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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/10/theresa-may-must-compromise-nicky-morgan
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| The PM should stay for the time being. But now she must learn how to compromise | |
| (1 day later) | |
| I thought no exit poll could be more momentous than the one revealed as polls closed in 2015. I was wrong. Across the country there was a collective gasp on Thursday night as a hung parliament was projected. What does a hung parliament mean for the country, for the Conservative party and for parliament? | I thought no exit poll could be more momentous than the one revealed as polls closed in 2015. I was wrong. Across the country there was a collective gasp on Thursday night as a hung parliament was projected. What does a hung parliament mean for the country, for the Conservative party and for parliament? |
| I asked my local party members early on Friday morning for their views. After all, they’ve spent the last seven weeks expending their shoe leather and getting drenched in the summer storms. The election result was a crushing blow to them, particularly as they rose so magnificently to the challenge of mounting a campaign with no advance warning. I wanted to know whether they thought the prime minister should stay or go. Most agree with me it is right that Theresa May is given the opportunity to form a government, but that her longer-term future as party leader is much less clear. | I asked my local party members early on Friday morning for their views. After all, they’ve spent the last seven weeks expending their shoe leather and getting drenched in the summer storms. The election result was a crushing blow to them, particularly as they rose so magnificently to the challenge of mounting a campaign with no advance warning. I wanted to know whether they thought the prime minister should stay or go. Most agree with me it is right that Theresa May is given the opportunity to form a government, but that her longer-term future as party leader is much less clear. |
| This campaign was meant to be about Brexit. We were told as the election was announced that “the country is coming together, but Westminster is still divided”. But the continuing divisions across the country were laid bare in the election result. Those in favour of Brexit remain so, although even they are divided about the type of Brexit they want to see. Whereas those who were against Brexit last year split into those who “accept it is happening, so we’d better make a success of it” and those who wish to keep the issue open. | This campaign was meant to be about Brexit. We were told as the election was announced that “the country is coming together, but Westminster is still divided”. But the continuing divisions across the country were laid bare in the election result. Those in favour of Brexit remain so, although even they are divided about the type of Brexit they want to see. Whereas those who were against Brexit last year split into those who “accept it is happening, so we’d better make a success of it” and those who wish to keep the issue open. |
| Much was made in the Conservative campaign of the fact that 11 days after polling day the Brexit negotiations would begin. This is a serious point and for that reason I think Theresa May should remain in office, and she and the Brexit secretary, David Davis, should start the negotiating process. Whether the prime minister is there at the end depends on how she now chooses to govern. | Much was made in the Conservative campaign of the fact that 11 days after polling day the Brexit negotiations would begin. This is a serious point and for that reason I think Theresa May should remain in office, and she and the Brexit secretary, David Davis, should start the negotiating process. Whether the prime minister is there at the end depends on how she now chooses to govern. |
| On the steps of Downing Street in July 2016 she talked about “tackling burning injustices”, and the Conservative manifesto rightly identifies five big challenges facing our country. The provision and funding of social care is a very real concern. I think we were right not to duck it, although announcing a detailed plan, without consultation, and then changing a key detail in the midst of the election was clearly unwise. These were judgments made at the very top of my party. | On the steps of Downing Street in July 2016 she talked about “tackling burning injustices”, and the Conservative manifesto rightly identifies five big challenges facing our country. The provision and funding of social care is a very real concern. I think we were right not to duck it, although announcing a detailed plan, without consultation, and then changing a key detail in the midst of the election was clearly unwise. These were judgments made at the very top of my party. |
| To get Brexit and major policies such as social care funding delivered, the government will now have to build a consensus across the Commons and it will need to compromise – including on Brexit demands as laid out in the Lancaster House speech. The decision to turn our back on the single market without exploring some form of alternative (perhaps Efta membership) is raised too regularly to be ignored any more. Ministers will have to be given permission to build a consensus with MPs from across the political spectrum, rather than just relying on the DUP. | To get Brexit and major policies such as social care funding delivered, the government will now have to build a consensus across the Commons and it will need to compromise – including on Brexit demands as laid out in the Lancaster House speech. The decision to turn our back on the single market without exploring some form of alternative (perhaps Efta membership) is raised too regularly to be ignored any more. Ministers will have to be given permission to build a consensus with MPs from across the political spectrum, rather than just relying on the DUP. |
| To make this work will require a major change of style and tone as well as substance from a government led by Theresa May. Relying on a narrow group of advisers is no longer an option, and there can be no more “citizens of nowhere”-style attacks that only serve to widen the divisions we desperately need to heal. The prime minister should, instead, look to the rest of her 2016 conference speech where she said “a change has got to come”. This is true. And the change has to come from her. | To make this work will require a major change of style and tone as well as substance from a government led by Theresa May. Relying on a narrow group of advisers is no longer an option, and there can be no more “citizens of nowhere”-style attacks that only serve to widen the divisions we desperately need to heal. The prime minister should, instead, look to the rest of her 2016 conference speech where she said “a change has got to come”. This is true. And the change has to come from her. |
| Nicky Morgan is the Conservative MP for Loughborough | Nicky Morgan is the Conservative MP for Loughborough |
| General election 2017 | General election 2017 |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Theresa May | Theresa May |
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