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| How much more of this suffering can Theresa May take? | How much more of this suffering can Theresa May take? |
| (30 days later) | |
| It was another terrible week for the prime minister, who has now been forced to jettison two cabinet ministers | It was another terrible week for the prime minister, who has now been forced to jettison two cabinet ministers |
| Toby Helm and | Toby Helm and |
| Dulcie Lee | Dulcie Lee |
| Sun 12 Nov 2017 00.04 GMT | Sun 12 Nov 2017 00.04 GMT |
| Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 15.30 GMT | |
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| During the 2015 general election campaign, Theresa May was holding a press conference in a basement in Ramsgate, Kent, when the lights suddenly blew and the room was cast into darkness. | During the 2015 general election campaign, Theresa May was holding a press conference in a basement in Ramsgate, Kent, when the lights suddenly blew and the room was cast into darkness. |
| Henry Macrory, the Conservative party’s former head of press was with her, and remembers the way May, then home secretary, responded. “She just kept going,” he recalls. “Then she said ‘Next question’ before a voice piped up from out of the blackness asking her to explain some policy or other. If it had been David Cameron he would have just said: ‘Come on all of you, let’s adjourn to a bar and talk there’. But because it was Theresa we just carried on as if nothing had happened.” | Henry Macrory, the Conservative party’s former head of press was with her, and remembers the way May, then home secretary, responded. “She just kept going,” he recalls. “Then she said ‘Next question’ before a voice piped up from out of the blackness asking her to explain some policy or other. If it had been David Cameron he would have just said: ‘Come on all of you, let’s adjourn to a bar and talk there’. But because it was Theresa we just carried on as if nothing had happened.” |
| On Thursday evening May was pressing on as normal again after another terrible day in the latest unremittingly dreadful week of her premiership. Hours after sacking a second cabinet minister – the international development secretary, Priti Patel, in the space of seven days – she headed, with a present and a card in hand, to the Stationers’ Hall in the City of London to celebrate Paul Dacre’s 25 years as editor of the Daily Mail. There was clearly no government crisis so grave as to make her strike that engagement from the diary. | On Thursday evening May was pressing on as normal again after another terrible day in the latest unremittingly dreadful week of her premiership. Hours after sacking a second cabinet minister – the international development secretary, Priti Patel, in the space of seven days – she headed, with a present and a card in hand, to the Stationers’ Hall in the City of London to celebrate Paul Dacre’s 25 years as editor of the Daily Mail. There was clearly no government crisis so grave as to make her strike that engagement from the diary. |
| This weekend the future of her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is in growing doubt after yet another diplomatic blunder. Her closest ally, Damian Green, is under investigation by the cabinet secretary for allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards a female journalist and claims that pornography was found on his Commons computer. He denies both allegations vehemently. | This weekend the future of her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is in growing doubt after yet another diplomatic blunder. Her closest ally, Damian Green, is under investigation by the cabinet secretary for allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards a female journalist and claims that pornography was found on his Commons computer. He denies both allegations vehemently. |
| She is an extraordinarily resilient woman. Can she handle this? Yes she can, and probably indefinitely | She is an extraordinarily resilient woman. Can she handle this? Yes she can, and probably indefinitely |
| May has no Commons majority, having blown it in June’s disastrous general election, as she tries to take hugely contentious Brexit legislation through parliament. The NHS is heading for a dreadful winter, unable to cope. Cabinet ministers seem to be lobbying openly for more money for their departments – big injections of cash for health and housing – ahead of a “make or break” budget with half the cabinet wanting the chancellor who will deliver it, Philip Hammond, to be sacked for pushing for a soft Brexit. He has no money to dispense anyway as the economy stutters. “Wherever you look, whether it is the future of Boris and Damian, Brexit, the budget, there is no obvious route out for her,” says one former cabinet colleague. | May has no Commons majority, having blown it in June’s disastrous general election, as she tries to take hugely contentious Brexit legislation through parliament. The NHS is heading for a dreadful winter, unable to cope. Cabinet ministers seem to be lobbying openly for more money for their departments – big injections of cash for health and housing – ahead of a “make or break” budget with half the cabinet wanting the chancellor who will deliver it, Philip Hammond, to be sacked for pushing for a soft Brexit. He has no money to dispense anyway as the economy stutters. “Wherever you look, whether it is the future of Boris and Damian, Brexit, the budget, there is no obvious route out for her,” says one former cabinet colleague. |
