Theresa May today pays tribute to her ‘rock’ Philip for supporting her through a tumultuous week of resignations, plotting and vicious personal attacks.
In a moving tribute to her loyal husband, she said he felt the pain of the personal abuse she has received from MPs more deeply than she does.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail conducted in her Downing Street study, the Prime Minister revealed Philip poured her a large whisky when she finally finished a five-hour Cabinet meeting that sparked a revolt against her Brexit plans.
He was so enraged by wall-to-wall coverage of rebels laying into her that he had to turn off the televisions at work.
The Prime Minister (pictured in her Downing Street office during the Daily Mail’s exclusive interview) has told how her husband, Philip, has been a rock of support during a turbulent week within the government
Mrs May told the Mail that Philip struggles seeing her Brexiteer critics slamming her on TV. Her remarks follow a week in which the EU exit deal she put forward was heavily opposed
Mrs May said: ‘It’s often harder for the other half because they are watching it and feel protective and think ‘Why are they saying that to my wife?’ He does feel some of the hurt. We’ve been married for 38 years, that’s a long time. He is my rock. It’s hugely important to have somebody there who is supportive of you, not involved in the intricacies of politics but there to provide human support.’
Her comments come at the end of a gruelling week when she has been rocked by Cabinet resignations and a plot to oust her by Tory Brexiteers – in her words ‘a pretty heavy couple of days’.
Yesterday, Cabinet ministers rallied round, with Mrs May’s deputy David Lidington saying she would ‘win handsomely’ if her Eurosceptic critics forced a leadership contest. ‘I’ve seen no plausible alternative plan from any of those criticising her or wanting to challenge her position,’ he said.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox urged the plotters to back down, saying: ‘I hope we all take a rational and reasonable view of this. We are not elected to do what we want.
‘We are elected to do what’s in the national interest.’
On another turbulent day:
- Amber Rudd made a dramatic return as Work and Pensions Secretary, six months after she resigned over the Windrush scandal
- An attempted coup by hardline Brexiteers risked descending into farce as leading figures were forced to admit they were struggling to produce the 48 MPs needed to force a vote of no confidence
- Michael Gove steadied the ship by announcing he would stay in Cabinet to fight for the best Brexit deal
- Mrs May took charge of negotiations with Brussels after downgrading the role of Brexit secretary and appointing unknown junior minister Steve Barclay to the job
- Andrea Leadsom, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Penny Mordaunt and Mr Gove prepared for private talks this weekend aimed at forcing Mrs May to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement
- French finance minister Bruno Le Maire warned Britain would face disaster’ if it left the EU without a deal
- Mrs May conducted a conference call with dozens of Tory constituency chiefs, urging them to tell their MPs to calm down and examine the benefits of her plans
- Tory whips last night moved to kill off the plot
Mrs May (pictured with her husband, Philip, in Hamburg) says she will continue to fight for the future of the country as Prime Minister
Mrs May told the Daily Mail her husband strongly supported her Brexit stance and would urge her ‘keep going, this matters, keep doing the right thing.’
When the Conservative revolt erupted on Wednesday, threatening to bring her down, Philip was waiting in the Downing Street flat with more practical sustenance when she returned exhausted at 11pm.
She said: ‘The first thing he did was to pour me a whisky. On Thursday, he served up beans on toast for tea. I opened the tin! He made the toast – and did the washing up!’
Asked if he felt like punching his wife’s would be Tory assassins, she replied: ‘You’ll have to ask him – he’s as protective as any other-half would be.’
She also delivered a series of thinly veiled jibes at Tory Brexiteers like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg who want her replaced.
She said they had no chance of getting the ‘Canada plus’ trade deal they have campaigned for even if they ousted her from power and went back to Brussels.
She added: ‘People say ‘If you could only just do something slightly different, have a Norway model or a Canada model, this backstop issue would go away’. It would not. That issue is still going to be there.
‘Some politicians get so embroiled in the intricacies of their argument they forget it is not about this theory or that theory, or does it make me look good.’
The Prime Minister (pictured in her Downing Street office) is determined to stay the course despite heavy criticism this week
She conceded her Brexit deal was not perfect, but said she deserved credit for ending free movement between Britain and the rest of the EU.
Mrs May’s allies yesterday admitted she remains in the danger zone with Downing Street on standby for a possible vote of confidence in her leadership as early as Tuesday.
By yesterday evening, 23 Tory MPs had publicly admitted sending letters of no confidence in Mrs May to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs which polices the leadership rules.
The number is well short of the 48 needed to trigger a no confidence vote.
And Cabinet sources suggested Brexiteer ministers could still quit in the coming days if, as seems likely, Mrs May refuses to renegotiate the deal with Brussels. Foreign Office minister Mark Field urged MPs to stop ‘squabbling’ and get behind the PM.
Spotted: Boris… and Nigel Farage
He is not normally shy. But Boris Johnson seemed annoyed to be seen in a restaurant with Nigel Farage on Thursday.
