The Tories need to wake up and appoint a proper leader – David Davis is just the man
THIS time last year I was cheering along with the 17.3million other people who stunned the world by voting Britain OUT of the European Union.
George Osborne’s Project Fear had proved baseless. Confident UK plc was topping world growth, creating jobs by the million and luring global giants such as Google and Apple to our shores.
We were days away from a new Prime Minister and Labour’s scruffy Marxist leader was rated worse than useless, even by his own MPs.
All that changed at 10pm on June 8, when Theresa May was left grubbing around for a handful of DUP votes to keep her Government afloat.
The election damaged Britain’s negotiating hand and — quite incredibly — catapulted Jeremy Corbyn to pop festival superstardom.
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The world had turned. Last year Brussels feared Brexit could bring down the whole European Project.
Today it is confident and condescending, energised by French President Emmanuel Macron’s sensational rise to power.
Meanwhile, Downing Street is a void, Mrs May is bereft of allies and adrift in Europe.
In a jibe she once levelled at Corbyn, the PM is walking naked into the conference chambers of Europe.
For the nation’s sake, she should go. As soon as possible. It was kind of Brexit Secretary David Davis to applaud her leadership yesterday, but he would say that, wouldn’t he?
What Britain needs is a leader who will command respect in Brussels and authority in the House of Commons.
Tories know they cannot risk another election with Mrs May as PM. Yet such an election could be forced at any time, catching them flat-footed.
They cannot afford an open leadership battle which could turn into Tory civil war. The only alternative to a bloodbath is a backroom deal which produces a single candidate.
The three front-runners are Boris Johnson, David Davis and Chancellor Philip Hammond. Two of them would have to step aside.
The chances of such agreement are slim at best and would enrage other ambitious wannabes. It says a lot about election-battered Tories that they are desperate for almost anyone who might see off once-laughable Jezza.
Jeremy Corbyn has acquired the status of a Marxist Messiah. Some hope his Glastonbury summer will be short-lived. It is wishful thinking.
The Tories need to wake up to the new reality.
Brussels is on a roll. No longer a threat to a wobbly European Union, we are seen instead as easy prey, flat on our back while they prepare to pick our eyes out.
First prize would be our crown jewels, the money-spinning City financial sector once derided by socialist France as the “Anglo-Saxon model”. It creates a quarter of all we earn as a nation.
President Macron, who sees himself as a modern Napoleon, aims to turn Britain’s political crisis into France’s golden opportunity.
Last week, Theresa May offered citizenship rights to three million Europeans living in Britain in return for similar treatment for UK citizens living and working in the EU.
If that perfectly reasonable proposal was dismissed with contempt, just wait until we get down to brass tacks on trade, commerce and human rights.
It is time for this Government to show steel — and pick a proper leader.
Boris is no shoo-in. Philip Hammond is depressingly gloomy. Which leaves David Davis.
The Brexit Secretary, a lifelong Eurosceptic, has visibly grown in the role of discussing Britain’s departure with European chief negotiator Michel Barnier. So far he has not put a foot wrong.
As a true believer, he remains genuinely upbeat about Britain’s prospects once we are outside the EU.
“I don’t believe we will do worse,” he told Andrew Marr yesterday. “I believe within a couple of years we will do significantly better with global markets.”
Working-class Davis, reared in a council house by a single mum, is the perfect match for prep-schooled Jezza, who lived in a seven-bedroomed manor house.
And he has one other useful quality for the EU battles ahead — the ex-SAS reservist is a trained killer.
When will unlimited immigration end?
THE UK population exploded by a whopping 538,000 last year, mostly as a result of immigration.
In addition, secret Home Office figures show an extra 150,000 migrants are arriving under the radar, every single year.
That means our population grew by almost 700,000 last year, a record, but on a rising trend.
That’s equal to a city bigger than Sheffield – every year. But we are not building a city the size of Sheffield every year or anything like it.
Where on earth do they all live? And when, after the arrival of five million in one decade, will enough be enough?