Theresa May could be more dominant over her Cabinet than other PMs and senior ministers are worried about plans
ON June 9, Theresa May will be queen of all she surveys.
She’ll have her own, sizeable Commons majority, her own mandate and the right to implement the policies in her manifesto.
May will be more dominant over her Cabinet than any Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher in her pomp.
But this prospect isn’t thrilling every Tory. Some ministers are positively worried about it.
At the moment, May is constrained by the fact the Tories were elected on David Cameron’s programme for government. If she wanted to implement a policy that wasn’t in the manifesto, she had to first get it through Cabinet Committee then through Parliament.
In Cabinet Committee, her plans for workers on boards and new rules on foreign takeovers got watered down due to Cabinet opposition led by the Chancellor Philip Hammond.
In the Commons, her majority was so small that a rebellion by only a handful of Tory MPs could stop a policy in its tracks.
While in the Lords, the Government has no majority and peers feel entitled to block things not in the manifesto.
But this election is liberating Theresa May and her team.
As one minister points out: “Government policy you have to bring to Cabinet Committee. But the manifesto, they can write themselves.”
The manifesto — in a sign of its importance — is being written by May’s chief of staff Nick Timothy. He’s been assisted by policy director John Godfrey, policy board head George Freeman and the Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer.
Secretaries of State are submitting their ideas. But privately, they admit they are not sure what will end up going in, even in their own areas.
The May team — as the early election showed — keep things very close to their chest. Ministers are growing concerned because, in the words of one of them, if something gets in the manifesto and “people vote for it, you have to do it”.
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One Secretary of State admitted to me that they worry about “what I want to keep out of the manifesto more than what I want to get into it”.
When May turns up at Cabinet after the election, ministers won’t be able to object to her pushing through policies that are in the manifesto, or in keeping with the spirit of it.
This is particularly true as May will have won such a thumping victory, she’ll be able to argue that the country has voted for her own distinct brand of Conservatism.
After all, places that have not elected a Tory MP for decades will do so at this election.
May will be able to argue that this is because of the kind of government she’s offering. Though, in reality, it might have more to do with Jeremy Corbyn than anything else.
There is even talk in Tory circles that the capital gains tax exemption for the family home will go in the next parliament.
This, though, would be an exceptionally risky move: It would mean homeowners who’d made a profit on their houses being hit with a stonking tax bill when they sold up.
A senior Number 10 source denies this idea will be in the manifesto and says it won’t be happening.
“Theresa would have to have been lobotomised to do that’ says one politically savvy Tory backbencher.
For the last 30-odd years, the great divide in the Tory party has been over Europe.
The issue has done for the last three Tory PMs. But with the European question settled by the referendum, a new fault-line will emerge.
And it might well be over economics with dry, free-market Tories pitched against May’s more interventionist approach.
THERESA’S WOWING WORKING - CLASS
THERESA MAY’S single biggest achievement as Tory leader is creating a classless Conservatism.
Under David Cameron, the Tories were always held back by a sense that they were the posh party, the political wing of the privileged few.
But now the Tories have a 17-point lead among working-class voters. This means the Tories could win a slew of traditionally Labour seats.
Much of this is down to May and her personal popularity. I’m told that Tories in some of these seats are presenting themselves on the doorstep as the candidate of May’s party.
And when May campaigned in Leeds this week, the banners behind her were emblazoned with her name, not that of the Conservatives.
BORIS ON THE TOUCHLINE?
HAS Boris Johnson been sidelined in this election campaign? Well, in truth, everyone has. The Tories want to make this a straight May vs Corbyn fight. This means keeping the spotlight on her, not the Tory party’s other box office star.
“It is not going to be about anyone other than the PM,” says one source familiar with the campaign plan. I understand, though, that talk about Boris losing his job in a post-election reshuffle is overdone.
The current plan is that the top four jobs in May’s Cabinet will stay the same after the election with Hammond, Amber Rudd, David Davis and Boris all remaining in post.
There’s one other reason May doesn’t want to share the limelight in this election.
She is seeking her own mandate so wants the campaign to be about her, not anyone else.
CULT OF YOUTH IS OVER
MONDAY marks 20 years since Tony Blair’s New Labour election landslide. But it is also the 20th anniversary of Theresa May being elected to parliament for the first time. There’s no doubt that some of May’s popularity can be attributed to her age – 60 – and experience. The cult of youth in British politics is over.
END OF WORLD FOR JEZ
JEREMY CORBYN looks forward to the human race being wiped out.
This isn’t hyperbole but a parliamentary motion he signed 13 years ago.
It says, in part, “humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out, thus giving nature the opportunity to start again”.
At least one Cabinet minister plans to put this in their election literature to try to show voters just how odd Corbyn is.
TRUMP BACKING LE PEN
A WEEK tomorrow, France goes to the polls to elect its new president.
But there is little mystery about who the president of the United States is backing: Marine Le Pen.
The semi-public way in which Trump is backing Le Pen, who hails from a far-right party, has shocked people on both sides of the Atlantic.
But his confidants are unapologetic about it.
One tells me: “He’s an alpha male, she’s an alpha female.”
But Trump would do well to consider more than ego when working out who to support.
UKIP CHIEF PAUL BANKS ON BREXIT SPLIT
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall is to stand in Boston & Skegness.
Ukip came second there in 2015. In the referendum, the new Tory MP Matt Warman backed Remain while around three quarters of voters there went Out.
Ukip’s hope is that they can exploit this disconnect between the MP and his constituents to win the seat.
The party also hopes that by standing here, they can remind voters of their aim to be “the guard dog of Brexit”.