Tories go from chaos to calm with the appointment of Theresa May – while Labour loses all credibility
Very quickly, Tory MPs realised that they had a responsibility to give the country stable government
THE EU referendum, we were told, would wreck the Conservative Party. It would turn Tories against each other so viciously that they would never be able to come together afterwards.
One or two pundits are still trying to run this line, pointing to the harsh way in which various leadership contenders were forced out of the race.
But if you think about what has taken place, it has been a miraculously swift and orderly process. In just three weeks, we have gone from one prime minister to another.
Yes, there were fierce quarrels along the way, but that’s what’s meant to happen. How could we decide something as important as who leads Britain without passionate arguments?
The rows were especially fierce in the wake of the referendum, sometimes tipping over into bloody rudeness. But, very quickly, Tory MPs realised that they had a responsibility to give the country stable government.
They knew that they had to put their differences aside and act, to use an old-fashioned word, as patriots.
The chief beneficiary is, of course, the new PM, Theresa May. She voted Remain, but has made absolutely clear that “Brexit means Brexit”. I’d say this makes her an almost perfect representative of the country as a whole.
A 52-48 vote is a mandate to leave, but not a massive one. We Leavers – and I have been campaigning against the EU for 26 years – need to acknowledge that nearly half the country voted to stay.
We should try to find a new, looser relationship with the EU that both Leavers and Remainers can at least live with.
Theresa May is well positioned to deliver that outcome, and MPs from both campaigns will want her to succeed.
She can bring powers back from Brussels while retaining our trading, military and diplomatic links with our European friends.
It is in everyone’s interest for Brexit to be cordial and mutually beneficial. The turmoil in the eurozone over the past three weeks could damage us as well as our Continental allies.
Here, by contrast, the horrors promised by some Remainers have failed to materialise.
Before the vote, George Osborne told us that Brexit would lead to emergency tax rises. Now, he talks of slashing corporation tax.
Before the vote, Barack Obama told us we’d be at the back of the queue. Now, he says our special relationship is as strong as ever, and Congress’s Speaker, Paul Ryan, correctly points out that that a US-UK free trade deal “would be easier to do” than a US-EU one.
Before the vote, the French government suggested that it might send our immigration officers back across the Channel. Now, it has confirmed that the current deal will remain in force.
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Before the vote, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble told us that “out is out”, and that we’d be treated like any third country; now, he says that George Osborne told him to say that, and German officials talk of the need for some kind of special status for Britain.
Before the vote, we were told the stock exchange would collapse. In fact, British stocks have risen 9 per cent in the last month, the best performing of any major economy.
Of all the predictions made by Remain campaigners, only one has come true: the pound has fallen. And, frankly, not before time.
The continuing weakness of the euro had made sterling a haven currency, artificially boosting its value. As in 1992 and 2008, a sharp correction was overdue.
Tata has already responded by reconsidering its decision to pull out of Wales.
Everything, in short, favours a PM who will deliver Brexit sensibly and moderately. I’d say the system worked.
The real casualty has been Labour, which cannot any longer be considered a serious force in British politics.
Not since Ramsay MacDonald abandoned his comrades to lead a Tory-dominated coalition in 1931 has Labour been in such a mess. Indeed, its current mess might be even worse.
Don’t imagine that Labour’s woes give me, as a Tory, any pleasure. We badly need a competent opposition. Without one, we’ll become flabby and complacent.
The referendum did for Labour because it cruelly exposed the extent to which MPs had become detached from their base. Seven in ten Labour MPs represent Leave-voting constituencies, yet they almost all lined up with Brussels.
The thing I have always admired about the Left in this country is that it took power away from remote elites and gave it to the population at large.
British radicals pushed for votes for working people, votes for women, universal education, meritocracy.
That is the best and truest Labour tradition. A tradition bound up with brass bands and working men’s libraries and temperance societies. A tradition all about spreading opportunities.
Three weeks ago, Labour backed the Eurocrats, the multinationals and the megabanks against many of its own voters. Now it is paying the price.
For the moment, Theresa May can get on with delivering Brexit more or less unmolested, at least at home. But we need an opposition to keep us on our toes.
The chaos in Labour isn’t just that party’s tragedy; it’s Britain’s.
