Theresa May lauded by Lord David Cameron as a remarkable public servant.
WHEN a former prime minister leaves the House of Commons, it is only right to raise a salute. Occupying that high office, for no matter how long or short a time, is a significant undertaking. With Theresa May announcing her retirement as an MP, let propriety therefore be observed. Let her stamina and sense of duty be acknowledged. Aged 67, she has served her stint.
She became an MP in 1997 just as John Major was being catapulted out of Downing Street by Tony Blair. Mrs May, 40, previously a south London councillor, worked at the Association for Payment Clearing Services before she entered the Commons. As a parliamentary orator, she was unremarkable. There was no evidence of a creative mind. She regurgitated the party line and was never funny or rude or controversial. Like her cricket hero Geoffrey Boycott, she blocked for England.
MP because there were so few of them, making promotion more likely. Within a year, she was shadow minister for women and the disabled. When Mr Cameron formed his coalition government in 2010, he sent Mrs May to the Home Office. There she remained until 2016, a notable act of survival. She was the Andrei Gromyko of the austerity years and, like that long-time Soviet politburo member, she maintained ruthless control of her department's message.
Known for 'doing a submarine' – ie sinking out of view when difficult decisions were being taken – Mrs May certainly submerged during the EU referendum. Despite years of huffing and puffing about European human rights regulations, she disappeared and quietly backed Remain.
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