Theresa May’s attack on Johnson shows there’s nothing as ‘ex’ as a former prime minister

The May years seem strong and stable by comparison with today, writes Sean O’Grady

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Theresa May in the Commons (UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA Media)

There is nothing as “ex” as an ex-prime minister.

Deprived of office and power, ridiculed loudly by the opposition, and more quietly by their successor, looking to save their reputation with a memoir or two, and generally a bit lost with no staff or much of a platform, they sometimes strike an embittered, shrunken, lonely figure.

Things aren’t always helped by their attempts to raise money either for themselves or their pet charities and foundations, (see T Blair and D Cameron). On occasion, they find one outlet for their frustrations in applying a beady eye and a sharp tongue to the activities of their successor – especially if that successor is someone from their own party and was instrumental in removing them.

Hence the increasingly frosty (it was never cordial) relationship between Theresa May and Boris Johnson, who took from her the “honour of my life” as she tearfully said outside Downing Street. She must look with mixed emotions on the progress of the Johnson administration. Personal vindication, not least on Brexit and Northern Ireland, must be mingled with concern for the party and the country: schadenfreude.

She has chosen this moment to use her local newspaper the Maidenhead Advertiser – ever the assiduous constituency member – to issue a coded attack on Johnson, in magisterial terms.

“I have said previously that it is vital that those who set the rules, follow the rules. Nobody is above the law,” she wrote. “This is important for ensuring the necessary degree of trust between the public and government.

“Like so many, I was angry to hear stories of those in Number 10, who are responsible for setting the coronavirus rules, not properly following the rules.”

“Sue Gray is still investigating these matters and is due to publish her report in the coming days. When the report’s findings are published, if there is evidence of deliberate or premeditated wrongdoing, I expect full accountability to follow.

“All those working at the heart of Government should conduct themselves with the highest of standards which befits the work they do, and this applies as much to those working in No 10 as to other parts of government.”

May added that she “absolutely understand[s] the disappointment and indignation that constituents have shared with me”.

Like all ex-premiers, May must take care over her interventions, lest she devalue their power, but this seems an appropriate moment to warn that Johnson, that “greased piglet” as David Cameron called him, cannot escape the consequences of his behaviour.

If Johnson does survive, and continue in office, with May hanging around over his shoulder on the benches behind him in the Commons, it will rival the record-breaking feud that Ted Heath waged with his successor Margaret Thatcher, who rather bravely stabbed the ex-premier in the front by standing against him in a leadership challenge (as opposed to Johnson’s guerrilla campaign against May).

Heath, having lost three out of his previous four general elections, was ousted by Thatcher in a vote of Tory MPs in 1975. She became prime minister in 1979, renounced most of his policies and she stayed in power for 11 years, despite increasingly futile assaults by Heath, tinged with male chauvinism. When he heard she had been ousted in 1990 he said “rejoice! Rejoice!” and a spring returned to his step absent for 15 years.

For good measure Heath hung on in the Commons after she departed as an MP in 1992, and the pair continued their personal civil war on the EU for the rest of the 1990s. May has enormous reserves of stamina, and a powerful sense of her duty, but she’s unlikely to repeat Heath’s decades-long “incredible sulk”. She will, though, serve as a reminder to her party that there is a more honourable way of conducting oneself in office.

Johnson, in fact, must make some nostalgic for the May years: strong and stable by comparison with today.