The Conservative Party has garnered a reputation for being exceptionally vicious to their political opponents, not just across the aisle but also amongst their own ranks. David Cameron was shown the door mere hours after the referendum result; Andrea Leadsom faced the scorch of the Conservative spin machine when she dared to challenge the coronation of Theresa May and even Margaret Thatcher, the quasi-royalty of the modern Conservative movement, could not keep the wolves at bay after the Poll tax put the last nail in her premiership, despite loyally serving her party for ten years in Downing Street.
So the question remains, why has Theresa May not had the tap on the shoulder that inevitably leads to her decision to ‘spend more time with her family’, or perhaps a sudden health concern that would take her a thousand miles away from a leadership position for the remainder of her career? May was not elected to party leader by the members; she has never had anything close to popular support; she called an ill-advised snap election and came out the other side with her and her party’s reputation in tatters and even the press has turned against her. The Murdoch-owned Sun once lauded May as Maggie 2.0, now the best she can hope for is an atrocious pun. The resignation is a matter of when, not if. She declared in a meeting with senior Conservative MPs that it was “her mess” and that she would fix it. So that’s what the next six to twelve months for the Conservative party will be. Damage control.
This will be a period of transition where the Conservatives recover from an unexpected and unnecessary blow. They will need to restore public confidence with strong Brexit negotiations, which David Davis started off by offering to pay an unknown divorce bill just to get the proceedings underway. In order to deliver on their promise of a strong and stable minority government, the Tories are stuck in a coalition of chaos with a party determined to set social policy back to 1870, worse still is the DUP, with their ten-seat-ransom, threatening to walk out of negotiations. Even the people who don’t believe in science or logic can see the writing on the wall – Theresa May is not long for Number Ten. So, when the time comes, Theresa May will step down.There will be another leadership election from inside a smoke-filled room and we’ll have a new interim Prime Minister for the next general election before Christmas of 2018.
