June election could be a massive boost for Brexit moderates

Here’s what Charlie Mullins OBE had to say

LondonLovesBusiness spoke with Pimlico Plumbers Tuesday, here is what Charlie Mullins OBE owner and founder of Pimlico Plumbers had to say on today’s general election annoucement.

Since taking power the prime minister, Theresa May has been forced to play a hand dealt her by pretty much everyone else at the table. Now at last she has decided that she must become her own person, and the first step on this road is to become the second woman to be elected UK prime minister.

There are some who will see this as a strengthening of the forces behind a drive for the harshest and most brutal European Union departure deal, and of course the truth is something we must wait to see. But I am seeing a silver lining in the PM’s decision to call a snap election in 7 weeks’ time, on 8 June.

Since entering Number 10 May has been powerless to represent all the people of the UK, knowing that any hint of support for her former allies on the remain side of the argument would see the removal lorries outside Downing street for the second time in a year. But by going to the people and asking for a mandate to be prime minister, May will be able to more safely champion the 48 per cent who voted to stay inside the EU, as well as the 52 per cent who wanted to leave.

There is no doubt that there is much to play out and I’m writing this on the assumption that the PM has the numbers in the Commons, and that the blind fools running the Labour Party will endorse the measure that will banish them to back-bench wilderness for a decade at least.

Whatever spin the hardliners decide to put on this they cannot avoid the thought that a resounding win for May can only increase her power, and in doing so release her from their grip. No longer will she have no alternative than to parrot their hard-line rhetoric. Be under no illusion today was one in the eye for the puppet masters who, until an hour ago, were able to pull the strings from behind the scenes. 

Today the political landscape changed, and while I can’t read May’s mind, you have to be blind not to see that an election win, with an increased majority, cannot be bad for her. And by extension, if the PM’s power is enhanced by the law of political balance, there must be losers. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the remnants of his once powerful party have nothing to lose, which only leaves the hardliners, Davis, Fox and their fellow travellers.

Of course, the unclear factor in all this is the cloudy issue of exactly what the PM thinks about Brexit.