Theresa May Strengthens Her Leadership at Tory Conference
British Prime Minister Theresa May ended the Conservative Party’s conference on October 5, delivering a speech in which she announced a new platform for her party. The conference, held in Birmingham, started four days earlier with an opening speech by May and featured discussions between prominent conservative politicians about the future of their party and the country. The event had generated wide expectations, as it was the first party conference May has attended as Prime Minister. May, who did not campaign for Brexit, was chosen by her party in July 2016 after former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.
May started the conference by announcing the highly anticipated deadline for the Brexit process, stating that Britain would trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – officially launching the exit process – no later than March 2017. That would mean that Britain would leave the European Union before the summer of 2019, BBC News reported.
May then surprised many when she asserted that Britain would seek to “regain its sovereignty” from the EU, “from how to label its food to the way it controls immigration.” Observers interpreted May’s declarations as a sign she had chosen the path to an “hard Brexit,” meaning she would not negotiate a Norwegian-style agreement where EU norms and EU citizens’ migration are accepted in exchange of access to EU single market.
Indeed, the unrestricted migration of EU citizens in the country had been considered an essential condition if Britain sought to stay in the EU single market post-Brexit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented on October 6 that access to EU markets was linked to free movement. By declining to even discuss this matter, May now seems to indicate that she would prefer to exit the EU’s single market and instead establish a new free-trade agreement with the EU.
With 44 percent of its exports and 53 percent of its imports going to and coming from the EU, its membership in the European single market is an essential feature of British economy. Financial markets quickly reacted to May’s decision and the British pound sunk to a three-year low against the euro on October 3.
May’s closing speech focused more on national policy than did her opening remarks. She asserted that the Conservative Party would “take center ground” of British politics and used a rhetoric more traditionally associated with the rival Labour Party. For example, she criticized “individualism and self-interest,” as well as the “powerful and privileged” who had been allowed to “ignore the interests of the people.” She said it was “time to remember the good the government can do” and presented the Conservative party as the “party of workers.”
May also pushed for distinctively conservative policies. She criticized “activist left wing human rights lawyers” who were pressing charges against British soldiers for abuse of prisoners or civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also criticized “politicians and commentators” who find patriotism “distasteful” or concerns over immigration “parochial.”
As The Guardian observed, May’s more interventionist and less socially liberal stance marked an end to David Cameron’s era of leadership of the Conservative Party. This approach proved successful in May’s camp, with popular right-wing tabloid The Daily Mail asserting that she, if successful, could go down as one of Britain’s “greatest prime ministers.” Even left-leaning newspaper The Guardian commented that the party “united behind May” even though it said that “there is little policy evidence to show that she will be very different from her predecessor.” Moreover, with the Labour Party suffering from internal dissent and trailing in popularity by 17 percent, and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) facing a leadership crisis, May’s Conservative Party appears to be of strong standing.