The pair were at Boisdale of Belgravia when a diner took photos. Mr Johnson wagged a finger disapprovingly.
He was dining with his father Stanley and Mr Farage was at the restaurant by coincidence, a friend said.
How beans on toast, a glass of Welsh whisky and Philip’s rock-like support helped Theresa May survive a week of treachery… but the PM has STILL had to do the washing as she vows to keep ‘fighting the good fight’ on Brexit
By Simon Walters for the Daily Mail
Sitting in her Downing Street study yesterday morning, Theresa May hardly had the manner or appearance of someone on the verge of being ejected from No 10.
Perhaps the Prime Minister was taking inspiration from the portrait of an impassive Winston Churchill glowering down on us, for her demeanour was one of determination and resolve.
In her elegant tweed jacket and white top with a discreet string of pearls, Mrs May was a picture of calm under the circumstances – although the pointed steel toecaps of her flat shoes may have reflected what she really thought of her political enemies.
In her elegant tweed jacket and white top with a discreet string of pearls, Mrs May was a picture of calm
Mrs May’s exclusive interview with the Mail behind the heavy blue doors of her Downing Street redoubt took place at the height of this week’s political turmoil.
Just 48 hours earlier, Jacob Rees-Mogg had launched a campaign to depose her over her proposed Brexit deal; seven ministers and senior Tories had resigned; and she was struggling to find someone ready to accept the Cabinet’s poison chalice, the job of Brexit Secretary.
When you are in the bunker with heavy shelling all around, any hint that another major casualty has been avoided is cause for fresh hope.
Which is why embattled Mrs May and her No 10 team were so thrilled by the news just before our meeting that Michael Gove was not going to resign from the Cabinet despite rejecting her plea to replace Dominic Raab as Brexit Secretary.
In normal circumstances, a Cabinet minister who publicly spurned a prime minister in their hour of need would be sacked.
These are not normal times.
Mrs May has been hit by so many resignations she is in danger of running out of Conservatives willing or able to fill the gaps round her Cabinet table.
But while her boasts that she and her Government are ‘strong and stable’ are long gone, she has an air of steely composure as she talks candidly about her marriage, her faith, how she copes with Tory plotters … and why Boris Johnson – and anyone else who might replace her as prime minister – would be deluding themselves if they think they can wring any more concessions from Brussels than she has.
‘It’s been a pretty heavy couple of days,’ she says with understatement and her familiar awkward smile. ‘When I went up to the flat late on Wednesday, around 11pm, the first thing Philip did was to pour me a whisky, Penderyn Welsh whisky – though I do drink Scotch as well!,’ she adds diplomatically.
She needed a large one, surely?
‘I couldn’t possibly comment!’ she jokes.
Her husband’s whisky serves more than one purpose. Asked if she has lost sleep, she laughs: ‘It depends how strong the whisky is, or how much Philip has poured for me!’ The next morning, before she had even walked downstairs from the Downing Street flat to her study, she could have done with another glass of Penderyn because she was told that Mr Raab’s resignation had been confirmed.
‘I wasn’t leaden footed, but sad,’ she says with a sigh. ‘When you are PM you wake up each morning and never quite know how the day is going to pan out.’
She discovered this afresh when, within hours, Mr Rees-Mogg called on her to resign.
For many it would have been a body blow, but not for this prime minister. That evening, she was back on duty chatting to Prince Charles at his 70th birthday party at Clarence House.
The Prime Minister (pictured in her Downing Street office) is determined to see her plan for Britain through
Only after returning to the No 10 flat was she finally able to discuss her woes with her husband.
Philip May, a banker, was so irked by the wall-to-wall reporting of his wife’s imminent political demise, he has taken to switching off all TV news bulletins at work.
When she returned from Clarence House, he was waiting in their Downing St kitchen with more modest fare than the champagne and fine canapes at the royal birthday party.
‘We went up to the flat for a quick bite – Philip cooked beans on toast – I think I opened the tin! He made the toast – and did the washing up! Then it was downstairs for a quick meeting and home (their property in Sonning, Berkshire) by 9.30pm so I could get the washing on and leave it to dry overnight.’
Theresa May (pictured during the exclusive Daily Mail interview) has told how her husband was her rock this week
As ever, the middle-class vicar’s daughter was putting day-to-day practicality first.
She skipped her usual Friday morning gym session to be back at Downing St for our interview but says she could not survive the pressure cooker of politics without Philip.
‘I always say he is my rock. It’s hugely important to have somebody there who is supportive of you, not involved in the intricacies of politics, but there to provide human support.’
When they met at Oxford, Philip was as politically ambitious as she was. ‘He thinks what I am doing is important for the British people, though he doesn’t put it like that. He says ‘Keep going, this matters, keep doing the right thing’.’
Mrs May says Philip feels the pain of the vicious personal attacks on her by Tory Party critics even more than she does.
