Voters will trust Theresa May come election day and landslide win could become a tsunami
Prime Minister will end up with a majority well into three figures and green light to do as she pleases for next five years
IF you believe opinion polls, Theresa May is on track for a monster victory on June 8.
Labour is a car crash, Ukip is finished and the flip- flopping Lib Dems might actually LOSE seats, including leader Tim Farron’s.
Even allowing for statistical error, the PM will end up with a majority well into three figures and a green light to do as she pleases for the next five years.
To the surprise perhaps of Mrs May herself, she is rated not just by Tory loyalists but by Labour and Lib Dems, by Brexiters and Remainers, young and old, rich and poor. She is winning votes in anti-Tory Scottish and Welsh heartlands.
Interestingly, she has a growing fan base among young voters once seen as natural Labour fodder — including twentysomethings who like a female in charge, especially one with a taste for fashion.
One young woman claimed her appetite for politics was triggered by Mrs May’s shoes.
These are truly remarkable personal endorsements for a publicity-shy, almost paranoid politician whose unique selling point is stubborn silence.
Her zipped lip is as famous as her kitten heels.
Nobody knows what Theresa thinks until Theresa says — as gob-smacked Police Federation leaders famously learned to their cost. Yet her infuriating reticence now seems her strongest suit with voters tired of Westminster’s noisy, strutting attention seekers.
“Rather than the showman politics of Tony Blair and David Cameron, people feel safe with her,” says Mark Harrop, 27, a social strategist and Tory supporter from Manchester.
The cult of the personality may be finished but identity politics is thriving. The Tories are now the Mayist Party.
Nobody knows what will be in this week’s Conservative Party manifesto but voters seem willing to trust her to do the right thing.
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Will she cough up £100billion for a soft Brexit? Veer to the Left and steal Labour’s best clothes? Sack Chancellor Philip Hammond and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson? Start spending and borrowing? The answer to all these questions is . . . not necessarily.
Mrs May intends to negotiate the best Brexit deal possible. We must wait and see what that means. She might consider a friendly divorce cheap at the price at, say, £50billion.
She will look after the working poor — whichever party they support. A new house-building boom and energy price cap are just a start.
There will be a Cabinet shake-up. “Spreadsheet Phil” — respected by City money men as a safe pair of hands despite his bungled Budget — is likely to survive.
Boris will be given a little more rope. Trade minister Liam Fox is on the scaffold.
The key point for foreign investors with billions to spend is whether the PM will open the purse strings and splash the cash.
The UK is rated by the super-rich as one of the world’s safest places to stow their money — as long as we keep to plans to cut borrowing.
Spending on roads, railways and airports is fine. Extra welfare, in any guise, is out.
“Theresa has plenty of goodwill in the City,” says a top economic analyst. “She is seen as a decent, straight politician who doesn’t believe money grows on trees and doesn’t take bungs.
“There would be raised eyebrows if she put workers on boards or imposed pay caps but they would put up with it.
“But there would be a serious reaction if she ditched the Government’s timetable for cutting borrowing.”
Before Thatcherites get alarmed, it is worth remembering the PM once spent six years at the Bank of England and her influential husband Philip still works in the City.
She is unlikely to go on a spending and borrowing splurge.
If we know nothing else, we can be certain she believes in low taxes, strong defences and the rule of law.
Nobody can say that about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist malcontents.
Voters are shrewd judges. They are giving Theresa May the benefit of the doubt.
The promised election day landslide could yet turn into a tsunami.
Scottish education in ruins
TARTAN terror Nicola Sturgeon yesterday admitted that Scotland’s once world-class record for education is in ruins.
Fewer than half of 13 and 14-year-olds are fully literate while scores for maths and science have also collapsed on her party’s watch.
“I’ve been very open that this is not good enough,” confessed Sturgeon lamely.
On polling day, voters might ask if their kids have become thicker.
Or if the Scot Nats are more interested in chasing the independence delusion than making sure school leavers can read and write.