Theresa may

Monday

Isabel Hardman

And then there was one… Theresa May’s team prepare for government

Chris Grayling has given this very brief statement on behalf of Theresa May in the past few minutes: ‘Can I start by thanking on behalf of Theresa May and on behalf of everyone involved in Theresa’s campaign team by thanking and paying a warm tribute to Andrea Leadsom. Her actions this morning have shown what a principled and decent politician she is and how willing she is to put the interests of the country before her own. She is a true public servant. Theresa is currently on her way back to London from Birmingham and she will make a statement later today. But on her behalf I’d just like to

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Graham Brady rules out re-opening the Tory leadership contest

Following Andrea Leadsom’s announcement that she is bowing out of the leadership race, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, has confirmed that Theresa May is now the only remaining candidate. While he refused to confirm that she was now the country’s Prime Minister, he ruled out re-opening the contest, which means it is almost certain that May has got the top job. Gove has also voiced his support: Andrea Leadsom spoke with great dignity and courage today. I wish her every success in the future. We should now move as quickly as possible to ensure Theresa May can take over as leader. She has my full support as our next prime

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The martyrdom of St Andrea

He may have died in the seventeenth century but in his Mysterie of Rhetoric Unvail’d  of 1657 John Smith showed he understood how sneaks such as Andrea Leadsom operate.  Defining the rhetorical device of ‘apophasis’, Smith described it as A kind of irony, whereby we deny that we say or doe that which we especially say or doe Leadsom proved herself the queen of denying what she says and does: the apotheosis of apophasis. She made a political issue of the childlessness of Theresa May, a loss we know is a matter of sorrow to the Home Secretary and her husband, as it is to many couples, while denying that

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Andrea Leadsom drops out of leadership race

In what must be the shortest-lived leadership campaign in the history of the Conservative Party, Andrea Leadsom has just announced that she’s dropping out. She said in her resignation statement that there was not “sufficient support” from her colleagues – perhaps a nod to how many of them said that they would quit the party if she won. She said she wants “the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister”. And that woman, she said, must be Theresa May. In the four days since the formal leadership race began, it became painfully obvious that Ms Leadsom was simply unfit for the job. She messed up an interview with The Times, saying she didn’t want to attack

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Andrea Leadsom: Theresa May is ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the Tory leadership race, saying ‘the best interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister’ and that she did not have sufficient support to lead a strong and stable government. She said Theresa May was ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit and that she would withdraw immediately so that the new Prime Minister could be appointed immediately. Leadsom did not mention the torrid weekend that she has had, in which she sustained heavy criticism for her comments about having children giving her a ‘direct stake’. But even her supporters had come away from the past few

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Andrea Leadsom gives an apology of sorts. But is it too late?

Andrea Leadsom initially tried to go on the attack following the row over her motherhood comments sparked by an article in the Times on Saturday. Today, the Tory leadership candidate appears to be attempting a different technique to put out this fire for good. At first, she was ‘disgusted’ by the presentation of the piece which suggested she was a better choice for PM than Theresa May because she had children. Today, she had this to say: ‘I’ve already said to Theresa how very sorry I am for any hurt that I have caused and how that article said completely the opposite of what I said and believe.’ The problem

Sunday

Alex Massie

What kind of Brexit has Britain chosen? We need a general election to find out

Britain voted for Brexit so Brexit is going to have to happen. That’s the way it works and there’s no point in Remainers wishing otherwise. But if Britain evidently voted for Brexit it is far less clear what kind of Brexit it voted for. As with the death of old man Talleyrand, we are left to wonder what the British people meant by this. Some things are becoming clearer, however and one of those things is that Andrea Leadsom does not actually need to win the Tory leadership battle to win the Brexit war. If Brexit trumps everything else, Leadsom may win even if Tory members choose Theresa May. Theresa May

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

The reason Theresa May is the better candidate has nothing to do with motherhood

Well! It hasn’t taken long for the commentariat to get over their excitement at the prospect of another female prime minster, has it? Can you imagine what the Guardian would be making of it were the contest between Angela and Maria Eagle, Venus and Serena Williams-style (or even, David and Ed Miliband-style)? It’d be triumph for feminism, a belated victory for the kind of positive discrimination gender politics which has proved so terrifically successful in the Labour party. Well, it turns out that it’s not just a woman that feminists wants, it’s a particular kind of woman. Their kind of woman. No others need pretend to the gender. The knives,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Andrea Leadsom may still benefit from her naive comments about motherhood

One of the rules of modern leadership contests is that at some point there is an almighty row about whether one of the candidates is just better than the other because she happens to have had children of her own. Labour reached that stage on 6 July 2015 when Helen Goodman wrote a piece saying she was supporting Yvette Cooper because she was a mother, which the Liz Kendall camp took exception to. The Tories reached it almost exactly a year later when Andrea Leadsom gave an interview to the Times in which she said she had a ‘real stake in the future of our country’ because she has children.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May must sound optimistic about Brexit

Theresa May’s biggest weakness in the Tory leadership race is that she backed Remain while most Tory members went Leave. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, if she can sound confident and optimistic about Brexit, then she will win and become Britain’s next Prime Minister. May needs to make clear that now the referendum result is in, she’s sees Brexit as an opportunity to be seized, not as a risk to be managed. She can’t afford to cede optimism on this to Andrea Leadsom. I understand that her Leave-voting supporters—Liam Fox, Priti Patel, David Davis and her campaign chair Chris Grayling—will all be out and about this

Friday

James Forsyth

It will be a closer race than expected between May and Leadsom

Most Tory MPs are back in their constituencies today, and several of those that I have spoken to are now predicting a closer race between May and Leadsom than Westminster expected. One May supporting MP tells me that the councillors they have spoken to are intrigued by Leadsom, a fresh face they want to hear more about. There’s also a view among many members, I’m told, that MPs wouldn’t have sent Leadsom through to the final two if she wasn’t qualified to be Prime Minister. For the next few weeks, I intend to take all polling of Tory members on this race with a pinch of salt. Why? Because Leadsom

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Andrea Leadsom’s campaign already in breach of parliamentary rules?

