Theresa may

Wednesday

Melanie McDonagh

Why politics and parenthood should be natural allies

From our UK edition

When Sadiq Khan was doing the rounds in his mayoral campaign he would, every so often, include some reference to his two daughters. He didn’t make a big deal of it; this wasn’t creepy or boastful in a Donald Trump way but the message was clear: he was an ordinary bloke and having a couple of daughters meant he had skin in the game when it came to issues such as law and order and schools. It also helped make the point that he was a Muslim feminist. He showed that it was quite possible for parenthood to be an asset in politics without its converse, an inability to have children, being a disadvantage. It’s one of those things that’s a plus but not a minus the other way.

Tuesday

Ross Clark

A traditional family life is now a political handicap

From our UK edition

'I’m a gay woman with strong northern working-class roots,' Angela Eagle told Robert Peston on Sunday. 'I think I’m the right person for this job at this time.' In case we didn’t get the point she followed it up this morning by boasting: 'I’m a northern working-class girl who understands modern life.' How outrageous that Jeremy Corbyn’s challenger should bring her class, her geographical birthplace and her sexuality into the leadership debate, suggesting that they would make her a more suitable leader than Corbyn.   Or maybe it isn’t outrageous that someone should draw on their personal experiences while campaigning for office.

Brendan O’Neill

Thanks to the sneerocrats, the political bores are back in power

From our UK edition

Never mind bureaucracy. Forget technocracy. Put to the back of your mind the rising lawyerocracy, like those 1,000 puffed-up, demos-fearing lawyers who yesterday insisted that the EU referendum result is not binding. For there’s a worse 'ocracy than those, one which has an even greater draining effect on politics, one which leeches the life and colour from public debate. And that’s the sneerocracy, the rise of a meme-making, mick-taking, cynicism-stoking Twitterati and commentariat who never — but never — give a politician the benefit of the doubt and whose trade is snide rather than substance. Consider the fall of Andrea Leadsom. I know, I know: the only thing we’re meant to say about Leadsom is ‘Ding dong, the witch is dead’.

Steerpike

Is Theresa May the Daily Mail’s Manchurian candidate?

From our UK edition

News of Theresa May's coronation as the next Prime Minister is - as you'd expect - emblazoned on the front page of every newspaper today. However, the Daily Mail has gone one step further than its rivals -- claiming, pretty much, that it enstooled May itself. And  judging by its jubilations, if seems that Paul Dacre sees her as a Manchurian candidate programmed from High Street Kensington. In fact, on reading their article 'how the Mail backed May from the start', one could be forgiven for thinking that the paper's editor Paul Dacre was moving into No.10 with May come Wednesday: 'The Daily Mail was the first newspaper to throw its weight behind Theresa May in the race to succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister.

Tom Goodenough

‘May Day’: How the papers reacted to our new PM-in-waiting

From our UK edition

David Cameron is now in in his last full day in Downing Street and already all eyes are on the woman who will replace him. Theresa May is on the front of every newspaper this morning as she prepares to take over at No.10. Here's how the papers have greeted Britain's new PM-in-waiting: The Daily Mail, which backed Theresa May in the Tory leadership race, relishes the prospect of her taking over from David Cameron. On its front page, the paper describes the handover as the 'Coronation of Theresa' - making a big show of her promise to heal rifts and make Brexit a success. Don't expect such uncompromising praise to last though: the hard work of negotiation starts now and the Mail won't be alone in holding May to her pledge to make Brexit work.

Monday

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May vows to ‘make a success’ of Brexit

From our UK edition

Theresa May's speech outside Parliament was all about conciliation: she made a point of paying tribute to Andrea Leadsom and David Cameron before giving a brief summary of what May's Britain will look like. She said her focus was on uniting Britain and, once again, she spelt out that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ – a phrase she has used again and again, which says absolutely nothing about what she thinks Brexit means. Surrounded by MPs and standing next to her husband Philip, she had this to say outside the Commons: 'I am honoured and humbled to have been chosen by the Conservative Party to become its leader.

Harry Cole

‘The claws are never far away’: inside the court of Theresa May

From our UK edition

There are plenty who have been left bruised by May’s decade and a half at the top of the Conservative party, but even her worst enemies concede that the woman who is to become the next Prime Minister has shown a remarkable durability in high office. She’s the longest-serving Home Secretary in half a century, and has made a success of what’s very often a career-ending job. A long-retired party grandee recalls May, then newly elected to Parliament, approaching him in 1997 to ask what she must do to succeed. ‘Ignore the little things,’ he replied. It’s advice that her critics reckon she has firmly ignored ever since.

