We’re going to have our second female Prime Minister.
Gove’s chances were apparently really damaged after one of his MP backers sent a text to MPs backing May asking them to vote tactically to block Leadsom. The text argued that the Tory members might vote for Leadsom as a fresh face who “shares their attitudes about much of modern life”.
Some say it’s a bit unfair that the actions of one his backers should hurt Gove so much, but if you can’t build a good team and demonstrate “grip” then you don’t deserve to be PM. I’ve heard.
Leadsom is damaged goods, thanks to fabricating her CV. Given the size of May’s majority, I expect Leadsom will likely do a deal with May and stand aside ‘for the good of the country.’
Wait…did this person actually propose that Leadsom should be blocked on the basis that other MPs might agree with her? Because that’s all kinds of fucked up.
More news from this clown shoe of a country - it appears that Andrea Leadsom is on the verge of pulling out of the race. Or at least every political reporter in my twitter feed thinks so.
I would agree if it was simply a matter of waiting for the right female candidate to come along. The issue is it’s taken a long time for the percentage of people opposed to a female president in principle to reduce sufficiently for such a candidate to be more than just a novelty.
And back on the topic of Andrea Leadsom, WTF was up with the whole nonsense about her comments about “having a stake in the country” because she was a mother? IIRC the sequence was:
Leadsom gets asked repeatedly about her children in the context of the campaign.
She gives a fairly bland answer to get off the topic.
Media take remarks out of context and go nuts.
I heard John Humphries hammering her about this the other day as if it were a material issue, but it’s not remotely limited to the BBC. The quality of journalism these days on all sides is absolutely appalling.
The Guardian’s live blog just posted a snippet saying “No 10 indicates that Cameron could hand over to May soon.” But there are other things saying that the party rules appear to require the 1922 Committee (some party affair responsible for running this whole thing) to do something so that there are two candidates to propose to the membership. And just as I type this, there’s another thing saying the chairman of the 1922 Committee will be speaking after Leadsom.
Being a cynical bastard, I figure that she’s spent the weekend coming up with plausible reasons for exiting, whilst having the thumbscrews applied by senior members of the Tory establishment.
Assuming the UK ‘May’ have a new Prime Minister, how soon until she invokes article 50 and does she put it to a free vote in Parliament? No chance of a snap general election? Are there enough disgruntled Tories to join with Labour to force a vote of no confidence?
I suspect a lot will depend on the state of the Labour Party at any given point. A vote of no confidence will have more oomph if it comes after an ousting of Corbyn, as there will be a “new broom” vibe across both parties (and, actually, UKIP given their current leadership search as well). At the risk of stating the obvious, if the people who stand to benefit from change outnumber the people who stand to benefit from the status quo, we’ll get an election. If Corbyn hangs on (as he is likely to do) Labour will be too busy with internal squabblings to attempt to force an election.
But I’d be surprised if May invokes Article 50 quickly - that’s the sort of thing you REALLY need a plan for, and she won’t have had time to make one yet.
Not any more. Mrs May (aka Cruella De Ville or the Empress Wu) is now the sole candidate so will presumably be round to No. 10 to measure up for curtains sometime this afternoon or tomorrow.
