May seeks consensus with the Labour party
On the day the PM met her Australian counterpart, she also pre-released a section of a speech due tomorrow in which she seeks consensus with the Labour Party.
It adds to the similarities with her university contemporary, Malcolm Turnbull (as you can see from this report http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-our-politicians-must-learn-lessons-from-theresa-mays-election-poll-disaster/news-story/746773f691831d41a5ed832bbfc80ef9), two leaders who sought an early election in the hope of getting a bigger mandate and got horribly slapped down by the voters.
This account (written last month) shows how there’s even more overlap between the two, who met today for talks at Downing Street, after today’s words from Theresa May.
“(Malcolm Turnbull’s) bid for a personal mandate having been torpedoed, Turnbull is struggling to stay afloat. He consistently trails in opinion polls, and now feels compelled to steal key policies of the “defeated” Labor Party that his own membership base abhors.”
Theresa May is an unlikely consensus-seeker. Lib Dem ministers in the Coalition spoke of her being the most stridently party-minded in the Cabinet.
Some think the Prime Minister is trying to make sure that Labour looks bad if it obstructs her work, particularly on Brexit. But some around Westminster speak of Tory figures having been in contact with the Labour leader’s office trying to get an understanding that the leadership will back key chunks of the so-called Great Repeal Bill.
Tonight, Mrs May has an embarrassing saga to deal with as she suspends her fellow MP, Anne Marie Morris, from the Party whip. It may not affect the working majority as an MP who wants to work their way back into the embrace of the party, if handled with care, can end up turning up for votes with conspicuous regularity. The Chief Whip, Gavin Williamson, spoke to Mrs Morris tonight, and will probably been careful not to let her feel that she has been cut adrift with no way back.