via their clothes. Theresa May did – and it should have been a warning sign. As she discussed ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’ on The One Show, she wore pearls and a tweed jacket, to keep the Daily Mail happy. The election was announced, business-like, in a blue-and-white pinstriped power suit. She appeared in Vogue – her favourite magazine – wearing expensive leather trousers, then spent the following weeks having to defend the decision. The chainmail necklace became her talisman throughout the campaign. Then there were the

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Why has Theresa May moved one of her best whips?

The reshuffle announcements keep rolling miserably on, with Theresa May congratulating herself on people bothering to answer the phone to her. One of the new appointments is rather odd. Anne Milton has had a promotion from the whips’ office to the Education Department, which must be flattering for the sharp Guildford MP. But it’s not clear why May has done it. The best whips are the ones you don’t notice, and few outside Tory circles will have had much of an idea of how Milton works. But she is one of the most effective and respected whips in the party. This is valuable to any Prime Minister but especially to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Theresa May to Tory MPs: ‘I got us into this mess’

After Theresa May’s week got off to a shaky start with the news that the Queen’s Speech may be delayed while the Conservatives attempt to come to a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with the DUP, she will be hoping that her appearance at tonight’s meeting of the backbench 1922 committee is enough to regain her party’s confidence. Speaking to MPs for the first time since the result, the Prime Minister finally showed real remorse. A contrite May took responsibility for losing her party’s majority; ‘I’ve got us into the mess and I will get us out of it.’ She also promised to help those who had lost their seats and said

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Intolerant liberals have a new target: the DUP

Memo to London-based liberals: not everyone shares your point of view. Some people — brace yourself for this — have different opinions to yours. Amazing, I know. But true. So please dial down your hysteria about the DUP. Because I know you think it makes you look super-tolerant to bash the supposed rednecks and religious fruitcakes of Northern Ireland who’ve never attended a gay wedding or made a donation to Greenpeace, but it of course does the opposite — it exposes your own intolerance. The fury over the DUP is reaching fever pitch. Once it had been revealed that May would be working with the DUP, people were out in force to

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MP still sticks to the ‘strong and stable’ script

Although Theresa May’s premiership is now looking anything but strong and stable, the Prime Minister will be pleased to learn that one MP at least is still sticking to the script. After we learnt this morning that the Queen’s Speech may be delayed as the Government tries desperately to thrash out a deal with the DUP, May’s ‘coalition of chaos’ attack line is coming back to haunt her. While a number of Tory backbenchers have come forward to criticise her since the result, happily one MP still has her back. Step forward Alan Mak. He has been valiantly re-using May’s election lines today in a bid to reassure people that things

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May should throw herself on Tory MPs’ mercy

When Theresa May appears in front of the 1922 Committee this evening, her first words should be ‘I am sorry’. She should apologise to those who lost their seats, to the party for the damage she has done to it and to the country for the chaos that she has plunged it into with this unnecessary election. Once she has done with those mea culpas, she should say sorry for the way she ran Number 10. She should make clear that this will now change, that there will be a return to Cabinet government and that she will see the 1922 executive every fortnight; you can count on the fingers

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Forget Michael Gove or the rise of the Remainers. The reshuffle is about the march of the moderates

Michael Gove will get all the headlines, and there is something darkly ironic about his appointment. Theresa May may be fighting for her political life, but even her 11th hour manoeuvres have a sharp edge. She’s been forced to bring back a man she sacked, but her choice of job is lovely: Michael Gove of the Leave campaign now gets to tell British farmers how life will be better when farm subsidies end. Meanwhile, Gove replaces Andrea Leadsom, another Leaver, who as Commons leader now gets to oversee the speeding legislative freight train that is the Great Repeal Bill, not to mention seven or eight other bits of Brexit legislation

Sunday

The Spectator

Full transcript: Graham Brady says there is ‘no appetite’ for Tory leadership contest

Here’s the full transcript from Andrew Neil’s interview with Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee, on the Sunday Politics show: AN: Graham Brady, you think Mrs May should soldier on, why? GB: Well, there’s no other party that is in a position to form a government. Clearly these aren’t the circumstances that either the Prime Minister or I or any of my colleagues would have wanted to be dealing with at the moment but they are the circumstances the electorate has presented us with and I think it’s our duty to make the best of that. It’s our duty to try to offer a government as resilient as

The Spectator

Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle in full – Michael Gove returns to the fold

Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle in full: Michael Gove makes a Cabinet return as Environment Secretary; Damian Green is promoted to ‘First Secretary of State’, replaced as Work & Pensions Secretary by David Gauke, who is replaced as Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Liz Truss, formerly Justice Secretary. David Lidington replaces Truss; Andrea Leadsom is the new Leader of the House of Commons Liam Fox is reappointed as Secretary of State for International Trade; Justine Greening stays put as Education Secretary; Sajid Javid will remain Communities Secretary; Alun Cairns keeps his job as Secretary of State for Wales; Gavin Williamson remains Chief Whip; Jeremy Hunt stays put as Health Secretary; Chris Grayling stays as Transport Secretary; Priti

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Fallon: Cabinet have told Theresa May she has to change

Theresa May might still be in office, but she is not in power in anything like the way she was before. On the Marr Show, Michael Fallon made clear that the Cabinet had told Theresa May to drop her two chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, and that they had told her that there would have to be more collective decision making from now on. Fallon’s interview made clear that May now serves at the pleasure of the Cabinet. I suspect that as soon as they think she can be removed without prompting another election, she will be. But one thing helping May stay in Number 10 is

Philip Sime

Is the UK heading for a soft Brexit? The German press now thinks so

Senior figures in Europe have spent the last few days pondering how Theresa May’s bungled election gamble will affect the upcoming Brexit negotiations. To the surprise of many, May, who campaigned to remain in the EU, had apparently set the UK on course for a hard Brexit, which involved leaving the single market behind. There was also the famous line that: ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’. Now though, May’s botched election leaves a question mark over her Brexit strategy. These shifting political sands have not gone unnoticed on the continent, where politicians and bureaucrats are sharpening their pencils ahead of the start of Brexit negotiations. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung today reports