Even by the standards of Westminster politics, yesterday’s developments will be remembered for a long time. But meanwhile, in the short-term, Michael Gove’s decision to launch his own campaign – and Boris’ subsequent move to drop out – favours only one person in the Tory leadership race: Theresa May. The Home Secretary made her pitch as the quieter candidate who would just get on with the job. Amidst the noise of what looks set to be a nasty leadership campaign, that strategy already seems to be paying off.
This morning, May has won the backing of the Daily Mail. The paper described yesterday as one of the most ‘unedifying days in modern politics’. It went on to say that the Tory party was ‘in flames’ before saying that, in their view, there was only one candidate for the job: Theresa May. It says that ‘only Mrs May has the right qualities, the stature and experience to unite both her party and the country’. Getting such high-profile backing is unusual so early on in the leadership race. There are still five candidates vying it out and the first round of voting amongst Tory MPs won’t start until next week. Yet such support will do May no harm: the Daily Mail has the second highest percentage of Tory-voting readers amongst all the national newspapers, according to this YouGov poll. Almost six in ten readers voted Conservative at the last election – ahead of The Sun (47 per cent), the Times (51 per cent) and the Express (51 per cent). Of course this doesn’t mean all of these readers are Tory members who will get to vote in the leadership contest later on, but the Mail’s sustained backing over several months will be an invaluable boost for May.
The Home Secretary also gets backing in another paper, The Sun, from Patrick McLoughlin. May’s fellow Cabinet minister writes that:
‘I’ve watched colleagues around the Cabinet Table deal with crises of all sorts. A policy getting unexpected opposition, the political weather changing in unpredictable ways or the roller coaster of the economy.’
The Transport Secretary goes on to say that May has the ‘It’ factor. He also, crucially, points out that if his cabinet colleague was negotiating in Brussels, ‘Europe’s bosses would sit up and listen’. What’s more, another Cabinet minister – Michael Fallon – has also thrown his weight behind May’s campaign.
It’s true that, as the last week has shown us, a lot can happen in politics. It’s also worth remembering that being the frontrunner in a Tory leadership bout isn’t always the safest place to be – as Boris will no doubt vouch for. But of all those running in the contest, May will feel the most content with how things have started so far. With the backing of at least 70 Tory MPs, May is almost certainly going to make it onto the final shortlist which will go to voters. The only question now is whether she can sustain her momentum over the coming months and convince Conservative members she is the right person for the job.
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