No10 prepares D-Day Election
Tories pencil in June 6 for polling day and triple spending on viral ads like these...
BRITAIN could go to the polls on the anniversary of D-Day as Downi ng Street considers plans to cement Theresa May in power.
No 10 strategists have discussed a scenario under which the Prime Minister would delay the Article 50 Brexit process beyond the end of March, win Commons support for her deal in April – and then go to the country in the following weeks on the back of her success.
The first Thursday in June – the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Europe from the Nazis – is one option on the table.
In a major boost for Mrs May’s Brexit strategy last night, a new poll showed the Tories have opened up a seven-point lead over Labour in the past two weeks. The Opinium survey put the Tories on 41 per cent – up four percentage points – and Labour down six to 34.
It comes as the Tory Party’s HQ has moved on to a ‘ war footing’ by block-booking printing plants and hiking its spending on digital advertising.
Suspicions among nervous Tory MPs that Mrs May might be considering another Election – nearly two years after the 2017 fiasco cost the party its Commons majority – were heightened last week by the leak of Government plans to allocate funds to the constituencies of Labour MPs as a ‘bribe’. One said: ‘That smells of an attempt to butter up the wider electorate.’
In December, Mrs May fought off an attempt to oust her by vowing that a new leader would take the party into the next scheduled Election in 2022. But some of her allies regard an Election this year as the only way to guarantee Mrs May – and themselves – more than a few months in Downing Street after Brexit.
A snap poll would allow Mrs May to ‘ renew her public mandate’ as she prepared to negotiate the direction of the future relationship with the European Union.
The Mail on Sunday understands that senior staff at Tory HQ have been briefed on plans to deal with deselection attempts by members of some MPs ahead of a General Election. Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has vowed to step in to stop any MP that backed Mrs May’s deal from being deselected by their local association, but party chairman Brandon Lewis pointedly refused to make a similar commitment to help MPs who rebelled to vote her deal down.
At a briefing for aides at CCHQ on Friday, Mr Lewis also revealed the party was set to triple its spending on online advertising in the coming weeks to promote the party’s NHS policy, which they believe to be a major vote winner. Tory bosses insist that the slick advert using real TV news footage was part of their local election campaign – but they are spending far more than the other parties.
Mr Lewis warned the gathering of Government special advisers and spin doctors that Cabinet infighting by their bosses was harming his fundraising efforts – and insisted to the allies of Mrs May’s leadership rivals that she remained popular with the party membership.
He said the party had raised nearly £2 million in small donations from members as a direct result of the failed bid to oust the Prime Minister. His gushing praise of Mrs May’s personal strength led many present to believe she could be preparing to go back on her promise to quit before the next Election.
Some of Mrs May’s team are hope- ful the ‘ political weather’ will improve in the immediate aftermath of Britain leaving the EU, with a window of opportunity for the party to capitalise on a ‘Brexit honeymoon’.
But one Minister said the prospect of another Election was a bid by ‘second-rate staff desperate to keep their jobs’. And one ally of the Prime Minister described the idea of going to the country as ‘utter madness’ that would split both parties.
They fear that some in No 10 believe a General Election would be the only way for Mrs May to avoid being ousted by Brexiteers who do not want her to be in charge of the next phase of negotiations with the EU over a new free trade deal.
The Fixed Term Parliament Act is designed to stop Prime Ministers calling snap polls, but No 10 believe Jeremy Corbyn has been so vocal in his demands for a fresh ballot, that even if some Tories voted against going to the country, they would still have the two thirds of MPs required to trigger an Election.
Mrs May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell is believed to have come up with the Labour ‘bribe’ plan – not just to secure vital MPs’ Brexit votes, but to create goodwill towards the Government in deprived communities, including former mining villages, which still harbour resentments towards the Tories over Margaret Thatcher’s industrial policies. A source said: ‘The cash for coal bribe was Gavin’s idea. He watches a lot of The West Wing. No one has told him that he is not [fictional US President] Jed Bartlett’.
A Downing Street spokesman denied there were any plans to hold a General Election.