On Friday 24th May, Theresa May bowed to the inevitable and announced her departure from number 10. Currently, she is being vilified by her own party, dismayed by their own ratings in the polls and the disaster that was the European Election result. Most vitriolic are the zealots who point blank refused to compromise on her negotiated settlement with the EU. Most of the remainers on the other hand did compromise and voted for her deal, but that is another story.

I think history will view her in a more positive light than she is viewed today.  She is an honourable politician who deeply believes in one nation Conservatism. Her proposals for social change set out in her ‘manifesto’ upon appointment were relatively radical for a politician on the right of the political spectrum; but the fact is that her period in office has been dominated by one agenda and one topic. As a consequence, very few policy decisions to change our society for the better have been possible. Far from becoming a more equal society, we have only seen the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer.

She made some serious political miscalculations. In calling the 2017 election in a desire to build a big enough majority to defeat the right wing of her party, she underestimated the campaigning ability of Jeremy Corbyn and her own weakness in that regard. She also foolishly began her campaign with a worthy, but risky bid to reform the issue of paying for the care of the elderly. However much this issue needed tackling, it was a huge risk to put it at the forefront of her proposals. It frightened middle England, who most particularly believe in the welfare state, when it concerns their own family assets and income.  After all, they have paid taxes all their lives and deserve to have free care when they reach a certain age, not to mention double locked pensions to be paid for by a generation who are failing to keep up with their own parents in terms of income and wealth.

The hung parliament which ensued put her at the mercy of the ‘get out at all costs brigade’ and also the DUP, who are probably the most backward looking constituent political party in the Nation.  Ulster has a history of saying ‘no’ and this is exemplified in spades by the DUP; and without them saying yes, there was little prospect of progress unless she could persuade a section of the Labour Party to rebel.  The problem for the labour party was that they were also divided and it has been safer throughout for them to never reveal their true hand. Their equivocation subsists until this day.

The hung Parliament revealed two further weaknesses which are also her strengths. Firstly, she is not naturally a believer in collaborative working. This served her well in the Home Office where, rightly or wrongly, she pursued her own agenda with determination and tenacity and got away with it for a remarkably long period of time.  This led her to taking full control of the Brexit negotiations from the team to which they had been delegated, under the leadership of David Davies. I have no way of knowing how effective he was, but her stepping in at Chequers, set her on the track of a deal which was owned only by her. This took away all room for manoeuvre.

Secondly, she has a big sense of public service coupled with tenacity and determination. If she had found a way of getting her compromise solution through, then she would have gone down in history as a remarkable leader who found a way of reconciling leavers and remainers in a middle way. I think business and public would have been happy with the outcome she produced even though it was not perfect.  Parliament would not deliver. Her lack of ability to bring people to together coupled with her determination to keep on trying whatever the odds, ultimately lead to her failure.

None of us are perfect and no leader holds all the personality traits to win in all situations. Theresa May has done her best but it all ended in failure.  It is hard to see how anyone else will do better with the current arithmetic in Parliament. Another general election seems the only possible way forward once the Tories have their new shiny leader.  Best of luck to whoever that is!

Leadership is difficult, it is all about balance. The same hurdles that Theresa fell short at can be seen in all companies on a smaller scale. So, with all of its complications, who would be a leader?!