Jason Beattie: Hollow Prime Minister Theresa May has left UK in unholy mess

Three years ago, Theresa May stood in Downing Street and set out her vision for Britain.

Yesterday, she fought back the tears as she conceded that her career had ended in failure.

Her shoulders hunched, she walked back through the door of No 10 knowing she will be bracketed with the appeaser Neville Chamberlain and Lord North, who lost America, on the list of Britain’s worst Prime Ministers.

Even in her farewell, Mrs May’s worst characteristics were on display.

Trying to craft a legacy, she talked again about wanting to fight “burning injustices” and govern for the many, “not the privileged few”.

Theresa May and her husband Philip John in 2016 as she moved into Number 10
(Image: PA)

But these were just hollow words from a hollow Prime Minister.

There is no legacy as she has achieved almost nothing. Nothing was done to tackle the social care crisis or climate change.

Four million children live in poverty, a family is made homeless every five minutes and the NHS waiting list is up from 2.7 million in 2013 to 4.2million.

And the privileged few are still flourishing.

There were always two Theresa Mays. There was the vicar’s daughter with a sense of public duty who wanted to do her best for us.

And there was the plastic Thatcher act, the dogmatic Tory who understood the world only through the prism of her Home Counties upbringing.

May, who cried as she resigned on Friday, pictured in March 2017
(Image: eyevine)

In the end, she failed to live up to either role. Ultimately, she was a mediocre, narrow-minded and unimaginative politician. She did not have the statecraft, intuition and leadership skills necessary to see through Brexit and keep her party together.

The only positive quality associated with her was plodding resilience and even that came to be seen as an awkward stubbornness. All her limitations were there to see from her six-year stint in the Home Office.

There were a few small but totemic successes – the deportation of Abu Hamza, the Modern Slavery Act. But there was no great reform. The only major policy change was introducing the unpopular police and crime commissioners.

The rest of her Home Office legacy was rising numbers in immigration, despite the vow to cap net migration to the tens of thousands, and cutting 21,000 police officers.

And she oversaw the “hostile environment” that led to the Windrush scandal.

The PM is leaving after numerous calls for her to resign throughout her time in power
(Image: PA)

By hiding in the Home Office, Mrs May managed to avoid scrutiny over whether she was suited for the top job.

Her hallmarks of timidity coupled with political calculation were displayed again during the EU referendum, as she did the bare minimum to back Remain – deciding soft opposition would help woo Leave MPs in any leadership bid.

When the vacancy did emerge in June 2016, Mrs May took No 10 without a vote thanks to Boris Johnson’s incompetence, Michael Gove’s treachery and Andrea Leadsom’s inadequacy.

Desperate to keep her party together, she appointed a string of Brexiteers to roles they were unworthy of or unqualified for. Then mistakes mounted up.

In her first conference speech, she set out her unilateral ambition for Brexit based on ending free movement and reclaiming sovereignty from the EU courts.

Within months, she triggered Article 50 without a clear negotiating objective, declaring we would have a new trade deal with the bloc by March this year.

Theresa May’s dancing was not a highlight of her tenure either
(Image: PA)

She then tried to deny Parliament a vote on Article 50 – only to have to reverse the decision after a Supreme Court ruling.

All her worst traits were on display: she was furtive, distrusting and controlling.

Ken Clarke dubbed her a “bloody difficult woman” in what was meant to a back-handed compliment on her obstinacy – but better refers to her inability to communicate and refusal to accept new ideas.

Then she called a general election after saying there would be no snap poll. The disastrous campaign was notable for her “Maybot” performance and her U-turn on the dementia tax.

When the results came in, the Tories lost their overall majority and she was forced to sack aides, bribe the DUP for support and sacrifice the whip hand on Brexit.

A dismal year was capped by her pitiful conference speech. In an hour, she lost her voice, got a P45 from a prankster and her backdrop collapsed.

But this was nothing compared to the humiliation of watching her Brexit deal suffer the heaviest Commons defeat in history when it lost by 230 votes.

Two further bids to get it through also ended in ignominy. She survived a leadership challenge but her authority was all but spent. In her three years in office, she saw a record 36 ministers quit and the Cabinet flagrantly defy her.

A politician notorious for her inflexibility then called on others to compromise.

The Tories have fallen apart in the past three years
(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

By the end, her Brexit plan was in such disarray she begged Jeremy Corbyn for help. When that failed, she signed her death warrant by touting the possibility of a second referendum.

In the end, Mrs May could hide no longer. She claimed she never wanted to be remembered solely for Brexit – but then why take the job in the first place, as it would inevitably dominate her reign?

Yesterday’s tears may have been for the way she has been forced from office or for the price of failure.

She leaves a party she loves fighting for survival and a country she loves divided by Brexit – and still burning with injustices.