Theresa may

Friday

Steerpike

Is Andrea Leadsom’s campaign already in breach of parliamentary rules?

From our UK edition

Since Andrea Leadsom announced her leadership bid, the Conservative candidate has been dogged by allegations that she lacks the experience and knowledge to lead her party -- let alone the country. Reports this week from Leadsom's former colleagues claiming she exaggerated her banking credentials on her CV have only fuelled concerns that she could be out of her depth. Now Mr S understands that Leadsom could be in breach of parliamentary rules over the registered address of her leadership campaign.

Alex Massie

Brexit has encouraged an eruption of nasty nativism. Why is anyone surprised by this?

From our UK edition

Even in an age of ridiculousness there is something preposterous about the sight of so many prominent Leavers clutching their pearls in horror as they contemplate the possibility - the real possibility - that Andrea Leadsom could become the next leader of the Conservative party and, by golly, Prime Minister too. I mean, where do they think she came from? Who created her? Mrs Leadsom's credentials to occupy the highest political office in the land come down to one single fact: she is the most virulently eurosceptic candidate available. That's a powerful thing, however, and those Leavers who think their creation can be safely kept in the laboratory may yet have cause to regret their complacency. Because it's not as easy as that. Sometimes things escape.

Thursday

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 7 July 2016

From our UK edition

Amid the bloodshed and chaos that followed David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister, Theresa May earned praise for seeking to convey calm and steadiness. In the speech with which she launched her bid to succeed him, she said: ‘I know I’m not a showy politician ...I don’t often wear my heart on my sleeve. I just get on with the job in front of me.’ These were just the kind of words that many people reeling from the Johnson-Gove fiasco were happy to hear from another possible prime minister. But there is already someone in a great office who could say these words with even greater conviction, and that is our head of state, the Queen.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 7 July 2016

From our UK edition

Home Conservative MPs set about finding two candidates for the party leadership to be put to party members as rival choices. Theresa May proved the frontrunner, gaining 165 votes in the first round, with Liam Fox least fancied, being eliminated in the first round with 16 votes, and Stephen Crabb gaining 34 and throwing in the towel. Boris Johnson, having been forced out of the contest by the sudden entry of his presumed supporter Michael Gove (who attracted 48 votes in the first round), gave his backing to the next most popular woman candidate among MPs, Andrea Leadsom, who polled 66. Mrs May said that the position of British citizens in the EU and those from the EU in Britain would be an issue in the negotiations with the EU.

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 7 July 2016

From our UK edition

Before she was murdered, Jo Cox MP had written most of a report. She worked on it jointly it with the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat for the Britain in the World project at the think-tank Policy Exchange. Its publication had been intended to coincide with that of the Chilcot report this week. Because of her shocking death, it is now delayed. But the project wants to continue her work, and the report’s bipartisanship. The essential point on which Mrs Cox (who opposed the Iraq war) and Mr Tugendhat (who served in it) agreed is that total non-intervention is not a foreign policy strategy. If Iraq shows the horrors of ill-planned intervention, Syria shows how non-intervention can cause worse suffering and instability.

Steerpike

Revealed: Andrea Leadsom’s recipe for a perfect British society

From our UK edition

After Michael Gove was knocked out of the Tory leadership race in today's vote, Theresa May will go head-to-head with Andrea Leadsom in the race to be the next Prime Minister. So, with a prospect of a Leadsom-led government now looming, what would Leadsom's Britain look like? Thanks to an old blog dating back to 2006, we have a glimpse of her vision for the country. What's more, it seems that Leadsom actually has a recipe for a 'perfect British society'.

Ross Clark

Labour preach feminism. Tories practise it

From our UK edition

So now it is certain: the Conservatives will produce Britain’s second female Prime Minister, after Andrea Leadsom eliminated Michael Gove from the leadership contest and will now go head-to-head with Theresa May in a vote of Conservative members to be announced on 9 September. So why isn’t the Left cheering this social advance? Instead, the bitching has already begun.   Andrea Leadsom is being savaged for being less than 100 per cent enthusiastic about gay marriage (bizarrely, she voted for and against in the same vote); while Theresa May is eviscerated for her proposal – since dropped – to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights.

