THE Tory Party has now suffered its second self-inflicted disaster in just under a year.
On June 23 2016, it lost the EU referendum that its Cameron-Osborne leadership had called, when a majority voted to leave the EU! This self-inflicted disaster led to the resignation of Cameron and Osborne, unleashing a crisis in the Tory party over the succession that was only settled when the Tory 1922 Committee abandoned the leadership election and appointed May as PM, despite the fact that she had voted to ‘remain’.
The lost referendum was a self-inflicted disaster. Just to prove that British capitalism has lost its head completely, May has now organised another self-inflicted disaster. With no need to do so, she called a ‘snap election’, stating that it was absolutely essential for the Brexit negotiations that the whole world saw that the UK had a strong leader, and was backed by the vast majority of the electorate to exercise these powers of leadership with an iron hand.
May demanded of the electorate a majority at least 100-150, saying that a Brexit deal could not be done without her having dictatorial powers. The capitalist press then obliged her by assuring her that, faced with the ‘Clown’ Corbyn, she could not fail and that her majority could reach even 150.
However, the result of the election was dictated by Corbyn mobilising the non-Blairite majority of the Labour Party for a massive campaign on a minimum programme that brought millions of youth into politics as well as mobilising millions of workers. His campaign reduced the majority that the Tory party had to the extent that it no longer has an overall parliamentary majority.
Corbyn, a reformist socialist, led the Labour Party splendidly, while May and the entire bourgeois order that demanded a 150 majority as their right, with the support of Labour’s Blairite right wing, have been completely humiliated for the second time in a year.
The electorate rejected May’s demand for a massive majority, and instead turned out with a record share of the vote for Labour, with millions of youth leading the way to deliver a humiliating reverse.
The ruling class is now in a desperate crisis. In normal circumstances, the 1922 Committee would have knifed May by now, and appointed a successor, who would however have had to call a new general election, since appointment by the 1922 Committee is not the same as having the support of the nation.
May has been allowed to soldier on for the moment, and yesterday saw the Queen to inform her of her attempts to form a coalition with the DUP, which would give the government a slight overall majority. May and her backers have gone from the supreme arrogance of demanding that the electorate give her a 150-seat majority, to showing their complete contempt for the electorate by ignoring their refusal to do so, and by refusing to resign.
In 1974, Edward Heath tried to defy an election verdict, after he had called an election to allow the electorate to support his contention that he ruled Britain not the trade unions, who he was oppressing with anti-union laws.
In fact, Labour was returned with a majority of four over the Tories but with no overall parliamentary majority. Heath, whose party received more votes than Labour, refused to leave Downing Street and sought to make a coalition with the Liberals and Ulster Unionists.
Marches were organised to 10 Downing Street to demand that he quit the building immediately. However, the growing anger of the working class and the trade unions forced him out of his coalition attempt, and he left Downing Street.
Today, the electorate has massively refused May’s demands that she be given a majority of 150. She has been decisively rejected but will not resign. Labour has said the humiliated May must resign and that it is willing to form a minority government until a new general election is called.
The trade unions must now organise demonstrations, and marches on 10 Downing Street, and political strike actions to force May to resign and to create the conditions for a new general election to elect a majority Labour government to carry out socialist policies!
