May shows that that unlike Thatcher, the lady is for turning
Prime Minister Theresa May came to Wrexham today and showed that, unlike her predecessor Margaret Thatcher, this lady was for turning.
Speaking just four days after her party’s manifesto launch, which outlined controversial policies labelled a ‘dementia tax’, she changed course in the face of public outcry with a swift and sharp u-turn.
But perhaps luckily for her, the media focus shifted temporarily thanks to an unexpected outburst from an anti-hunt protester at the Gresford Memorial Hall where May had come to launch the party’s manifesto in Wales.
Despite the Tory press officers insisting that the Gresford Memorial Hall location of the speech before invited party members not be disclosed, word had clearly leaked out. And as she arrived, the sound ofs of snapping press photographers’ cameras was drowned out by the shrill tone of a huntsman’s bugle.
Attention quickly turned to a young, dreadlocked campaigner believed to be shouting ‘Save Foxes! Kill May’. He was wrestled to the ground by a scrum of police officers who then bundled him into the back of a waiting police van.
What Theresa May protester was actually arrested for
It was only when a journalist asked that the officer confirmed the man was under arrest.
As the press pack followed the disturbance around to a waiting police van the Prime Minister strolled into the hall.
Minutes before she took to the stage word went around the hall that the Prime Minister was about to perform what could be described as the great Gresford U-turn.
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The Prime Minister was in Wrexham to launch the Conservative’s Welsh manifesto, this has to be one of the few occasions when such an event was so well covered by the press.
Heavy hitters from the national broadcasters gave Mrs May a pasting over her perceived u-turn but the party faithful lapped it up, accepting her explanation of it as a mere clarification after a weekend of Labour attacks on the policy.
Watch moment police arrest protester at Theresa May’s North Wales visit
As the man who hopes to take the Wrexham seat for the Conservatives, Andrew Atkinson, said: “I think it’s a good clarification and I think she has been clear on that.
(Photo: Getty Images Europe)
“It’s exactly as set out in the manifesto and there will be a consultation and a green paper clarifying some of the details. It’s a good thing.”
But with a nine point loss on the Conservatives’ lead on Labour over the weekend, whether the u-turn will win that support back, or be seen as an irrecoverable wobble in her ‘strong and stable’ leadership, only the next few days’ opinion polls will tell.