Toby Young

I’ll vote for Theresa, but only if she passes these three tests

From our UK edition

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wanted Michael Gove to be in the final two in the Conservative leadership race and I’m disappointed that he isn’t. As a Conservative Party member, I’m willing to vote for Theresa May, but on three conditions. First, she commits to repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. I’m less fussed about whether and when she triggers Article 50 – it was the 1972 European Communities Act that surrendered British sovereignty by making European law superior to British law. Repeal that Act, then pass another Act preserving all the laws that would thereby be rendered invalid and then decide which of those laws we want to keep and which we don’t.

James Forsyth

With Gove gone, the Tories must now choose: experience or Brexiteer?

From our UK edition

So, Tory members will choose between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom to be their leader and the UK’s Prime Minister. May will enter the membership ballot as the firm favourite. She has the support of the vast majority of MPs and her experience—six years as Home Secretary and 17 years on the front bench—contrasts sharply with Leadsom, who has only been a Minister for two years. Leadsom’s main selling point, however, is that she supported Brexit while May did not. She will argue that the policy should be implemented by someone who believes in it and argued for it. Michael Gove’s elimination was not that surprising. His leadership bid could never get over the nature of his entry into the race, abandoning Boris Johnson at the last minute to run himself.

Seema Malhotra

Theresa May’s first test: guaranteeing EU citizens the right to stay

From our UK edition

On Sunday I watched in disbelief as Theresa May was asked about the status of EU citizens already in the UK. She failed to do the obvious – to guarantee as Home Secretary the rights of EU families living and working here to stay in Britain. In a debate on Monday not a single MP on either side of the House - whether Leave or Remain - supported the Government’s position. An opposition motion to support rights of EU nationals yesterday won by 245-2. Theresa May appears on course to become our next Prime Minister. She will have the responsibility on her shoulders of clearing up the mess we are in. This is her first test. This also is partly her mess. She is a Remainer who didn’t campaign. She played no meaningful role in the campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

The Spectator

Why the Tories should send May and Gove to the country

From our UK edition

As a radical paper, The Spectator has always been an admirer of Michael Gove, particularly his education reforms. He was, perhaps, a little too radical when abandoning Boris Johnson at the eleventh hour last week – but let it not be said that he lacks the steel needed to become Prime Minister. Andrea Leadsom was impressive during the referendum campaign and might be a triumph as Prime Minister. But there is only one battle-tested Brexiteer in this contest – and he is Michael Gove. Tory MPs will today choose which two candidates they will ask the membership to choose between. The glitch in the voting system means they get to choose with only one vote.

Roger Alton

Wimbledon’s ultimate one-up man

From our UK edition

What a well-behaved Wimbledon. Apart from a bit of racket-smashing (most of the ladies), low-level swearing (Nick Kyrgios), tantrums (Kyrgios), and egregious non-trying (Kyrgios again, of course) it has all gone pretty-smoothly. So whatever happened to top-class gamesmanship? The master of this, you may be surprised to learn, was the greatest British player of all, the three-times Wimbledon champion Fred Perry. With great natural charm and remarkable good looks, Perry —who was from humble origins — fitted effortlessly into the very upper-crust world of 1930s tennis. His sexual prowess was on an Olympic scale and he bagged some of the most-beautiful women in the world, from-Marlene Dietrich downwards. And few seemed to have a bad word for him.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Theresa May love bombs Tory MPs

From our UK edition

The final parliamentary hustings of the Tory leadership contest has now taken place. With Theresa May assured of a place in the final two, the real interest was in whether Andrea Leadsom or Michael Gove could extract more from the occasion. Leadsom was first up, and I understand gave a better performance than she had on Monday night. She joked at the end of her speech, ‘I’m a quick learner—note I didn’t use the expression baby’s brains once’. But concerns were raised by her saying that she wouldn’t publish her tax return now but would let Tory MPs come and look at it if they wanted to.  Her answer that she would use trade envoys to negotiate a new trade deal with Europe also raised eyebrows from old hands.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Theresa May watches on…

From our UK edition

The Labour party’s in-growing toenail, Jeremy Corbyn, (not to be removed without much screaming and blood), behaved like a man on a zero-hours contract today. He skedaddled through his six questions as if dashing away to another gig at 12.30. But doing what? Perhaps auctioning off the ‘Remain’ badges he bought in June at ‘lastminute.com’. At least he’s stopped reciting bleaty letters from Momentum supporters posing as undecided voters. Instead he played the internal politics game. He welcomed the chancellor’s decision to abandon fiscal prudence and to commit Britain to bankruptcy until 2020 and beyond. Big spender Corbyn has always wanted to splash other people’s money around like a dictator’s wife at Jimmy Choos.