Cindy Yu

Coffee House Shots: Leadsom drops out – what next for May?

From our UK edition

Over the course of the past weekend, Andrea Leadsom has come under fire for her comments on having children. Such media scrutiny has proved too much for Leadsom as she announced her withdrawal from the Tory leadership campaign. With this leaving Theresa May as the only candidate for Prime Minister and Conservative party leader, what will happen next? Joining Isabel Hardman for Coffee House shots today is Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. On the podcast, James Forsyth describes how Andrea Leadsom lost her confidence in the contest: ‘Most of the people who’d voted for Michael Gove were moving over to the Theresa May camp, so she really would have been quite an isolated figure leading the party.

James Forsyth

Can Theresa May nurse the Tories back to health?

From our UK edition

It might prove easier for the Tories’ new leader Theresa May to reunite the party post referendum than expected. First, many Tory MPs have been taken aback by the brutality of the past few weeks. They know how close the party is to entering into a post-Maastricht cycle of political violence and there appears to be a desire to pull back from the brink. Second, both sides have had their pound of flesh. The Leavers have seen David Cameron resign and George Osborne see his leadership hopes dashed; the Remainers have seen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove brought low by the leadership contest. May’s biggest challenge will, obviously, be to negotiate a Brexit deal that is acceptable to both the country and the Tory parliamentary party.

Isabel Hardman

And then there was one… Theresa May’s team prepare for government

From our UK edition

Chris Grayling has given this very brief statement on behalf of Theresa May in the past few minutes: ‘Can I start by thanking on behalf of Theresa May and on behalf of everyone involved in Theresa’s campaign team by thanking and paying a warm tribute to Andrea Leadsom. Her actions this morning have shown what a principled and decent politician she is and how willing she is to put the interests of the country before her own. She is a true public servant. Theresa is currently on her way back to London from Birmingham and she will make a statement later today. But on her behalf I’d just like to say that she is enormously honoured to have been entrusted with this task by so many of her parliamentary colleagues.

Lara Prendergast

Graham Brady rules out re-opening the Tory leadership contest

From our UK edition

Following Andrea Leadsom's announcement that she is bowing out of the leadership race, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, has confirmed that Theresa May is now the only remaining candidate. While he refused to confirm that she was now the country's Prime Minister, he ruled out re-opening the contest, which means it is almost certain that May has got the top job. Gove has also voiced his support: Andrea Leadsom spoke with great dignity and courage today. I wish her every success in the future. We should now move as quickly as possible to ensure Theresa May can take over as leader. She has my full support as our next prime minister.

Nick Cohen

The martyrdom of St Andrea

From our UK edition

He may have died in the seventeenth century but in his Mysterie of Rhetoric Unvail’d  of 1657 John Smith showed he understood how sneaks such as Andrea Leadsom operate.  Defining the rhetorical device of 'apophasis', Smith described it as A kind of irony, whereby we deny that we say or doe that which we especially say or doe Leadsom proved herself the queen of denying what she says and does: the apotheosis of apophasis. She made a political issue of the childlessness of Theresa May, a loss we know is a matter of sorrow to the Home Secretary and her husband, as it is to many couples, while denying that she was politicising the private life of her opponent.

Fraser Nelson

Andrea Leadsom drops out of leadership race

From our UK edition

In what must be the shortest-lived leadership campaign in the history of the Conservative Party, Andrea Leadsom has just announced that she's dropping out. She said in her resignation statement that there was not "sufficient support" from her colleagues - perhaps a nod to how many of them said that they would quit the party if she won. She said she wants "the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister". And that woman, she said, must be Theresa May. In the four days since the formal leadership race began, it became painfully obvious that Ms Leadsom was simply unfit for the job. She messed up an interview with The Times, saying she didn't want to attack Theresa May for being childless but going on to do just that.

