Rumours Theresa May is only planning to serve as British PM until 2020

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...ning-exit.html

DAN HODGES: Brexit then exit? Theresa May won't call an Election, claim some Ministers. Why? Because they say, she just doesn't enjoy being PM and is already planning to quit

A few weeks ago I was chatting to a Minister about Theresa May’s strange reluctance to call a General Election she would win by a landslide. ‘Why is she waiting till 2020 to fight it?’ I asked. ‘How do you know she’s planning on fighting it?’ he replied.

I laughed, but then he explained his thesis. On entering Downing Street, the Prime Minister has discovered that being Prime Minister isn’t really for her. So she intends to serve out the rest of this parliamentary term, deliver a deal on Brexit, then ride off into the sunset.

‘She’ll be hailed as the person who saved the nation from its worst crisis since the war, then go off and enjoy her retirement with husband Philip,’ he said. I checked his theory with another Minister. ‘I don’t know the exact timetable,’ he said. ‘But she’s certainly only a transitional PM.’ A third Minister agreed. ‘She’ll fight an Election, then be gone in 18 months.’

Mrs May is currently one of the most popular PMs in British political history. Her poll lead is nudging 20 points, her approval rating is 54 points ahead of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and she’s winning by-elections in areas that were previously bandit country for the Tories. Yet after only nine months in Downing Street, many colleagues are already starting to pen her political obituary.

Partly this is a product of the brutally truncated nature of the modern political life cycle. David Cameron became an MP, leader of the Opposition, Prime Minister and an ex-PM all in the space of 15 years. At 59, Mrs May was the oldest PM to take office since Jim Callaghan, whose own unhappy tenure lasted only three years. Going ‘on and on’ is not really an option for her.

Then there are the continuing whispers about her health. In 2013 the then Home Secretary experienced dramatic weight loss, and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. While she demonstrated impressive stamina in that role, becoming PM has seen her exposed to an entirely different order of stress. ‘I saw her straight after she returned from one of her foreign trips,’ a Minister told me, ‘and she looked exhausted. Nothing can prepare you for that job.’

Rumours of this kind have always attended older politicians governing under the gaze of younger, ambitious counterparts. But there is now something strangely semi-detached about Mrs May’s premiership.

Interesting. A lot of journalists have been talking about this today so the story has some legs.

Two prominent journalists - Andrew Pierce & John Rentoul - suggested what I have always thought (and wanted) that her successor will likely, and should, be David Davis who is currently the Secretary for Exiting the European Union. It would make sense too, if a good deal emerges satisfying the public on immigration & trade that Davis would be the frontrunner to take the Tory crown from a retiring Theresa May around 2020.

I know you should never predict these things but given the state of the Labour Party and the fact that without Scottish seats it needs a swing of 1997 proportions across England just to tie with the Tories, it's looking likely we'll have a Tory government until at least 2030. A Davis Government would then have 10 years after Brexit to go through EU law and slash it away/reform it.

Thoughts?