Government resignations continued on Monday 16 July. They follow on from the cabinet meeting at Chequers where Theresa May proposed her Brexit strategy. The plan has proven unpopular with Tories, the EU, and voters. But one Conservative MP has now gone so far as to suggest that this situation could see a figure like Tommy Robinson becoming PM:
The #Chequers deal has disenfranchised voters. People telling me at the weekend that it was ‘last straw’ and if a charismatic figure stood heading a new party, they would vote for him/her. Sounds like we could be heading for our very own Trump/Macron/Robinson.
— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) July 16, 2018
Response
It seems clear that Nadine Dorries means the far-right criminal Tommy Robinson, for lack of a more obvious ‘Robinson’. Some people were shocked by the suggestion:
It’s also worth pointing out that Dorries has an audience that’s in line with her thinking:
Timing
It’s obviously not the case that Dorries is endorsing the idea of Tommy Robinson becoming prime minister.
https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1018873139848151040
The timing of her tweet is notable, though.
The Chequers plan was agreed on 7 July. Since then, several prominent and minor Tories have resigned from government. Despite that, May has stayed in place.
During that same period, the ‘Free Tommy’ movement has been making itself known. The most notable incident came on 14 July when protesters marched in London – leading to the arrest of 12 people following violent clashes.
Dorries herself hasn’t called for the release of Robinson. But a lot of people who have are also calling the Chequers deal a betrayal. And these people include current UKIP leader Gerard Batten:
https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/1017882807559970816
https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/1017297484413063169
An MP was assassinated just before the EU referendum. As such, the far-right problem in the UK needs to be taken seriously. But Dorries’s comments read like she’s using the menace of far-right populism to intimidate her more moderate colleagues.
Dorries
Dorries has a history of saying awful things online. There’s often an obvious degree of malice to her comments, like when she said this to a Muslim journalist:
It’s important to point this out, because Dorries’s world view apparently isn’t that far removed from Robinson’s. As such, it’s easy to imagine her using the threat of Robinson’s support to push her party further to the right.
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Featured image via YouTube / Chris McAndrew – Wikimedia
