Tories who want TMay out well before the general election are going to have to forcibly remove her
First Secretary of State, Damian Green, makes clear she’ll go on
I’ve been of the view since June that TMay’s objective was to try to remain in office to fight the next election which, if she succeeded, would make amends for GE17.
The “she’ll step down quietly after Brexit theory” has never convinced me.
This view is supported today by the minister who is closest to TMay than anyone – her old Oxford friend from decades ago, my old BBC news colleague, Damian Green.
In what appears to be a well planned move Green, in a Spectator interview, he reinforced the comments that TMay herself made during her Tokyo visit last month. Her aim is to to stay at Number 10 and wants to lead the party at the general election.
Green was very complimentary about his boss saying:
“She’s warm, has a sense of humour, she’s good company and she is, as has been observed, fantastically hardworking and conscientious … The more people see that, the better she will do politically,”
These comments run very much against perceptions created during the GE campaign when TMay’s awkwardness and lack of empathy with ordinary voters was often painfully apparent.
Even more the notion that she’s sitting tight is very much out of line with current opinion within the party that has been ready to let her stay on to sort out Brexit but not beyond.
I think Green’s remarks are designed to force an early move possibly from Johnson. The gamble is that this will fail and in so doing would make TMay’s position stronger.