When she allowed her emotion to show during her resignation speech, Theresa May finally did something good for women
Harriet Hall
1 / 2
Boris Johnson prepares UK for no-deal Brexit as he leads race to replace Theresa May
Boris Johnson has set the scene for a high-risk no-deal Brexit, as he kicked off the race to succeed Theresa May in explosive style.Just hours after a tearful Ms May bowed to pressure from her own party and announced she will stand down as Conservative leader on 7 June, the former foreign secretary declared he would take the UK out of the EU on 31 October, whether or not a withdrawal agreement has been reached with Brussels.Mr Johnson has been installed as hot favourite to take over as prime minister in July, with one member of his campaign team telling The Independent he was attracting support from MPs across the different wings of the party.Mr Johnson did not hesitate to throw himself into the fray, telling an economic conference in Switzerland: “We will leave the EU on October 31, deal or no deal. The way to get a good deal is to prepare for a no deal.”But moderate Tories warned that a new leader taking power on a no-deal platform risked splitting the party, and former attorney general Dominic Grieve said it may not survive in its current form.Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt set himself up as Mr Johnson’s heavyweight rival for No 10 by confirming he will stand, and there was a surprise declaration from 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, while hard Brexiteer Steve Baker said he was “taking soundings”.Also expected to throw their hats in the ring in the coming days were health secretary Matt Hancock, environment secretary Michael Gove and former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, adding to a swollen line-up already featuring Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Rory Stewart.After months of phoney war, the contest was triggered in earnest by Ms May’s emotionally-charged statement on the steps of 10 Downing Street. Watched by her husband Philip, the prime minister’s voice broke as she set out plans to leave office before parliament breaks up for the summer in July.Struggling to hold back her tears, Ms May, who is the 35th person to quit government over Brexit in 23 months, said that after three unsuccessful attempts to pass her Brexit deal, she now accepted it was “in the interests of the country” for a new PM to take over the process.In an apparent warning to the party not to choose an intransigent no-dealer as her successor, she said the new leader would need to seek consensus and be willing to compromise to deliver a Brexit which protects jobs, security and the Union.And her voice broke as she concluded: “Our politics may be under strain, but there is so much that is good about this country. So much to be proud of. So much to be optimistic about.“I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold – the second female prime minister but certainly not the last. I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”Speaking a day after European elections in which the Conservatives are believed to have slumped to their worst performance in their history, Ms May insisted the party “can renew itself in the years ahead”.She cited progress in reducing the deficit, rising jobs figures, the introduction of an industrial strategy, housebuilding, funding for mental health, the race disparity audit, and action to tackle plastic waste as the legacy of the “decent, moderate and patriotic” government which she led.The manner of her departure was praised by those seeking to replace her, with Mr Johnson hailing her “stoical service to our country and the Conservative Party” and Mr Raab describing her as “a dedicated public servant, patriot and loyal Conservative”.But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Ms May had shown herself unable to govern and her administration had “utterly failed the country”. He challenged her successor to call an immediate general election.US president Donald Trump, whose state visit to the UK Ms May will host in the final days of her premiership, said he “feels badly” for the departing PM but her decision was “for the good of her country”.Tory grandees announced that the process to find a replacement for Ms May would begin in the week after her resignation as leader, with MPs whittling the field down in a series of votes before the final decision is made in a ballot of 125,000 party members around the country.Boris Johnson’s vow not to seek a new Brexit extension beyond the Halloween deadline set at the April European Council summit leaves the would-be leader with a perilously tight timetable to negotiate an alternative to Ms May’s rejected deal.Defence minister Tobias Ellwood voiced unease: “If the Brexit experience to date has taught us anything, it’s to avoid making promises and drawing red lines you may later regret or cannot honour.”And Mr Grieve warned that the election of a PM on a no-deal platform could cause the government to collapse. Warning against a shift to the hard Brexit right, he said: “People have to listen to one another about finding a way through this crisis or the party will not survive in its current form... Speaking personally, I believe that the party on such a foundation and base – particularly if it starts to cosy up to Farage – will find itself in huge difficulty and will not be able to win elections.”> A very dignified statement from @theresa_may. Thank you for your stoical service to our country and the Conservative Party. It is now time to follow her urgings: to come together and deliver Brexit.> > — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) > > May 24, 2019Former Tory minister Anna Soubry, who quit the party over Brexit to join Change UK, denounced the deal-or-no-deal pledge as “careerist, self-seeking and dangerous”, and said the former London mayor was “not fit to be our prime minister”. “If we are to get the prime minister we are crying out for, it is not Boris the clown on the zip wire,” she said.Veteran Tory backbencher Sir Roger Gale said Ms May’s removal “solves absolutely nothing – the same problems exist and will continue to exist”.Sir Roger cast doubt on Mr Johnson’s following among MPs and questioned whether he would make it through to the final ballot, telling The Independent: “Even if he wins, it will be an interesting question whether or not he can form a government, because there are people I know who would not be willing to serve under a Johnson leadership. I would be surprised if there weren’t more than a dozen.”Prominent Brexiteer Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who is working on Mr Johnson’s campaign, said he was winning support from MPs from all wings who recognise him as the only candidate with the potential to bring together the party and the country.“Many colleagues who a few months ago might have been saying ‘Boris is such a Brexiteer’ are now saying he’s the one with the magic stardust that wins elections,” she told The Independent. “These people come along every so often and he is one of them.”
