IN the wee hours of the morning, shortly after the results of the 2017 General Election were announced, I was asked on live television for my prediction on Theresa May’s future.
Only hours before, she had been proven to have made a monumental mistake in calling for the snap election. Confident that she would increase her majority and easily “crush the saboteurs” she had reneged on previous assurances she had made not to risk the disruption of an election so soon after the EU referendum.
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It had all gone horribly wrong for the Prime Minister and we were still reeling from the potential ramifications of such a catastrophic misjudgement.
Had I been gifted with the experience and savvy of the hardened commentators and journalists around me, I would have skilfully dodged the question. As it happened, I was slightly delirious from a lethal combination of being up all night, copious amounts of red-bull and my body adjusting to the unwelcome shock of my first sober election night in a decade.
So I answered – with an unwise air of confidence – that I expected Theresa May would promptly resign.
How easy it is to laugh now, with the benefit of bitter experience. Theresa May has proven to be virtually indestructible.
Regardless of the crisis or embarrassment, the Prime Minister keeps going. She is brazen and unflinching as the no-confidence letters mount up, penned by her own MPs and squirrelled away by chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.
She dances – as best she can, poor thing – as Boris Johnson openly challenges her authority in his £275,000 a year Telegraph column. Against all odds, she’s even managed to survive criticism from Tory Young Team founder Ross Thomson.
This week the DUP threatened to vote down the Government’s upcoming Budget if Theresa May’s Irish backstop on Brexit saw new barriers between Northern Ireland and Britain. It is expected that if defeated on the Budget, the Prime Minister could face a vote of no confidence.
Does such a prospect faze our intrepid Prime Minister? No, because she has a cunning strategy up her sleeve. She insisted she would just refuse to go. To hell with convention or stable government, the lady is not for quitting.
It is a bold display of political shrewdness, ingenious even. We’ve been underestimating her at our peril. What looks, on the surface, to be a weak Prime Minister clinging on for dear life is in fact a leader displaying an extraordinary level of resilience. It would be unkind to compare Theresa May to a cockroach, but there’s no doubt she is extraordinarily hardy.
She has become so inured to criticism from her detractors (which comprises of the entire country, save for her loving husband and the Downing Street cat) that she simply doesn’t care anymore.
In a recent interview she admitted that she’s stopped reading newspapers, because they are detrimental to her well-being.
We must also consider the very real possibility that she has taken to wandering around Downing St wearing ear-defenders, in case she accidentally hears negative feedback from her own advisers.
“Prime Minister, about your approval ratings ... “
“La-La-La, can’t HEAR YOU. I am the DANCING QUEEN, young and sweet ... “
She’s pulling off the most epic sit-in in political history and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it except watch on in horror and grudging admiration.
The public should mirror Theresa May’s resolve in their own workplaces. It will prove to be an in-valuable skill once the Brexit chaos really hits and companies start moving abroad.
When your co-workers complain that you are doing a terrible job and your boss agrees, brush it off. If Human Resources attempt to sack you, just thank them for their feedback and politely inform them that you will be returning to your desk and getting on with your work. You are a strong and stable employee and won’t allow the small matter of no confidence to force you to quit.
In view of my 100% failure rate in making bold predictions – and in service to the nation – I’ll make another one: Theresa May will survive a defeat on the budget.
She will survive a vote of no confidence. She will survive a leadership challenge.
She will survive any future nuclear Armageddon. I assert this with all the confidence and hopefulness of somebody who is often wrong. You can all thank me later.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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