{"id":9114,"date":"2016-07-11T16:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T15:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=9114"},"modified":"2016-07-11T19:33:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T18:33:59","slug":"andrea-leadsom-gives-pm-job-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/andrea-leadsom-gives-pm-job-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrea Leadsom gives PM job to May"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andrea<\/a>
Andrea Leadsom MP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reasons Andrea Leadsom MP has given for pulling out of the Conservative leadership race seem perfectly plausible but do not totally convince.<\/p>\n

Eighty-four colleagues supported her, but she said, “Nevertheless, this is less than 25% of the parliamentary party and after careful consideration I do not believe this is sufficient support to lead a strong and stable government should I win the leadership election.”<\/p>\n

WHAT IS THE LORD SAYING?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She went on: “There is no greater privilege than to lead the Conservative Party in government and I would have been deeply honoured to do it.<\/p>\n

“I have however concluded that the interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported prime minister.<\/p>\n

“I am therefore withdrawing from the leadership election, and I wish Mrs May the very greatest success.”<\/p>\n

Those of us who believe it was only of the Lord’s grace and mercy that Leave won in the #Brexit referendum and even that Mrs Leadsom reached the \u2018final two’ at the expense of Michael \u2018don’t talk about creation’ Gove will need to be seeking the Lord anew.<\/p>\n

We were initially encouraged about her success in the ballot by news that Mrs Leadsom was attending a Christian meeting in Westminster. \u00a0A day or so later it emerged\u00a0that she scoffed at sexual purity and was\u00a0offended that people might not vote Tory because of David Cameron’s gay marriage law. \u00a0This was the talk to which she objected<\/a><\/strong> – but then again, three years are a long time on one’s Christian walk. \u00a0Mrs Leadsom may have found a deeper faith than was exhibited on that night in 2013 and when in the same year she deliberately abstained by walking through both Aye and No lobbies on both Second and Third Reading of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill.<\/p>\n

ABUSE TOO GREAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg<\/a><\/strong> said “the abuse has been too great” for Mrs Leadsom during the contest, especially following ill-judged comments in a weekend newspaper interview. \u00a0Mrs Leadsom apologised to Theresa May earlier today after appearing to suggest in that interview that being a mother made her a better candidate for the PM job.<\/p>\n

Even to appear to look askance at Mrs May because she has not born children could be seen as crass and cheap. It did display a lack of street-wise judgment. All the same, The Times journalist Rachel Sylvestor certainly made the most of it. \u00a0The Conservative blogger Archbishop Cranmer was sympathetic to Mrs Leadsom<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

All the same, such stuff happens. Any politician should expect it. The story could have been faced down and moved to the sidelines of debate over six weeks of hustings meetings in the Tory shires. A 60-40 reputed May advantage could have been overturned. The party faithful will feel cheated and some will claim Mrs May has a lack of democratic mandate.<\/p>\n

BORIS LOST HIS NERVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been going through my mind that you simply do not put yourself forward for the position of leader, get yourself short-listed down to the final two, only to pull out when the going gets tough. However badly you think the numbers are stacking up, you just don’t do it. It isn’t respectful, either of colleagues, the party or the nation. It isn’t dignified. It is neither thoughtful nor organised. Something else must have been brought to bear. What if the BBC’s Laura has it wrong? What if Mrs Leadsom was \u2018got at’ in some other way. One would not be surprised.<\/p>\n

Boris Johnson was backing Mrs Leadsom’s leadership bid. Had he not lost his nerve when Leave won, he could now be challenging Mrs May. He now says he has “no doubt” Mrs May will be an “excellent” leader and prime minister. He was “encouraged” by Mrs May’s statement that “Brexit means Brexit”, and added: “It is vital that we respect the will of the people and get on with exploiting new opportunities for this country.”<\/p>\n

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

But will unfettered immigration, the major issue of the referendum, come to an end as the people have demanded? WIll Brexit mean Brexit-lite? \u00a0If continued freedom of movement is demanded as the price of staying in the Single Market, the latter will have to go. \u00a0It will be a bluff anyway. \u00a0There are four main reasons why the Germans will back down: Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagon and BMW<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Other countries actually manage to trade with the EU without being in the Single Market. \u00a0The USA<\/a><\/strong> and India<\/a><\/strong>, to name\u00a0just two. \u00a0And other nations\u00a0across the world are now queuing up to do trade deals with the UK<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

UKIP MEP Julia Reid said today<\/a><\/strong>: ‘We would like to see the UK leave the EU completely. \u00a0We don\u2019t feel that we need to be part of the single market, because countries like New Zealand, Australia, China and the US export goods into the single market, but they are not part of the single market. \u00a0There is no freedom of movement of peoples between those countries and the EU. We would like to be in a similar position.’<\/p>\n

But will Mrs May’s negotiating team have the confidence, courage and commitment to call the EU bluff?<\/p>\n

We are where we are. Mr Arron Banks, UKIP’s financial backer, said just this morning that he and UKIP will be holding Mrs May to account. It’s not over until it’s over. \u00a0We should keep praying the Lord to remember mercy and keep ministering his prophetic word to our leaders. \u00a0One obvious and immediate point of prayer could be a strong Leave and indeed Christian presence in Mrs May’s Cabinet and Ministerial appointments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The reasons Andrea Leadsom MP has given for pulling out of the Conservative leadership race seem perfectly plausible but do not totally convince. Eighty-four colleagues supported her, but she said, “Nevertheless, this is less than 25% of the parliamentary party and after careful consideration I do not believe this is sufficient support to lead a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1272,82],"tags":[2014,1947,2015,341,1395,15,1465,2012,731,2013,43,780,633],"class_list":["post-9114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-union","category-islam-immigration","category-politics","tag-leave","tag-andrea-leadsom","tag-arron-banks","tag-boris-johnson","tag-brexit","tag-christian-voice","tag-conservative-party","tag-laura-kuenssberg","tag-michael-gove","tag-rachel-sylvestor","tag-stephen-green","tag-the-times","tag-ukip"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":29,"rttpg_category":"European Union<\/a> Islam & Immigration<\/a> Politics<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The reasons Andrea Leadsom MP has given for pulling out of the Conservative leadership race seem perfectly plausible but do not totally convince. Eighty-four colleagues supported her, but she said, “Nevertheless, this is less than 25% of the parliamentary party and after careful consideration I do not believe this is sufficient support to lead a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}