Theresa May was charged with giving “the speech of her life”. By the end, she was relieved to have delivered one at all. At several excruciating points, May’s voice almost entirely disappeared. As her coughing recurred, the Prime Minister was reduced to merely reading, rather than delivering, her speech. Tory members rallied behind her with extended standing ovations. But for journalists, it felt sadistic to watch. For a prime minister, pity is even worse than ridicule.
The loss of May’s voice was a fitting metaphor for the loss of her majority – a moment from which she could never recover. On this fateful day, it didn’t rain – it poured. As May sought to deliver an extended attack on Jeremy Corbyn, she was accosted by prankster Simon Brodkin, who handed her a fake P45 (“Boris asked me to give you this”). Tory MPs will note again what a gift the Foreign Secretary’s machinations have been to their opponents.
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