| How much more can May take? Macrory cites the Ramsgate power cut episode as an instructive tale which give clues about this prime minister’s durability. It shines a light, he suggests, on her doggedness in dark times, her focus, her seriousness of purpose. Others who have worked with May bear this out. She may not be the most inspirational leader but she has an armoury of personal qualities and characteristics which they say make her oddly well suited to surviving the worst of political times, the most intense periods of pressure. | How much more can May take? Macrory cites the Ramsgate power cut episode as an instructive tale which give clues about this prime minister’s durability. It shines a light, he suggests, on her doggedness in dark times, her focus, her seriousness of purpose. Others who have worked with May bear this out. She may not be the most inspirational leader but she has an armoury of personal qualities and characteristics which they say make her oddly well suited to surviving the worst of political times, the most intense periods of pressure. |
| Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign and defence secretary, describes the current times as worse than the John Major years in which he served in the cabinet “but not dramatically so”. He says that while May has proved herself a “lousy” campaigner she is well equipped to fight on as Major did for years. “I first got to know her on the intelligence and security committee,” he says. She was always strong under pressure and managed her type-one diabetes with great courage. “She is an extraordinarily resilient woman. Can she handle this? Yes she can, and probably indefinitely.” | Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign and defence secretary, describes the current times as worse than the John Major years in which he served in the cabinet “but not dramatically so”. He says that while May has proved herself a “lousy” campaigner she is well equipped to fight on as Major did for years. “I first got to know her on the intelligence and security committee,” he says. She was always strong under pressure and managed her type-one diabetes with great courage. “She is an extraordinarily resilient woman. Can she handle this? Yes she can, and probably indefinitely.” |
| While others struggle to see why she would want to inflict more on herself, Rifkind believes she will have no doubt that she can and must soldier on. A good number of people in the Tory party who have seen May operating down the years have been struck by her ability to focus, her sense of duty, her apparent absence of self-doubt. They also note an unwillingness to contemplate the absurdities of politics. | While others struggle to see why she would want to inflict more on herself, Rifkind believes she will have no doubt that she can and must soldier on. A good number of people in the Tory party who have seen May operating down the years have been struck by her ability to focus, her sense of duty, her apparent absence of self-doubt. They also note an unwillingness to contemplate the absurdities of politics. |
| A former party worker who helped her with media appearances while in opposition recalls how she insulates herself by not reading newspapers, allowing only a few trusted advisers to tell her what she needs to know. “She is different to other politicians. She does not read the press. She keeps her focus very narrow, on her duty. In her personal relations with staff she is cold, curt and formal and she has no ability to laugh at herself,” says the former aide. Her life, he remembers thinking, always revolves around the serious business of politics and little else. “In the current context most people would say ‘Sod this for a game of soldiers’ and go and do something else that appeals to them. But from what I saw, there is nothing else that she knows. So I think she will just kick on.” | A former party worker who helped her with media appearances while in opposition recalls how she insulates herself by not reading newspapers, allowing only a few trusted advisers to tell her what she needs to know. “She is different to other politicians. She does not read the press. She keeps her focus very narrow, on her duty. In her personal relations with staff she is cold, curt and formal and she has no ability to laugh at herself,” says the former aide. Her life, he remembers thinking, always revolves around the serious business of politics and little else. “In the current context most people would say ‘Sod this for a game of soldiers’ and go and do something else that appeals to them. But from what I saw, there is nothing else that she knows. So I think she will just kick on.” |
| Baroness Anne Jenkin, the Tory peer who knows May well, sees that same indomitability. Crisis management, she infers, is a task that in some respects seems made for May. “Resilience and stamina are two of the most important characteristics in politics, and Theresa May has both in spades. Since June she has faced numerous unexpected challenges and has kept calm and carried on. She has diligently continued with her constituency engagements and her other routines as well as dealing with crisis after crisis and the biggest constitutional change in our lifetimes. Most of us would have hidden under the duvet or packed it in.” | Baroness Anne Jenkin, the Tory peer who knows May well, sees that same indomitability. Crisis management, she infers, is a task that in some respects seems made for May. “Resilience and stamina are two of the most important characteristics in politics, and Theresa May has both in spades. Since June she has faced numerous unexpected challenges and has kept calm and carried on. She has diligently continued with her constituency engagements and her other routines as well as dealing with crisis after crisis and the biggest constitutional change in our lifetimes. Most of us would have hidden under the duvet or packed it in.” |