In the moment when Theresa May allowed her emotion to showwhile signing off her resignation announcement this morning, she did more for women than she has over her entire political career.
Hearing her voice crack when she said running the country she loves has been “the honour of my life,” it was difficult not to feel sad about the fact that another woman’s time at the helm of the country was over — not to mention the fact that her tumultuous time in office will inevitably be used against other women in politics in the future.
Before you accuse me of sympathy: no, I don’t feel sorry for Theresa May. She cried only for herself – not for Grenfell or Windrush or the homeless, not for the domestic violence shelters which were closed down on her watch, the Northern Irish women who suffered because of DUP’s draconian stance on abortion or the immigrant women detained in Yarl’s Wood – and it will take decades to turn back the clock on the damage her term has left on the country.
But that moment at the conclusion of her resignation speech was like watching a woman shake off the patriarchal shackles she’s been chained with for months, and finally exhaling. It was poignant, and perhaps even relatable, for all women to see the prime minister show – not through coughing fits, embarrassing Mamma Mia dance routines or by reminiscing about running through fields of wheat — that she’s just another human being, and it hasn’t been easy.
Emotion has been weaponised against women since time immemorial, especially in the political sphere. Our wombs make us irrational, we’ve been told; our hormones make us weak. Remember when Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir Tim Hunt said women shouldn’t be allowed to work in laboratories because, “when you criticise them, they cry”? And it makes no difference whether we actually cry or whether we merely assert ourselves: studies have shown men who react to situations with anger are celebrated it, and women who do the same are penalised.
For women to cry, historically, is for women to prove misogyny right, to prove that we cannot hack it – we are too vulnerable. But to subscribe to this “do as the boys do” model of lean-in feminism damages men just as much as women. It says that toxic masculinity is the norm, and demands that emotionality and rationality are seen as mutually exclusive states, rather than often complementary.
Nowadays men are often celebrated for crying or talking about their emotions (which, for the record, I support) but May has been torn apart for it. She’s been ridiculed across the internet for those final moments, when she finally lost her composure because — let’s face it — she really, actually cared.
Of course May isn’t the first politician to show emotion (Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and even Margaret Thatcher all had their moments), but these tears felt much more genuine than the politically convenient crocodile tears adopted in an opportune moment. She was done fighting, her defence mechanisms abandoned; she had nothing more to give. The only thing she had left to give the country was a poignant, impassioned acknowledgement that she had, ultimately, failed in an office she held in extremely high esteem.
Paparazzi have swarmed to capture a shot of her looking sad, “feeling the strain,” but this wasn’t a moment caught off-guard in the back of a car. May allowed us to see this. She allowed us to dwell on it as a cynical Conservative leadership with Boris Johnson as the frontrunner cranks into gear.
Let’s rewind back to the final moments of May’s predecessor. Leaving the country completely in the lurch following a referendum conducted for party political interests, David Cameron lit the match and walked away. The hollowness of his words were exposed when a microphone left on gave us a glimpse into his mindset as he sung himself a jaunty tune while sauntering back into 10 Downing Street. Cameron did not leave as a statesperson. May, at least, gave us that.
May has been treated like only a woman in her position is: her clothes mocked, her legs compared with the First Minister of Scotland’s, her moments of steadfast resolve recharacterised as “robotic”. She has undoubtedly suffered gender discrimination, whether or not she has acted as a feminist herself (again: she hasn’t.) But this isn’t about forgiveness. It’s acknowledging that people hate strong women — people within her own party made no secret of their dislike for “the Maybot” — and they love to see them break. May took control of that narrative and, instead of allowing crowing pundits to say she’d “proved her femaleness” or “finally cracked”, proved she still had some integrity.
We can respect that Theresa May believed in what she did, even if we don’t agree with it. Can we say the same for the person waiting next in line?
Former NBA guard Darius Morris has died at the age of 33. He played for five teams during his four NBA seasons. Morris played college basketball at Michigan.
Affluent Americans may want to double-check how much of their bank deposits are protected by government-backed insurance. The rules governing trust accounts just changed.
Miami Heat president Pat Riley rebuked comments Jimmy Butler made about the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, while also implying that his star needs to play more.
Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman discuss the Padres-Marlins trade that sent Luis Arraez to San Diego, as well as recap all the action from this weekend in baseball and send birthday wishes to hall-of-famer Willie Mays.
An annual government report offered a glimmer of good news for Social Security and a jolt of good news for Medicare even as both programs continue to be on pace to run dry next decade.
Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab join forces to recap the draft in the best way they know how: letter grades! Fitz and Frank discuss all 32 teams division by division as they give a snapshot of how fans should be feeling heading into the 2024 season. The duo have key debates on the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Las Vegas Raiders and more.
The 2023-024 NBA season isn't yet over. A number of teams are still dreaming of championship glory. But for those that have been bounced from the playoffs, it's time to reassess and re-evaluate for next season.