Isabel Hardman

Andrea Leadsom: Theresa May is ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit

From our UK edition

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the Tory leadership race, saying ‘the best interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister’ and that she did not have sufficient support to lead a strong and stable government. She said Theresa May was ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit and that she would withdraw immediately so that the new Prime Minister could be appointed immediately. Leadsom did not mention the torrid weekend that she has had, in which she sustained heavy criticism for her comments about having children giving her a ‘direct stake’. But even her supporters had come away from the past few days concluding that she was naive and on a steep learning curve.

Tom Goodenough

Andrea Leadsom gives an apology of sorts. But is it too late?

From our UK edition

Andrea Leadsom initially tried to go on the attack following the row over her motherhood comments sparked by an article in the Times on Saturday. Today, the Tory leadership candidate appears to be attempting a different technique to put out this fire for good. At first, she was 'disgusted' by the presentation of the piece which suggested she was a better choice for PM than Theresa May because she had children. Today, she had this to say: 'I've already said to Theresa how very sorry I am for any hurt that I have caused and how that article said completely the opposite of what I said and believe.' The problem for Leadsom, though, is that her apology doesn't really cut it. It's clear from what she is saying that she is only sorry still for the way the article was presented.

Sunday

Alex Massie

What kind of Brexit has Britain chosen? We need a general election to find out

From our UK edition

Britain voted for Brexit so Brexit is going to have to happen. That's the way it works and there's no point in Remainers wishing otherwise. But if Britain evidently voted for Brexit it is far less clear what kind of Brexit it voted for. As with the death of old man Talleyrand, we are left to wonder what the British people meant by this. Some things are becoming clearer, however and one of those things is that Andrea Leadsom does not actually need to win the Tory leadership battle to win the Brexit war. If Brexit trumps everything else, Leadsom may win even if Tory members choose Theresa May. Theresa May may have been a super-reluctant Remainer but she is going to have to campaign as though she was a mildly-reluctant Leaver.

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

The reason Theresa May is the better candidate has nothing to do with motherhood

From our UK edition

Well! It hasn’t taken long for the commentariat to get over their excitement at the prospect of another female prime minster, has it? Can you imagine what the Guardian would be making of it were the contest between Angela and Maria Eagle, Venus and Serena Williams-style (or even, David and Ed Miliband-style)? It’d be triumph for feminism, a belated victory for the kind of positive discrimination gender politics which has proved so terrifically successful in the Labour party. Well, it turns out that it’s not just a woman that feminists wants, it’s a particular kind of woman. Their kind of woman. No others need pretend to the gender. The knives, in short are out for Andrea Leadsom.

Isabel Hardman

Why Andrea Leadsom may still benefit from her naive comments about motherhood

From our UK edition

One of the rules of modern leadership contests is that at some point there is an almighty row about whether one of the candidates is just better than the other because she happens to have had children of her own. Labour reached that stage on 6 July 2015 when Helen Goodman wrote a piece saying she was supporting Yvette Cooper because she was a mother, which the Liz Kendall camp took exception to. The Tories reached it almost exactly a year later when Andrea Leadsom gave an interview to the Times in which she said she had a ‘real stake in the future of our country’ because she has children.

James Forsyth

May must sound optimistic about Brexit

From our UK edition

Theresa May’s biggest weakness in the Tory leadership race is that she backed Remain while most Tory members went Leave. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, if she can sound confident and optimistic about Brexit, then she will win and become Britain’s next Prime Minister. May needs to make clear that now the referendum result is in, she’s sees Brexit as an opportunity to be seized, not as a risk to be managed. She can’t afford to cede optimism on this to Andrea Leadsom. I understand that her Leave-voting supporters—Liam Fox, Priti Patel, David Davis and her campaign chair Chris Grayling—will all be out and about this weekend saying that May is the person to deliver exit.

Friday

James Forsyth

It will be a closer race than expected between May and Leadsom

From our UK edition

Most Tory MPs are back in their constituencies today, and several of those that I have spoken to are now predicting a closer race between May and Leadsom than Westminster expected. One May supporting MP tells me that the councillors they have spoken to are intrigued by Leadsom, a fresh face they want to hear more about. There’s also a view among many members, I’m told, that MPs wouldn’t have sent Leadsom through to the final two if she wasn’t qualified to be Prime Minister. For the next few weeks, I intend to take all polling of Tory members on this race with a pinch of salt. Why? Because Leadsom -- unlike Boris, say -- isn’t that well known and so her numbers could go up, or down, when members hear more about her, her experience and her views.