There’ll never be a better time for May to strike with Brexit negotiations around the corner and the Opposition in disarray
IT would be a brave man who dared accuse Theresa May of telling voters anything but the unvarnished truth.
Perhaps she did decide in absolute secrecy only last month to go for a snap election — at precisely the moment Downing Street insisted: “There isn’t going to be one. It is not going to happen.”
But every word she uttered to justify the poll was true from the moment she became Prime Minister last July.
It was a no-brainer — which is why I predicted it last Christmas.
Indeed it would have been politically reckless for her to continue fraught Brexit negotiations for two more years without the rock-solid authority she will command on June 9.
From that moment she will be a major figure on the European and world stage, a powerful and unassailable leader elected in her own right with the country overwhelmingly behind her.
PMs who assume power between general elections can struggle to command. Just ask Gordon Brown.
A sweeping Tory victory will finally put paid to nit-picking Remainers who have never come to terms with the view of the people last summer.
It will have the added spice of silencing Scots Nat obsessive Nicola Sturgeon’s barb about her being an unelected PM with no right to speak for Scotland.
And it will end the iniquitous fixed-term parliaments which were always a stunt to give unmerited advantage to the Lib-Dems.
This election will be a re-run in all but name of the June 23 referendum.
This time voters can judge the facts instead of the lies and exaggerations from both sides in that contest.
We can see for ourselves what has happened since the momentous day when 17.3million people decided they wanted their country back.
The PM claimed the nation is slowly moving behind the Brexit verdict.
Voters also believe Mrs May is doing an excellent job so far in negotiating the best terms.
But not in Westminster, as she pointed out.
In the House of Lords, opportunistic Labour, Lib-Dem and defiant Tory peers are quietly mobilising a rearguard action to scupper the result.
Mrs May has seen off every challenge from these wreckers so far.
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But why let them continue snapping at her heels when she can steer an un- challenged path through difficult talks with EU negotiators?
Waiting until now to detonate this bombshell has given the Government a chance to clear the ground and show Britain is already flourishing and prospering on its way out.
There are bound to be bumps in the road.
But the PM can point to record job creation, strong growth, booming ex- ports and a resounding vote of confidence in UK plc from giant overseas investors as an indicator of good times ahead.
She will seek to unite the country amid threats on the world stage from North Korea, Russia and the Middle East.
Election victory will give her a much stronger hand in resisting the tide of immigration which is bound to grow after Turkish dictator Recep Erdogan’s alarming power grab last week.
Some Tories wanted to wait for boundary changes which would guarantee a huge majority.
But Downing Street knows there will never be a better moment to strike.
Labour is flat on its back with no chance of taking seats off the Tories.
As leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn is the gift that keeps on giving.
Despite Sir Keir Starmer’s best efforts, there is no realistic successor.
The Tories are more than 20 points ahead of Labour — a huge margin likely to widen as the election campaign exposes a party in terminal decline.
If anything, the only challenge comes from Lib-Dems who are starting to fill Labour’s vacuum. Why give them more time to build support?
As for the SNP, a predicted Tory landslide will silence Nicola Sturgeon’s incessant calls for another independence referendum.
Mrs May will be entitled to claim she speaks for the whole of Britain.
As she said yesterday, Britain needs a clear, strong voice speaking up over the next two difficult years in the national interest.
“Every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain with the Prime Ministers, Presidents and Chancellors of the European Union.”
“Every vote for the Conservatives will mean we can stick to our plan for a stronger Britain and take the right long term decisions for a more secure future.”
What she meant but didn’t quite say is that victory will finally throttle the screeching Tory Remainers harrying the Government from the safety of the backbenches.
Stubborn Stayers like Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine, Anna Soubry, Nikki Morgan and serpent-like Dominic Grieve act more like a party of opposition than Labour.
Anna Soubry has even threatened to quit and join a new anti-Brexit party.
Perhaps she will tell us during tonight’s Sun Brexit debate on TalkRadio if she plans to put her money where her mouth is.
The biggest threat from this breakaway Tory faction is its campaign to scupper the Great Repeal Bill which will bring decades of EU law back under UK control.
An unrepresentative coalition of anti-Brexit peers is plotting chaos once the bill begins its passage through the Lords.
They have the numbers to delay its progress indefinitely.
It may have been the prospect of this energy-sapping struggle which tipped the balance for Mrs May.
She could have struggled on for another year or two.
In the end, political logic proved more powerful than the parliamentary timetable.