| In her Maidenhead constituency, May is very much admired as a dutiful local MP. But last week there was a growing sense that her good qualities may not be enough. On the day May sacked Patel, Carol Dane, 80, a florist, was sweeping up around her flower stand in the centre of town. She says she is “sick of hearing all this going on in parliament” adding that “it is a very strange world they live in”. | In her Maidenhead constituency, May is very much admired as a dutiful local MP. But last week there was a growing sense that her good qualities may not be enough. On the day May sacked Patel, Carol Dane, 80, a florist, was sweeping up around her flower stand in the centre of town. She says she is “sick of hearing all this going on in parliament” adding that “it is a very strange world they live in”. |
| Dane describes herself as “not naturally Conservative” but says she likes May and had made bouquets for her on several occasions. But she adds: “Since she has become prime minister, I’m not sure. I think Brexit is all too much for her – it’s probably too much for anybody. She seemed quite an efficient, no-nonsense woman. But she seems to have lost her way. There’s no loyalty to her. The poor woman – at the end of the day she’s going to be the one going down in the history books as not doing a very good job.” | Dane describes herself as “not naturally Conservative” but says she likes May and had made bouquets for her on several occasions. But she adds: “Since she has become prime minister, I’m not sure. I think Brexit is all too much for her – it’s probably too much for anybody. She seemed quite an efficient, no-nonsense woman. But she seems to have lost her way. There’s no loyalty to her. The poor woman – at the end of the day she’s going to be the one going down in the history books as not doing a very good job.” |
| Drumming up support for his Indian food stand nearby, David Rhys Price, 64, erupts with laughter at the mention of May’s name. “She had everything going for her, and she screwed it up big time,” he says. “Before the election we always thought of her as being a good local MP – she’s empathetic, she does good surgeries. As a local MP she was absolutely top-notch. But as a prime minister I think she’s disappointing. I think it’s her lack of judgment, awareness, nous.” | Drumming up support for his Indian food stand nearby, David Rhys Price, 64, erupts with laughter at the mention of May’s name. “She had everything going for her, and she screwed it up big time,” he says. “Before the election we always thought of her as being a good local MP – she’s empathetic, she does good surgeries. As a local MP she was absolutely top-notch. But as a prime minister I think she’s disappointing. I think it’s her lack of judgment, awareness, nous.” |
| Zaheer Saddique, 40, a Labour supporter, agrees: “Generally, I think she was a good home secretary, a very experienced politician, but I think she’s a bit out of her depth here. She was dealt a bad hand. I do feel sorry for her, but I mean, there are things she could have done ... She has come across as an inexperienced leader.” | Zaheer Saddique, 40, a Labour supporter, agrees: “Generally, I think she was a good home secretary, a very experienced politician, but I think she’s a bit out of her depth here. She was dealt a bad hand. I do feel sorry for her, but I mean, there are things she could have done ... She has come across as an inexperienced leader.” |
| Back at Westminster, no Tory doubts May’s toughness and resolve. Those who know her but who do not necessarily believe she is good at being prime minister think that she can, possibly, tough it out to end of this parliament because of who she is. They say she will view each crisis as another to overcome in the name of duty. | Back at Westminster, no Tory doubts May’s toughness and resolve. Those who know her but who do not necessarily believe she is good at being prime minister think that she can, possibly, tough it out to end of this parliament because of who she is. They say she will view each crisis as another to overcome in the name of duty. |
| But May has plenty of detractors too – those she dealt with brusquely or dismissively when a minister, and those she chose not to prefer on entering Downing Street. Plenty of Tory MPs and cabinet ministers are still raging about the election, and many question her judgment. The political difficulties and party management issues that lie on the near horizon are truly daunting. | But May has plenty of detractors too – those she dealt with brusquely or dismissively when a minister, and those she chose not to prefer on entering Downing Street. Plenty of Tory MPs and cabinet ministers are still raging about the election, and many question her judgment. The political difficulties and party management issues that lie on the near horizon are truly daunting. |
