Friday marked 100 days in the job for Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, and to mark this milestone, we asked our readers to rate her performance as leader so far.
Most respondents were unhappy with her time in the job, with many commenters questioning May’s democratic mandate, given the post-Brexit vote leadership election and her government’s “hard Brexit” leanings, one year on from a Conservative government elected – among other things – on the promise to keep Britain in the EU single market.
Below is a selection of readers’ views. Agree? Disagree? Share your views below the line.
‘She has pandered to rightwing extremism’
She has been the beneficiary of the Tory knack of feigning unity to keep power and has convinced the electorate that she is a strong leader. Her socioeconomic rhetoric chimes well but is undeliverable. Her anti-immigrant priority panders to right wing extremism and undermines the economic and social stability of the country.
It was a stupid error to encourage grammar schools, a policy which will unravel. NHS is heading for the abyss, yet she supports Hunt’s destruction of its basic principles. She is being rapidly weakened by the fissures in the government and is out of her depth.
To place immigration policy above the economic wellbeing of the country will lead to catastrophe. She has bought into the fantasy that the rest of the EU and the wider world think we are as special as rightwingers do.
Government arrogance and self-delusion is increasing the likelihood of the most damaging Brexit. Unfortunately we are already a basket case owing to longstanding extreme neoliberal policies.
Brian Dobson, Blackburn
‘Will the reality be an extreme, isolationist Britain?’
As a leader, she appears to have united the Tories. However, a leader can be judged on the people they surround themselves by and her cabinet appointments (aside from Philip Hammond) appear to be extreme.
Her actions in these appointments, and the policies they have since laid out, are inconsistent with the messages she gave on assuming the role. It will be interesting to see whether we get May’s Britain as outlined in her words on entering Downing Street, or whether the reality will be an extreme, isolationist Britain as outlined in her government’s actions so far.
Tim Perkins, Berkhamsted
‘Hard Brexit will leave us isolated and alone’
May is nothing new. Like all Tory leaders, they stand up after an election or at conference and perform to the gallery pledging to serve all people of the classes, but as the people go about their lives, they introduce policies that undermine the life chances and aspirations of those people.
Social division: grammar schools. Life chances: NHS chronically underfunded in crisis again. Dignity in old age: social care in crisis. Aspiration for young people: huge debt, no prospect of owning a house. Workers: zero hours contracts. The same old policies. Thatcherism in many new guises.
Hard Brexit will leave us isolated and alone and economically vulnerable. If we are not in a single market this will have a dire consequences for the City. She is gambling with the financial future of this country.
Nick Smith, Kent
‘I forgot what an authoritarian home secretary she was’
Like a lot of people, I was reasonably positive about May as PM – but I think now that was just relief that she was clearly “none of the above” as the Leadsom/Gove/Johnson options were so terrible. Like many, I forgot what an authoritarian home secretary she had been, how lukewarm her remain credentials were and how she’d been very keen to remove us from the European court of justice.
I had hoped her cabinet selections was a tactical masterstroke where she’d have someone to blame when Brexit goes pearshaped – perhaps when it became apparent that there was no plan, no consensus and no clue. It feels like we’ve been there for ages already.
Instead, May’s Brexit approach has been terrifying. She’s put her trust, and our country’s future, in the hands of Johnson, Davis and Fox. I fear for the union and what will happen in Northern Ireland.
Anonymous, London
‘May trots out press lines that defy reality’
May is cautious and courts popular sentiment. She trots out soundbites that she thinks will appeal to her party’s core supporters and what she sees as the disenfranchised working classes, but she has no policy ideas whatsoever.
Far from demonstrating leadership, she avoids making decisions on any areas of policy, prevaricating on everything from her negotiating position with the EU to airport expansion. Her decision to support Hunt as health secretary shows that despite protestations to the contrary, she has little respect for the NHS and is likely to preside over its rapid decline.
She hasn’t handled anything to do with Brexit. There is no discernible strategy, the three Brexiters are allowed to run amok discrediting UK politics in the process, while May continues to trot out press lines that defy reality, such as maintaining access to the single market while controlling EU immigration.
Her conduct seems to reflect that displayed during the EU referendum campaign – keep your head down, wait for the dust to settle and see what happens. While this may have profited her personal ambitions, it is likely to be disastrous for the country.
Steve Donnelly, Durham
