Theresa May's attempts to succeed David Cameron slapped down by Cabinet

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Theresa May's attempts to position herself to succeed David Cameron slapped
down by Cabinet


Theresa May's attempts to position herself to succeed David Cameron have
been slapped down by her Cabinet colleagues and backbench MPs, it has emerged.









Photo:
Reuters






By Christopher Hope, and James
Kirkup

7:38PM GMT 12 Mar 2013


67 Comments




The Home secretary is understood to have been the subject of criticism at
Tuesday morning's meeting of the Tories' political Cabinet, when Education
secretary Michael Gove called on colleagues to stop burnishing their "leadership
credentials".


That came hours before David Cameron was told to “control his Cabinet” by
some of his own MPs after he appealed for unity in the long run-in to the next
general election.


Mrs May gave a speech last weekend that ranged far from her brief and set out
her views of the policy areas on which the party should fight the 2015 election.



Party chiefs had hoped that the monthly meeting of the parliamentary party,
which was addressed by the Prime Minister, would focus minds and stop the
backbiting from backbench Tory MPs after the Eastleigh by-election.


The MPs were told by the party’s election strategist Lynton Crosby they had
to decide if they were “commentators or participants” as the party tries to win
an outright majority in 2015.


However after the appeal for more unity, three MPs stood up to ask that the
rules also applied to Cabinet ministers. One MP said: “You can’t lecture us on
discipline without controlling the Cabinet.”

During the meeting Mr Crosby illustrated how it was possible to confound
expectations by telling the MPs how in 2007 he had been watching Boris Johnson
on television and told his wife that Mr Johnson would never be mayor of London.


He also urged the MPs to stop commenting on the micro-blogging website
Twitter about the party's leadership, and to use more every day language to
describe the economy like “cost of living".

Mr Cameron was also pressed during the meeting about the possibility of a
deal with the UK Independence Party at the next election. He replied that the
people who voted for Ukip should be respected.

He also knocked back one suggestion to criticise bishops from the Church of
England who had criticised welfare cuts.

Senior Downing Street sources were putting a brave face on the meeting. One
said: “There were lots of people saying very positive things and cheers and
applause when people intervened.

“People in marginal seats were saying things like ‘please support the Prime
Minister’ – there were lots of cheers and applause at those moments.”

The MPs were also briefed on 10 easy to remember achievements of the
Coalition, which are likely to be given out on handy “cue cards” at the party’s
spring forum.

They included Coalition achievements such as cutting the deficit by a
quarter, reducing immigration by a third, a promise of an in-out referendum on
Britain's membership of the European Union and 27.7million people now in work.


One source said MPs had to remind people that at the next election the UK
would be left with an Ed Miliband premiership or a Government led by Mr Cameron,
and that Britain had to stay ahead in “what is a global race”.

Theresa may is a lightweight and the Border Agency chaos, plus the increasing scandal about the Metropolitan Police does prove her inebility as Home Office MP. There are several comments on this topic but this one is very good.
UKNative

35 minutes ago






I'm a bit sceptical about Mrs May's real resolve. She talks tough but so far
little action. But of all of them she's the only one who even tries to say the
proper things.
The rest are like lemmings rushing to the electoral cliff
believing that their policies of ignoring immigration, covering up NHS scandal,
pretending crime is falling, clinging to EU dominance, anhilating the armed
forces etc can become popular enough to win them the election.
Deluded or
what?