‘It’s often harder for the other half because they are watching it and feel protective and think ‘Why are they saying that to my wife?’ He does feel some of it (the hurt) himself – he’s bound to. We’ve been married for 38 years, that’s a long time.’
Some Whitehall veterans have compared the air of impending doom now enveloping Mrs May’s No 10 to the last days of Margaret Thatcher in 1990, when, just as with Mrs May, her Tory ministers were deserting her.
Maggie’s husband Denis has often been likened to Philip: discreet and monosyllabic in public; similar in appearance – tall, slim, formal; and above all loving and fiercely loyal.
When the Tory sharks circled around Lady Thatcher, it was Denis who stepped in and said it was time to go, telling her: ‘You’ve done enough, old girl. You’ve done your share. For God’s sake, don’t go on any longer.’ Has Philip reached that point? ‘No, he supports what I’m doing.’
He must feel like punching her Tory assailants on the nose?
‘You’ll have to ask him – he’s as protective as any other half.’
Mrs May says her Christian faith has also helped. ‘I am a practising member of the faith and go to church regularly. It is an important part of my life – part of who I am and how I do my job.’
She is careful not to attack Mr Johnson, Mr Rees-Mogg and others directly, perhaps because she is fearful of prodding the hornet’s nest. But she leaves little doubt that she regards some hard Brexiteers as vainglorious, fanatical ideologues with no regard or knowledge of ordinary people or real life.
‘Some politicians get so embroiled in the intricacies of their argument they forget it is not about this theory or that theory, or does it make me look good? It is what is best for people going about their lives day in and day out.
They think too much about their privileged position and too little about their responsibility. The job of a prime minister is to make tough decisions which are not always black or white. I have to find a way through, what best suits everybody’s needs.’ Mrs May does not pretend her Brexit plan is perfect.
‘It’s not everybody’s ideal deal. You were never going to get that.’
She is hardly extolling it to the skies – however hard she tries to get people enthused about it, there’s a feeling she must know the truth: that it is the least worst option.
But she is intensely frustrated that so few have given her credit for addressing the main reason millions voted to cut ties with Brussels: controlling immigration by ending freedom of movement.
‘As Home Secretary for six years I did my best to reduce immigration with one hand tied behind my back because you couldn’t do anything about people coming in from the EU,’ she said. ‘Now we can. Freedom of movement ends.’
She trotted out her other Brexit achievements: ‘no more sending vast sums to the EU; an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice; out of the Common Agricultural Policy; out of the Common Fisheries Policy; out of the customs union; out of the single market; independent trade and an independent coastal state. That is delivered in the future.’
It sounds impressive. But she is back on the defensive when challenged over claims that the EU can now veto us leaving the customs union: ‘No, no, no, no. In the future we WILL leave customs union.’
But we are trapped in it?
‘No, no, no, no, no.’ She’s very much in Maggie mode here.
Could Mrs May categorically say the EU would not have a veto?
She pauses, ‘You are talking about it, you see …’
Have they or haven’t they?
‘No, but…’
Won’t they just trap us in it?
‘No. The EU does not have a veto on us leaving the customs union – we have a future relationship where we are not in it.’
It sounds categorical.
But then she adds the so-called ‘backstop mechanism’, involving ‘UK-wide customs territory arrangements to ensure the Ireland and Northern Ireland border remains free’, can only be ended by ‘mutual consent – we don’t have unilateral withdrawal from that.’ No wonder people are confused.
She also struggles to answer Esther McVey’s withering comment to her after quitting the Cabinet: ‘You have gone from saying no deal is better than a bad deal to any deal is better than no deal.’
‘No, I haven’t gone to that position,’ she says tersely.
But what if her deal is voted down by MPs? She will have nowhere to go. It will be the end game. She refuses to contemplate it: ‘I am focusing on making sure I persuade people this is a good deal.’
Admirers will praise her resolve: cynics will say she is in denial. But in a message aimed at her Tory assassins she says replacing her as prime minister would not lead to a better Brexit offer.
‘People say ‘if you could only just do something slightly different, have a Norway model or a Canada model, this backstop issue would go away.’
She turns up the volume: ‘IT. WOULD. NOT. THAT ISSUE IS STILL GOING TO BE THERE.’
Whatever your view of her as a prime minister, there can surely be no doubting her fortitude on a human level. She makes light of the regular injections of insulin she requires ever since she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
She jokes that during last week’s five-hour Cabinet Brexit summit ‘I was the only one who didn’t take a break! You get used to managing it. It becomes part of your way of life. I inject when I eat,’ she said matter-of-factly.
As for the idea that she is about to suffer the same fate as Lady Thatcher, who wept as she was driven out of Downing St, it simply isn’t on her mind.
‘I don’t go ‘Oh gosh, it must have been like this x years ago’. I wake up each morning and say ‘What have I got to do today to get where we need to be?’.
‘Being prime minister is about fighting the good fight for the country,’ she insists with that air of defiance and resolution. And that is what I am determined to do.’