![\"Theresa-May23\"](\"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Theresa-May23-300x169.jpg\")
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May presented herself as a stable leader to take Britain through Brexit, but her gamble of an election backfired spectacularly, reports AFP.<\/p>\nLONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May presented herself as a stable leader to take Britain through Brexit, but her gamble of an election backfired spectacularly, reports AFP.<\/p>\n
The ruling Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in Thursday\u2019s vote, after a campaign marred by terror attacks, policy mistakes and her own awkward public manner, prompting warnings that her days are numbered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear that this election has left her authority deeply wounded, perhaps fatally,\u201d said Paul Goodman, a former lawmaker and editor of the ConservativeHome website.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe ran a pretty dreadful campaign,\u201d added Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry as the results rolled in, saying she should \u201cconsider her position\u201d.<\/p>\n
May stunned the country when she called the election in April, after repeatedly arguing that such a poll would be too disruptive following the referendum vote to leave the European Union last year.<\/p>\n
At the time, the Conservatives were riding high in the polls, and it initially seemed like a smart move\u2014until the opposition Labour party began to gain ground.<\/p>\n
May began with a presidential-style campaign focused around her own leadership qualities and her ability to implement Brexit, an issue on which Labour was divided.<\/p>\n
But she drew accusations of being robotic, over-reliant on slogans and soundbites, and so awkward around members of the public that she even boycotted television debates.<\/p>\n
A bold plan to change the way elderly social care is funded had to be hastily amended after a backlash among older, mostly Conservative-backing voters, undermining her reputation for competence.<\/p>\n
And the terror attacks in London and Manchester shone a light on May\u2019s record during six years as interior minister came under scrutiny, particularly whether cuts to police numbers could be blamed for the failure to stop the assailants.<\/p>\n
When May replaced David Cameron after the Brexit vote last year, she presented herself as a steady hand on the tiller as Britain headed into
\nunchartered waters.<\/p>\n
She was the hard-working vicar\u2019s daughter who eschewed gossip and focused on \u201cgetting the job done\u201d, with her flamboyant shoes the only sign of rebellion.<\/p>\n
During the campaign, she stepped up her rhetoric against the EU, using a description of herself as a \u201cbloody difficult woman\u201d to insist she would be tough in Brexit talks.<\/p>\n
But her promise to offer \u201cstrong and stable leadership\u201d was undermined by the U-turn on social care\u2014and her own broken promise not to call the election in the first place.<\/p>\n
Like Cameron, who called the EU referendum in the mistaken confidence that he would win the vote to stay in the bloc, she now risks being remembered for hubris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a self-inflicted error, a self-inflicted wound and it was something that was likely born out of a bit of taking the British public for granted,\u201d Brian Klaas of the London School of Economics (LSE) told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May presented herself as a stable leader to take Britain through Brexit, but her gamble of an election backfired spectacularly, reports AFP. The ruling Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in Thursday\u2019s vote, after a campaign marred by terror attacks, policy mistakes and her own awkward public manner, prompting warnings that her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n