Theresa May will receive a rapturous reception from Tory activists tomorrow. She is not just their new leader, but—as I say in The Sun today—someone they see as one of their own. She joined the party as a teenager, met her husband at a Tory disco and still goes out canvassing most weekends. She’s also much closer to the activists in age than Cameron was when he became leader: she turns 60 today, Cameron was 39 when he became party leader.
But May should enjoy the applause on Sunday because her job is about to get harder. She is taking the unusual step of speaking on the opening day of conference to try and get Brexit out of the way. Number 10 hope that her addressing the issue on day one, will clear the decks for them to talk about domestic policy for the rest of the week.
Those hoping for specifics from May on Brexit are, I understand, going to be disappointed. I understand that when the Brexit Cabinet Committee last met a couple of weeks ago, May closed the meeting, with the message ‘no running commentary please’. ‘Having told everyone else not to provide a running commentary, she can’t do so herself’ says one member of the committee.
But this isn’t the 17th century, diplomatic negotiations can’t be conducted entirely in secret these days. Not least because some on the other side of this negotiation are keen to put the worst possible spin on Britain’s position as they try and poach business from this country.
Whenever the Brexit Ministers have tried to give a bit more definition on what Brexit means, Number 10 have slapped them down. But industry and the City need to know, at least, what the British government is trying to achieve. Without that, they warn, they are simply going to have to assume the worst case scenario.
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