Since Andrea Leadsom announced her leadership bid, the Conservative candidate has been dogged by allegations that she lacks the experience and knowledge to lead her party — let alone the country. Reports this week from Leadsom’s former colleagues claiming she exaggerated her banking credentials on her CV have only fuelled concerns that she could be out of her depth. Now Mr S understands that Leadsom could be in breach of parliamentary rules over the registered address of her leadership campaign. On her campaign website, Leadsom uses the House of Commons as the registered address from which she can be contacted: However, the Members’ handbook says that parliamentary facilities should not be used for ‘party political campaigning’:

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Brexit has encouraged an eruption of nasty nativism. Why is anyone surprised by this?

Even in an age of ridiculousness there is something preposterous about the sight of so many prominent Leavers clutching their pearls in horror as they contemplate the possibility – the real possibility – that Andrea Leadsom could become the next leader of the Conservative party and, by golly, Prime Minister too. I mean, where do they think she came from? Who created her? Mrs Leadsom’s credentials to occupy the highest political office in the land come down to one single fact: she is the most virulently eurosceptic candidate available. That’s a powerful thing, however, and those Leavers who think their creation can be safely kept in the laboratory may yet have

Thursday

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 7 July 2016

Amid the bloodshed and chaos that followed David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister, Theresa May earned praise for seeking to convey calm and steadiness. In the speech with which she launched her bid to succeed him, she said: ‘I know I’m not a showy politician …I don’t often wear my heart on my sleeve. I just get on with the job in front of me.’ These were just the kind of words that many people reeling from the Johnson-Gove fiasco were happy to hear from another possible prime minister. But there is already someone in a great office who could say these words with even greater conviction, and that is

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 7 July 2016

Home Conservative MPs set about finding two candidates for the party leadership to be put to party members as rival choices. Theresa May proved the frontrunner, gaining 165 votes in the first round, with Liam Fox least fancied, being eliminated in the first round with 16 votes, and Stephen Crabb gaining 34 and throwing in the towel. Boris Johnson, having been forced out of the contest by the sudden entry of his presumed supporter Michael Gove (who attracted 48 votes in the first round), gave his backing to the next most popular woman candidate among MPs, Andrea Leadsom, who polled 66. Mrs May said that the position of British citizens

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 7 July 2016

Before she was murdered, Jo Cox MP had written most of a report. She worked on it jointly it with the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat for the Britain in the World project at the think-tank Policy Exchange. Its publication had been intended to coincide with that of the Chilcot report this week. Because of her shocking death, it is now delayed. But the project wants to continue her work, and the report’s bipartisanship. The essential point on which Mrs Cox (who opposed the Iraq war) and Mr Tugendhat (who served in it) agreed is that total non-intervention is not a foreign policy strategy. If Iraq shows the horrors of ill-planned

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Andrea Leadsom’s recipe for a perfect British society

After Michael Gove was knocked out of the Tory leadership race in today’s vote, Theresa May will go head-to-head with Andrea Leadsom in the race to be the next Prime Minister. So, with a prospect of a Leadsom-led government now looming, what would Leadsom’s Britain look like? Thanks to an old blog dating back to 2006, we have a glimpse of her vision for the country. What’s more, it seems that Leadsom actually has a recipe for a ‘perfect British society’. In a blog post — entitled ‘A Tory mum’s recipe for a perfect British society’ — on her personal website, Leadsom reveals the ingredients required for truly British society: A Tory mum’s recipe

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Labour preach feminism. Tories practise it

So now it is certain: the Conservatives will produce Britain’s second female Prime Minister, after Andrea Leadsom eliminated Michael Gove from the leadership contest and will now go head-to-head with Theresa May in a vote of Conservative members to be announced on 9 September. So why isn’t the Left cheering this social advance? Instead, the bitching has already begun.   Andrea Leadsom is being savaged for being less than 100 per cent enthusiastic about gay marriage (bizarrely, she voted for and against in the same vote); while Theresa May is eviscerated for her proposal – since dropped – to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights. Trouble is, on the

Toby Young Toby Young

I’ll vote for Theresa, but only if she passes these three tests

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wanted Michael Gove to be in the final two in the Conservative leadership race and I’m disappointed that he isn’t. As a Conservative Party member, I’m willing to vote for Theresa May, but on three conditions. First, she commits to repealing the 1972 European Communities Act. I’m less fussed about whether and when she triggers Article 50 – it was the 1972 European Communities Act that surrendered British sovereignty by making European law superior to British law. Repeal that Act, then pass another Act preserving all the laws that would thereby be rendered invalid and then decide which of those laws we

James Forsyth James Forsyth

With Gove gone, the Tories must now choose: experience or Brexiteer?

So, Tory members will choose between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom to be their leader and the UK’s Prime Minister. May will enter the membership ballot as the firm favourite. She has the support of the vast majority of MPs and her experience—six years as Home Secretary and 17 years on the front bench—contrasts sharply with Leadsom, who has only been a Minister for two years. Leadsom’s main selling point, however, is that she supported Brexit while May did not. She will argue that the policy should be implemented by someone who believes in it and argued for it. Michael Gove’s elimination was not that surprising. His leadership bid could