I suspect May will limp on for a little while, but this is probably the beginning of the end.
Theresa May has said she has the "full support of her cabinet" after a former party chairman said there should be a Conservative leadership contest. The PM insisted she was providing the "calm leadership" the country needed. There has been leadership speculation since Mrs May's decision to call a snap general election backfired and the Conservatives lost their majority.
Grant Shapps says about 30 Tory MPs back his call for a leadership contest in the wake of the general election results and conference mishaps. But his claims prompted a backlash from loyal backbenchers, several of whom called on him to "shut up".
The Conservative conference this week was meant to be a chance to assert her authority over the party, but her big speech was plagued by a series of mishaps, as she struggled with a persistent cough, was interrupted by a prankster and some of the letters fell off the conference stage backdrop behind her.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41519601
May is useless, but her cabinet ministers are even more useless. So the Tories are ready for a leadership vote - what a gruesome rogues' gallery of candidates they'll have to present. Bad as she is - is May really as horrible as Boris, or the sepulchral Rees-Mogg?
ReplyDeleteOh, it'll be a choice of the least awful option, but for preference I'd go with Philip Hammond. Gove and Mogg are unelectable. Boris, I suspect, doesn't command the popularity he once did or thinks he still does.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor Hammond was once a Remainer it seems. An interesting choice.
ReplyDeleteThe worrying thing is the total dearth of credible people to replace her. Mainly a bunch of ultra right nutcases and liars. This is what happens when the membership withers away over the years and the only candidates coming through are Eton educated, independently wealthy career politicians who seem to all be dimwits.
ReplyDeleteDan Weese He's the only front-bencher I can think of that doesn't seem to be hugely unpopular with any major segment of their key voters or the electorate. The most unpleasant thing about him seems to be that he works with May. Of course, the corresponding weakness is that he has no major appeal to any particular sector either. But then I'm not a Tory voter.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Hammond has enough support from within the party. The hard Brexiteers hate him.
ReplyDeleteMy money is on David Davies.
Joerg Fliege Yet the Hard Brexiteers are fouled on their own anchors. It's finally coming into focus what a colossal botch they've made of it to date.
ReplyDeleteDan Weese , I think we are not quite there yet. The knuckledraggers have changed their story inasmuch they now say that the evil EU is out to punish them, but the ultra-hardliners around Mogg and Johnson still believe the country could survive a hard Brexit.
ReplyDeleteGive it until March, when most of the businesses and industry has gone into panic mode
I think Davies would be a credible candidate if he hadn't just said he was going to retire in 2019. If the Tories are not entirely politically inept, Hammond will replace May. They can see how badly they're doing in the polls - if they have half the political acumen they claim to have, they'll realise it's about more than May's personal idiocy. But if they are truly as rabidly stupid as they sometimes seem hell-bent on appearing, they'll go for another hard Brexiteer and crash and burn. Hammond is my preferred choice; of course what the party actually decides to do is anyone's guess. Few predicted Cameron's rise, after all.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to say that (if I may use a tired old cliche) it's now not a question of if May goes, but when. I'd guess sooner rather than later, but we'll see.