TMay’s great current strength is that there’s little conviction that anyone else could do better
So another day of Theresa May’s leadership begins and no doubt she will be under pressure yet again by her party and maybe even the official opposition about her stance and approach to Brexit. Later she’s facing the Conservative backbench 1922 committee of which there was some overblown talk over the weekend off this being a “show trial.” That of itself illustrated the schism within the party.
Well the rhetoric has been toned down a fair bit and the PM had a relatively assured performance in Parliament a couple of days ago.
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The real strength of her position at the moment is that there’s little conviction amongst voters that any other leader could make a better job of dealing with the Brexit negotiations.
The polling from YouGov featured in the chart above illustrates this quite strikingly with just 25% believing that someone else would be making a better fist of it.
We are where we are and clearly the PM’s main objective in honouring the referendum outcome must be to ensure that this huge constitutional change results in as little possible damage to the economy.
What the process has shown is that Brexit is far more complex than any of its proponents have ever been ready to acknowledge. TMay is, in that famous description by Ken Clarke, a “difficult woman” and we are seeing it every day.
DDavis, the man being tipped as a temporary replacement, has been damaged by the widely publicised Tweet sent by the man he personally appointed as his BrexSec Chief of Staff, Stewart Jackson. That, his detractors argue, says a lot about his judgement.