by Atul Hatwal
The question is why? Why would Theresa May make that speech on the EU in this election? She’s already guaranteed a huge majority. Reports from all parties make it abundantly clear that the number one doorstep issue for switchers is Jeremy Corbyn.
She also knows that this speech will have a long term impact.
In France, Emmanuel Macron, most likely victor in this week’s second round is sure to be asked about it and will harden his line on Brexit. Merkel, approaching her own campaign, will do similar.
The Tory right will use May’s words to make any backsliding towards the perfidy of compromise for an interim deal that much harder.
The chances of a Brexit disaster on Theresa May’s watch, in the next two years, just leapt exponentially.
So why do it?
A big part of the reason is that her team have been bounced: criticism of the Tories’ lack of policy, her own sheltered campaign which has studiously avoided contact with the public and the robotic repetition of the same lines, has clearly had an impact.
It’s hard to fill an election grid when the only policy commitment is to not make a commitment, journalists are getting restive and bored of anodyne events and the principal lacks the basic retail skill to deliver her core message without sounding like a ZX Spectrum speech program from the 1980s.
This is why Theresa May has thrown a dead EU cat onto the general election table.
Now, the next 48 hours will all be about May versus Brussels.
A great short term media win for the election campaign, disastrous for the premiership that follows.
That Theresa May would sacrifice her own prospects in office for this transitory triumph when facing Jeremy Corbyn says it all about the fragility of her campaign and her underlying lack of political judgement.
Atul Hatwal is editor of Uncut