Steerpike

The Spectator summer party, in pictures | 6 July 2016

From our UK edition

In recent weeks, Westminster politicians have found themselves compared to the characters of House of Cards and Game of Thrones over their post-referendum antics. Happily, parliamentarians were able to put such differences aside on Wednesday night as they took a well-deserved break from work at The Spectator summer party. As Labour's Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall caught up with Liz Truss, Laurence Fox -- the Lewis actor -- put on a passionate display for the cameras with his male companion for the evening. Meanwhile with a Tory leadership contest underway, Theresa May made sure to do the rounds and rally support for her campaign at the champagne-fuelled bash.

Brendan O’Neill

Brexit Britain deserves a better PM than Theresa the Technocrat

From our UK edition

Please, no, not Theresa May. Theresa the technocrat, who doesn’t do ideology, passion or even gossip, would be the worst PM for Britain right now. Post-Brexit Britain, where politics has become interesting again, after 17.5m souls gave an otherworldly establishment just the fright it needed, needs a leader who is properly political, up for debate, and maybe even a ruck. Not May, not this apolitical politician, not this woman who says ‘I will get the job done’ as if she’s applying for a position in HR rather than Downing Street. Having May run Brexit Britain would be like having a bank manager referee a Mike Tyson fight. You can tell a lot about May from how she talks. She speaks in CVese.

Steerpike

Was ‘the deadly Mail’ right after all on Iraq, Michael Gove?

From our UK edition

Last week the Daily Mail endorsed Theresa May as the next Tory leader. The declaration took many by surprise as not only was it very early in the campaign to come out for a candidate, it had been thought that the paper might opt for Michael Gove -- after his wife Sarah Vine suggested Paul Dacre favoured him in a leaked email. So, why did Dacre snub Gove just a day after he announced his leadership ambitions? While some have taken it to be a sign that the Daily Mail editor was unimpressed by the manner in which the Justice Secretary had turned on Boris Johnson, could any ill-feeling run deeper than that? In 2004 when Gove was Saturday editor of the Times, he penned an article for The Spectator about Dacre and the Daily Mail.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

As Crabb drops out, can Gove pass Leadsom?

From our UK edition

Theresa May is, without a doubt, going to the membership round—and with the support of vastly more MPs than her opponent. In the first round, she won the support of 165 MPs—exactly half the eligible electorate. The question now is who will be her opponent? Andrea Leadsom finished second with 66 votes, Michael Gove was third on 48, Stephen Crabb got 34 and Liam Fox was eliminated after receiving 16 votes. Crabb has chosen to drop out of the race of his own accord after finishing fourth. If Gove is to overtake Leadsom, he is going to have to pick up a lot of votes from the Crabb pool. The Gove team hope they can do this by appealing on social reform grounds to Crabb’s supporters.

Fraser Nelson

Some thoughts on today’s Tory leadership elections

From our UK edition

You know what to expect: Theresa May wins, Andrea Leadsom comes second. Liam Fox forced out today, Stephen Crabb probably joins him voluntarily leaving Michael Gove to fight with Leadsom for second place – or, perhaps, both dropping out to let May take the crown. You also know that the expected stopped happening in British politics some time ago. Andrea Leadsom bombed in the Tory hustings last night; one Tory MP present told me that he’d have been embarrassed to have delivered a speech of that quality to a golf club. She finished by saying she was standing to be party leader then added, in a quiet voice as if even she didn’t quite believe it, 'and also as Prime Minister'.

Steerpike

Ken Clarke caught on camera discussing Tory leadership hopefuls – ‘Theresa is a bloody difficult woman’

From our UK edition

Don't expect to see Ken Clarke on Sky News anytime soon. The former Chancellor has been left red-faced after the broadcaster aired footage of him engaging in a very honest assessment of the Tory leadership -- not realising the camera was rolling. No candidate mentioned got off scot-free during his lively discussion with Sir Malcolm Rifkind. While raising the prospect of Michael Gove as Prime Minister, Clarke expressed concerns about his 'wild' views on foreign policy -- concluding that, with the Justice Secretary as PM, Britain would go to war with 'at least three countries at once': 'I remember having a discussion once about something we should do in Syria or Iraq and he was so wild that I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox., who's much more right-wing than me.