Theresa May surveys wondrous chance of replacing Cameron

A three-day media blitz surrounding Theresa May has sparked fresh speculation that the Home Secretary is “on manoeuvres” to position herself as the prime candidate to take over the Conservative Party leadership should David Cameron lose the upcoming general election.

Hard on the heels of her appearances on Desert Island Discs (her choices included Dancing Queen by Abba and the hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross) and the Andrew Marr Show, Theresa May scored an undoubted hit yesterday with Tory backbenchers when she unveiled her tough new anti-terror bill while raising the alarm that a terrorist attack is “inevitable”.

Just as May appears to be all that stands between Britain and a terrorist outrage, the Spectator Life magazine is preparing to publish a soft-focus profile of the Home Secretary by Harry Cole.

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The Daily Mail has had a sneak preview of the article which quotes a friend of May’s saying she has “given up” on 10 Downing Street which she views as “incompetent” and that she has her own “vision” for the future of the Conservative Party.

“There was a time early on when she would want to please David [Cameron],” says the friend, “but slowly she has seen just how incompetent that operation is… How the PM will say he will do one thing, only to be drawn in another direction. She’s given up on him.”

A spokesman for the Home Office has been quick to deny any such thing – “This quote from an unnamed source bears absolutely no relation to the Home Secretary’s view” – and, to be fair to May, The Mole would suggest that it’s probably the “munchkins” at Number Ten – the PM's inexperienced young advisors and spin-doctors – rather than Cameron himself who she finds frustrating.

• Nigel Horne: Cameron’s turn to face public ridicule

The Spectator article also suggests that May regards her main rival for the party leadership – Boris Johnson, Mayor of London – as a “faintly ridiculous” figure whom she is determined to prevent from taking over if Cameron goes. Here May’s “friends” have doubtless got it right: no one pretends that she and Boris sing from the same hymn sheet.

May’s chief aide, Nick Timothy, and former spin doctor, Fiona Cunningham, defend her against accusations that she is risk- averse, pointing out that she successfully battled to deport Abu Qatada and resist US demands to extradite the UK hacker Gary McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s.

“I think she is a massive risk-taker – huge,” says Cunningham. “When she decided not to extradite… McKinnon, she knew the wrath from the States and by God, you know, the tornado that came out of Washington was immense.”

Publication of the Spectator article will coincide with her starring role on Thursday at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards, attended by most of the movers and shakers inside the Westminster village.

Topping all that, she has become the longest-serving Home Secretary in the past 50 years. Normally the Home Office is regarded as a graveyard for political ambitions.

Yet Tories are buying shares again in the woman who only ten days ago was blamed for a Parliamentary debacle over the European Arrest Warrant. The government tried to avoid a rebellion by Tory eurosceptics by leaving out any mention to the EAW in its motion. Backbenchers rightly smelled a rat, and May faced a Commons storm.

May confessed on Desert Islands Discs to feeling “battered and bruised” by the experience.

There are practical and political reasons for questioning May’s chances of leading the Tories. For a start, she has type one diabetes which means she has to inject herself with insulin four times a day.

All the media hype conveniently forgets she has presided over cuts in the police service of 20 per cent.

The right wing of the Tory Party still won’t forgive her for branding the Conservatives the “nasty party” when she was party chairman back in 2002 – an image that continues to haunt the party today.

And unless the Tory eurosceptics all run away to join Ukip in the event of a Cameron defeat next year, then it’s hard to see them voting for a leader who, as I reported yesterday, stoically refuses to advocate Britain leaving the EU.