Theresa May sounded markedly more Eurosceptic and looked far happier than she has done in recent weeks as she spoke about Brexit in the Commons on Monday
She sounded markedly more Eurosceptic than in recent weeks – and looked happier. Perhaps the two are linked.
Theresa May certainly did herself no harm in the Commons yesterday with a long, fault-free Statement on European matters. Tantrums came mainly from the Remoaners.
‘What fine fettle she is in,’ said Rupa Huq, who is actually a Labour MP.
Miss Huq (Ealing C) noted that a German media outlet (which may have been reporting scuttlebutt from Jean-Claude Juncker’s munchkins) had described Mrs May as looking pooped and desperate at the weekend.
Perhaps something had been lost in translation, ventured Miss Huq.
Mrs May has often looked much wearier than she did yesterday. She did plenty of smiling, coped competently with almost two hours of questioning, and repeatedly had her Brexiteer backbenchers nodding in agreement.
Strikingly, she did not um and er as often as she normally does.
Some of the Remain lot are losing their composure. Tom Brake, a sub-standard Lib Demmer from Carshalton, started shrieking that the main critics of the EU were multi-millionaires who lived in ‘stately homes and chateaux’.
When, demanded this Brake, would Mrs May ‘stand up for those who voted Remain’?
Mrs May delivered a long, fault-free Statement on European matters – coping competently with two hours of questioning, and had her Brexiteer backbenchers nodding in agreement
Mrs May shook her head to indicate that she thought Mr Brake was off the pace. She said she was ‘standing up for the British people who voted Leave, unlike his party who think they got it wrong’.
Anti-Brexit Mike Gapes (Lab, Ilford S), who is generally regarded with uninterested benevolence around the House, railed against Mrs May in person.
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He called her ‘an empty-vessel, caretaker prime minister’ and he looked tremendously pleased with himself when he sat down after saying so.
To hear such abuse from a soft under-achiever such as Gapes was like hearing a wet vicar spit out a very naughty word. Mrs May could have called the Ilford colossus all sorts of names back but settled instead for an amused air.
This won her more friends than a sharp put-down might have done.
It also suggested that she is less brittle than the Europeans would have us think. Some of the Conservatives are slowly realising that Labour’s readiness to accept ‘any deal’ with Brussels opens up useful ground for them.
‘Any deal’ basically means ‘we will pay billions of pounds more to you Eurocrats’. How well is that going to play with voters?
Philip Davies (Con, Shipley) hoped we would pay ‘not a penny more’ to Brussels than was our legal duty.
‘If the Government has got spare billions in its coffers – which I am not sure it has – that money should go to pay for social care and pay-rises for public sector workers, not into the bottomless pit of the EU and into Jean-Claude Juncker’s wine cellar, which I’m sure is rapidly diminishing as we speak,’ said Mr Davies.
Philip Davies urged Mrs May not to pay ‘a penny more’ than we must to ‘the bottomless pit of the EU and into Jean-Claude Juncker’s wine cellar’
His reference to the Juncker thirst won a laugh. ‘We can’t look public-sector workers in the eye if we give tens of billions of pounds to the EU that we don’t have to give them legally.’
It is hard to think of a constituency where that argument would not win agreement. Where should British tax money be spent: on British citizens or on premier cru claret for tipsy Jean-Claude?
Every time Labour complains about public-sector pay, the Tories could say ‘well why are you Labour people so keen to give away our billions?’
Nigel Evans (Con, Ribble Valley) imagined the opposite of an Oliver Twist scenario where ‘refusenik’ MPs were so desperate to give Brussels our money, they were saying ‘please, sir, can we give you more?’
It was ‘a slight to the British taxpayer’, argued Mr Evans.
And yet gloomy Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru, Carmarthen E & Dinefwr) wanted us to make ‘a tactical retreat’ in the Brexit negotiations. And Kenneth Clarke (Not Really Con, Rushcliffe) did his normal sneering at Eurosceptics and urged Mrs May to cosy up to Labour.
Why that old man doesn’t cross the floor, I do not understand.