Tory MPs rally round Theresa May: Voice battle 'electrified' PM's speech
3 min read
Conservative MPs rallied behind Theresa May today after she battled through a faltering voice and a disruptive protester to finish her keynote conference speech.
The Prime Minister broke off from her address repeatedly as she spluttered at the lectern and took a throat sweet from Chancellor Philip Hammond to try to stem the coughing.
Meanwhile an activist halted proceedings when he approached Mrs May to offer her a mock P45 form – shortly before he was bundled out of the room by security staff.
But outside the conference hall in Manchester where the Prime Minister closed the annual get-together, her MPs gave her their support after what must have been a deeply difficult experience.
Chair of the No 10 policy board George Freeman said Mrs May’s faltering voice “electrified the bond” between herself and the Tory party faithful in the audience.
“I just felt a wave of personal sympathy for her… My heart went out to her,” he told PoliticsHome.
“But then I started to realise it was going to help, because it electrified the bond between her and the audience.
“It made, more eloquently than any of her fine phrases, her central point that she will see this through - she feels a sense of deep, profound commitment to this country.”
Asked whether Mrs May was right not to take the P45, Mr Freeman added: “Yes – I think she’s made very clear after the election that she’s not a quitter. I think she leaves this hall hugely renewed.”
Berwick upon Tweed MP Anne Marie Trevelyan told PoliticsHome: “What we saw was, as ever, a woman who takes on the challenge when it’s put in front of her, and then rises to the challenge.”
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie said: “It was quite symbolic – that battle through to the end. She persevered through some very difficult times.”
And Braintree MP James Cleverly said he still “had a bit of a frog” in his throat just talking about Mrs May’s struggle afterwards.
“She kept going, and it’s not a particularly subtle metaphor that when stuff starts getting difficult clearly the strong leaders deal with it and keep going,” he added.
“And that’s exactly what she did. And I think she won both the admiration and affection of the whole party.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd told PoliticsHome: "I thought it [the speech] went well. Some good policy announcements, especially on housing."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC Mrs May’s predicament would go down as one of the “more famous coughs in British history".
“She had that horrible cough, which I think will become one of the more famous coughs in British history, and what you saw, was she ploughed on, there was a sense of duty there and I think that if you look how she’s conducted herself since the election I think you see this incredible sense of duty in trying to do the right thing for Britain and I think that’s what people will remember.”
Pressure on Mrs May has been mounting after her disastrous decision to hold a snap election in June, which led to the Tories losing their Commons majority.
Speculation that she could quit has been rife, but the Prime Minister said: "It has never been my style to hide from a challenge, to shrink from a task, to retreat in the face of difficulty, to give up and turn away.
"And it is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless.”
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