History will not judge Theresa May kindly, she was crowned
as someone who ‘got the job done’, the vicars daughter who would reach out to
those ‘just about managing’ and heal a country riven by austerity.
Instead she presided over the worst General Election
campaign from a sitting Prime Minister, failed to marginalise the most
ideologically-driven Labour leader since Michael Foot and deepened the divisions
caused by Brexit.
And when confronted by her unpopularity, when the political
winds demanded a change of course or an acknowledgement she could be wrong, she
buried her head in the sand.
Politicians of all colours need a keen eye and ear to work inside
and outside of the Westminster bubble, she possessed neither.
She called an unnecessary General Election in 2017. Jeremy
Corbyn will never appeal to the centre ground of British politics enough to
unseat a Conservative Government outright.
She began the campaign 20 points ahead in the opinion polls,
yet ended with a loss of a majority which took the Tories more than 20 years to
achieve.
During the campaign she was robotic, charmless and frankly
boring. Corbyn meanwhile energised the youth, inspired his supporters and
displayed his talents at rallies up and down the country.
When the Tory manifesto was scrutinised, instead of laying
out the reasons for change, May backtracked insisting ‘nothing has changed’. A
Prime Minister who offers the exotic tutti fruiti before racing back to plain
vanilla is not someone who has leadership licked.
Confronted with the loss of her majority, May could and
should have quit. Instead she sought a deal with the DUP, nothing wrong with
that of course except it came with £1billion of cash for Northern Ireland.
The voters were rightly annoyed to see the Magic Money Tree
sprout having been told ‘there’s no money left’ for seven years….
Faced with delivering Brexit, the biggest cultural shift our
country has demanded in five decades, Mrs May displayed a tin ear of epic
proportions.
The result was separated by just 1,269,501 votes. A majority
yes but not anything like the 10 per cent difference showed by the Scottish
people after their independence referendum.Delivering the voters mandate therefore required political skill and courage, she lacked both.
Successful British Prime Ministers govern for all, not just
those who elected them. Yet when she needed to carry her country with her, Mrs
May marginalised everyone who voted remain.
In countless speeches she referred to delivering the wishes
of the 17.4million who voted for Brexit. Had she delivered a Brexit for the
65million in this country, including all of Scotland which voted to remain, I
dare say she wouldn’t be in this mess today.We’re screaming out for leadership to carry us all forward as a country, to bring us back together. Because the British people didn’t do anything wrong, they were asked their opinion and gave it, no matter what side of the argument you are on that can never be a bad thing.
When her deal was published, it was rightly panned. It was a compromise she said, yet that wasn’t the binary choice on the ballot paper on June 23, 2016.
Faced with resignations, Mrs May acted tough, ‘My Deal or No
Brexit’ she attempted to roar. Leaders can do that when they have the numbers
to back the threat up with.
She never did, she presided over two of the biggest
Parliamentary defeats in our history as her own party and her DUP partners
baulked at backing the withdrawal agreement.
When she sought help from Corbyn, she expected Her Majesty’s
official opposition to ride to the rescue in the ‘national interest’.
She didn’t for once think a) her party might be a tad
annoyed at her legitimising a man they’ve deemed a threat to national security
and b) Corbyn would go along with the talks but stop short of helping.Labour doesn’t need to help her, Politics 101 tells you when the opponent is sinking never chuck a life raft.
She’s been doomed since a third of her MPs said they had no
confidence in her in December, had they waited until the spring the number
would have been much higher.
The simple truth is had the men in grey suits acted quicker,
had the opposition been much stronger, her time as PM would already be over.
Britain deserves better than this. The question is can
anyone out there rise to the challenge?