| One former cabinet colleague observes: “She is incredibly vulnerable. The party is aghast at what has gone on. She is brave but her judgment is terrible. Why did she not just sack Priti Patel by phone rather than have the circus of her returning from Africa to be told, with a whole day of the media following Priti’s flight back minute by minute? The budget and European Council in December (when a decision will be made on whether talks can move forward on to a post-Brexit trade deal) now become even more important for her, but there is not much sign that either will turn out well.” | One former cabinet colleague observes: “She is incredibly vulnerable. The party is aghast at what has gone on. She is brave but her judgment is terrible. Why did she not just sack Priti Patel by phone rather than have the circus of her returning from Africa to be told, with a whole day of the media following Priti’s flight back minute by minute? The budget and European Council in December (when a decision will be made on whether talks can move forward on to a post-Brexit trade deal) now become even more important for her, but there is not much sign that either will turn out well.” |
| Brexit is a poison in the Tory party that cannot be drained. May clearly believes there is nothing for it but to institutionalise the split in the party between hard and soft Brexiters at every turn by appointing equal numbers from each side to her cabinet to create balance between rival factions. | Brexit is a poison in the Tory party that cannot be drained. May clearly believes there is nothing for it but to institutionalise the split in the party between hard and soft Brexiters at every turn by appointing equal numbers from each side to her cabinet to create balance between rival factions. |
| In personnel terms, May has little or no room for manoeuvre. Last week some in the whips’ office were warning her against a bold, sweeping reshuffle to inject new blood and clean out the stables because she would create too many enemies among the sacked and disappointed and therefore put her Commons majority – which relies on the DUP – in even graver peril as crucial Brexit votes approach. She cannot yet dismiss Johnson because she is too weak, and Brexit hell would break loose if she did – but she will almost certainly have to if the Iranians increase the sentence on the imprisoned London mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whom he wrongly said was in that country training journalists. | In personnel terms, May has little or no room for manoeuvre. Last week some in the whips’ office were warning her against a bold, sweeping reshuffle to inject new blood and clean out the stables because she would create too many enemies among the sacked and disappointed and therefore put her Commons majority – which relies on the DUP – in even graver peril as crucial Brexit votes approach. She cannot yet dismiss Johnson because she is too weak, and Brexit hell would break loose if she did – but she will almost certainly have to if the Iranians increase the sentence on the imprisoned London mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whom he wrongly said was in that country training journalists. |
| If Green has to go, her defender-in-chief and the minister who chairs most cabinet committees will no longer be at her side, willing her on. Crucially, the future of two more of her most senior cabinet ministers is beyond her control. “Events could consume her, however determined she is just to plough on,” says another former minister. | If Green has to go, her defender-in-chief and the minister who chairs most cabinet committees will no longer be at her side, willing her on. Crucially, the future of two more of her most senior cabinet ministers is beyond her control. “Events could consume her, however determined she is just to plough on,” says another former minister. |
| Just as there are many Tories who think she has the strength to survive, many also believe that the sheer accumulation of problems could cause a tipping point. For all her strength, May has occasionally let the mask slip. She is not inhuman, and feels pain and pressure. Another former press aide recalls how she looked when she was party chairman in 2003 on the day Iain Duncan Smith quit as leader. | Just as there are many Tories who think she has the strength to survive, many also believe that the sheer accumulation of problems could cause a tipping point. For all her strength, May has occasionally let the mask slip. She is not inhuman, and feels pain and pressure. Another former press aide recalls how she looked when she was party chairman in 2003 on the day Iain Duncan Smith quit as leader. |
| “It is the only time I have seen it, but she looked utterly distraught and broken. She looked like she thought she could not survive as chairman and that her political career was over.” | “It is the only time I have seen it, but she looked utterly distraught and broken. She looked like she thought she could not survive as chairman and that her political career was over.” |
| She appeared just as forlorn at her Maidenhead count in June when the appalling election results came, and it was clear that the biggest gamble she has ever taken as a politician had backfired. She picked herself up afterwards to carry on. But how many more blows upon the bruise of that botched election can be withstood by this most dutiful and most beleaguered of prime ministers? | She appeared just as forlorn at her Maidenhead count in June when the appalling election results came, and it was clear that the biggest gamble she has ever taken as a politician had backfired. She picked herself up afterwards to carry on. But how many more blows upon the bruise of that botched election can be withstood by this most dutiful and most beleaguered of prime ministers? |
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