Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Theresa May is in a very dangerous place: she is the frontrunner to be the next Tory leader.
The early favourite always emerges with a target on their back – which her allies claim goes a long way towards explaining why two of her special advisers have, spectacularly, been culled from the Tories’ candidates list this week despite her interventions on their behalf.
Things, a Secretary of State tells me, have ‘got really quite bitter’. It is a sign of the tension between May and Tory campaign HQ that her appeal for clemency for her aides was rejected.
Tensions: Theresa May is at odds with Tory HQ, a Secretary of State has revealed amid speculation she is the early favourite to be the next Tory leader And, tellingly, David Cameron was happy to agree to this humiliation of his Home Secretary.
Not least because he is fed up with the behaviour of her supporters as they have pushed her to the front of the pack. When May considered going for the job in 2005, she couldn’t muster any significant support within the party.
But nine years on, she is – according to the Conservative Home poll – the activists’ choice to succeed Cameron. She has been propelled to the front with the help of a loyal team who, as one Tory Minister observes, ‘would die in a ditch for her’.
But their tactics – and sharp elbows – have infuriated No 10 and Cabinet colleagues. They feel May’s team have put promoting her interests above the good of the party.
Now, to the barely disguised pleasure of some, they are reaping the whirlwind.
The tensions between May’s camp and the Tory leadership has become more acute the closer the General Election gets. Six months ago, May’s special adviser Fiona Cunningham was forced to resign by No 10. Cunningham had to quit after confidential Cabinet correspondence was published on the Home Office website in a spectacular breach of the rules.
Then, last week, two of May’s other special advisers – Nick Timothy and Stephen Parkinson – were removed from the candidates list for refusing a direct request to help out with the Rochester and Strood by-election. They underestimated how determined Tory chairman Grant Shapps is to have every Tory pulling their campaigning weight.
All the trouble can be traced back to a speech May gave last year in which she set out her own policy platform. At the next political Cabinet, Michael Gove lambasted her for putting her own ambitions ahead of loyalty to Cameron; Shapps was one of those who indicated his agreement.
What gives an edge to these hostilities is the assumption in Cabinet circles that Prime Minister May would find no room at her top table for Gove or another of Cameron’s closest allies, George Osborne. In recent months, there has been a rapprochement between this pair and Boris Johnson – but no improvement in relations between them and May.
Osborne and Gove are not alone in finding May difficult. One new member of the Cabinet confides: ‘She will not think of the consequences of shooting across somebody else’s brief. It is not the behaviour you expect from someone who wants to win friends and influence people.’
So, who wins from this row? Not May – but not Cameron either. With three months to go to the start of the Election campaign, the last thing he needs is a row with the person lined up to be its female voice. If the Tories can’t eradicate this kind of squabbling, they will lose the Election.
Taking a swing at victory...
David Cameron has urged everyone to rest this Christmas as it is the last chance they will have to do so before polling day David Cameron used the last Tory political Cabinet of the year to put his team on a war footing.
He was clear that he wants them out campaigning in marginal constituencies as much as possible between now and the official launch of the General Election campaign.
Tory Cabinet Ministers have been told to reveal everything in their diaries until March 30 so the campaign machine can line up as many visits to swing seats for them as possible.
Cameron has even demanded that any overseas travel is approved by him to ensure no one is out of the country without good reason.
But the PM has been cutting colleagues a bit of slack.
He has urged everyone to rest this Christmas as it is the last chance they will get to do so before polling day.
He has also pointed out that in 1992 the party went into the campaign seven points behind but won with a majority.
The worry for the Tories, though, is that the autumn statement earlier this month appears to have hurt them in the polls rather than helped them. Certainly, Labour MPs are more bullish about their chances than they have been for years.
Those in Ed Miliband’s team claim the polls the Christmas before an Election show who is going to win – and Labour is currently ahead. Miliband’s 45th birthday on Wednesday will be – in the words of one of his confidants – a ‘massively happier occasion’ than they would have imagined a month ago.
Party PM gets down to twerk
About 200 people were at the Camerons’ Christmas Chequers bash, but very few were politicians. George Osborne, Michael Gove and William Hague were the only members of the Cabinet there.
Indeed, Hague was the only politician invited from outside the Notting Hill set of MPs, an indication of just how hard it is for Westminster types to break into the Camerons’ fashionable social circle.
Perhaps the lack of Cabinet witnesses was just as well. For I am reliably informed by one of his guests that the Prime Minister took to the disco floor and – in a commendably exuberant approximation of the notorious Miley Cyrus dance move – was seen to twerk!
There is growing concern in diplomatic and military circles about what Vladimir Putin might get up to this Christmas.
The fear is that, with the Russian rouble in free fall and the oil price declining, Putin will lash out somewhere.
One senior Whitehall source warns darkly: ‘I wouldn’t want to spend Christmas on the Estonian border.’
Quotes of the week
Actress Scarlett Johansson said she doesn't like her 'thighs or mid-section' 'You can only kill my students over my dead body.'
Teacher Afsha Ahmed's final words before Taliban gunmen massacred neary 150 people at a school in Peshawar.
'What were you hoping to achieve? Did you think a pack of traders might gallop through reception, laughing maniacally as they threw burning banknotes in the air, quaffing champagne and brutally thrashing ornamental paupers they keep on diamante leashes?'
Bank worker Joseph Kynaston Reeves lambasts Russell Brand, who stormed his City office during an anti-capitalist stunt.
'I wouldn't say it's particularly remarkable... I don't like my thighs or my mid-section.'
Actress Scarlett Johansson regularly voted among the world's sexiest women, reveals she isn't happy with her body.
'It's my own fault for eating a bloody Lib Dem breakfast rather than my usual hearty full English.'
Tory MP David Davis, who cracked a tooth tucking into a bowl of muesli.
'They will always try to put the bear on a chain, and as soon as they succeed in doing so, they tear out his fangs and his claws.'
Vladimir Putin warns the West that he will not accept attempts to shackle Russia, as an economic crisis engulfs his country.
'Bob and the other regulars keep the pub open 11 months of the year while you're having dinner parties and bulk-buying booze from the supermarket. Yes, they get preferential treatment. Accept it.'
Plymouth landlord Steve Bowen tells once-a-year festive drinkers they'll have to abide by his rules.
'Everyone took it in their stride and demonstrated the professionalism of pie-eating at this level.'
Tony Callaghan after an eating contest at his Wigan bar was declared void - because the pies were the wrong size.
'Hollywood has done Neville Chamberlain proud today.'
Actor Rob Lowe accuses Sony bosses of appeasement after a comedy about North Korea's Kim Jong Un was pulled following threats by cyber-hackers.
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Kara Scott
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