Theresa May is the steady hand UK needs

With so much uncertainty facing Britain right now and no clear path forward after the EU referendum, Britain needs the steady and experienced hand of Theresa May.

The Home Secretary for the past six years, May has developed a fierce reputation as a candidate who doesn’t seek attention or approval. She isn’t the greatest or grandest orator, nor is she as jovial and comedic Boris Johnson. Composed and often businesslike, she doesn’t claim to have the greatest social skills — she’s more admired than liked. Yet, she has developed a reputation as a person who runs things well.

Compared often to Angela Merkel for her no-nonsense approach, May has always been associated with the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party.

She had backed the Remain campaign (although half-heartedly, in my opinion) and maintained a low-key approach towards campaigning — rising above the day to day political fray. Her refusal to campaign actively for Remain lead to George Osborne calling, and David Cameron to follow through, sacking May from Cabinet. It is hard to imagine that May is now, most likely, the anti-Boris candidate with purportedly many of Cameron’s allies locking ranks behind her, should she run.

For all her strengths, there are weakness.

She is considered a micro-manager, yielding an iron grip over the Home Department. She is said to examine potential risks from every angle.

But despite these, she is a hard negotiator. In a Guardian profile, they wrote:

“As Nick Clegg, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Boris Johnson and Vince Cable have all discovered, May can be exhausting to negotiate with, grinding opponents down. (Even Cameron avoids confrontation where possible. “If she wanted something, he liked to give it to her,” said a source who regularly observed their exchanges.) Ministerial meetings can be so frosty that “we used to dread going in”, said another attendee. When displeased, she sends what a Whitehall source called “extremely abrupt” letters, key passages irritably underlined.”

If this isn’t the type of leader that Britain wants to send to Brussels to negotiate the best, most favourable deal for the UK as it prepares to exit, then what else?

May is the unifying candidate that Britain needs — to unite the Conservative Party and to unite the nation. The ‘sceptical remainer’ who has a very long Eurosceptic streak can be a bridge between the Remain and Leave camps and to unite the country after a divisive referendum.

Boris Johnson isn’t assured victory — no doubt he is the favourite and somewhat entitled to the leadership as the public face of the Leave campaign. But at the same time, ITV is reporting that a number of Leave MP’s within the Conservative Party don’t believe that Boris is ‘one of them’.

Her life story hasn’t been plain sailing — and she is as tough as they make them. Often taken as token female candidate, she has proved critics wrong. She resents a blokey culture and in 2002, made it clear when at the Conservative Party conference, declared the Conservative Party a ‘nasty, unattractive party’ as the party chairman, striving to making the party more modern and relevant. Her parents died within months of each other, she fought two unwinnable seats in 1990’s and struggled to get past activists with traditional attitudes and despite wanting, have failed to bear any children.

She isn’t personable. Her social skill lacks, she isn’t a grand reformer or a mere face channelling one’s ideas. She is a steady hand, an experienced operator and a formidable negotiator. She’s a safe pair of hands, a tough as nails person who has the gravitas and experience to lead Britain through an uncertain time.

If Britain want the best possible exit deal with the EU, if Britain wants to unify and if the Conservative Party wants to unite after a divisive time, then they must make Theresa May their next leader and their next Prime Minister.