Jayne Dowle: Why the next Maggie may yet turn out to be Theresa

Instead all the talk about Home Secretary Theresa May has been about her spat with Michael Gove over Muslim extremism in schools, her aide’s resignation and whether she has the credentials to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.

Let’s not get over-excited. It’s some time off yet and the outcome of the next election will decide David Cameron’s future. It’s worth mentioning though that she’s the bookies’ favourite, ahead of Boris Johnson who is considered by many to be too flaky to be trusted with No 10.

Whatever you think of Theresa May’s shoes she’s got rather more discernible character than George Osborne. And she’s a woman. It’s impossible to ignore that – especially on Conservative benches so stuffed with braying blokes that it’s more like the worse kind of public school at feeding time than a government.

Are the growing comparisons to “the Iron Lady” premature? It’s tempting to compare how she measures up. This misses the point though. Are comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, the first and so far only, female leader of the Conservative Party, necessary at all?

For too long now, every notable right-wing female politician – and quite a few from the other end of the political spectrum – has been forced into measuring up against the formidable force that was Mrs T.

This does no good at all. There is a strong argument to suggest that many of the problems of ill-discipline and boorishness now saddling the current Conservative Party are a direct result of the obsession with the former leader. It is as if Matron’s away and the boys will play. This is no way for a modern political party to carry on. It’s time the mould was broken.

Could Mrs May, the MP for Maidenhead, be the woman to break it? The evidence suggests that she could. She’s considered to be a very safe pair of hands at the Home Office. There’s never been a rumour of a reshuffle. There can be few in-trays more intimidating than hers – terrorism, home security, extremisim claims in Birmingham schools, policing and the posturing of an intolerant Police Federation who she confronted head-on last month.

Yet she has quietly got on with dealing with her brief. She’s not one for hogging the circuit of talk shows and political TV programmes. She doesn’t feel the need to share her every thought with the world on Twitter. If there is a negative, it’s that not many people will actually know what she sounds like. Although in the constant cacophony that is British politics, this could be a blessing. In wider political terms, her firm but fair stance appeals to right-wingers. Yet she picks up libertarian support because she did back gay marriage and stopped Labour plans for ID cards.

Vladimir Putin might not have her directly in his sights. Unlike Hillary Clinton, she’s not attracted too much public approbation from men who feel threatened by the Home Secretary’s power. That’s not to say she hasn’t been at the receiving end of snap judgements and thoughtless comments though. And not only from her own party.

Labour MP Keith Vaz jumped to clumsy conclusions about her drastic weight loss a couple of years ago, assuming it was all part of a “makeover” to prepare her for a leadership bid if Cameron was overthrown by mutinous Tories. When she came out with the news that she was actually suffering from Type 1 diabetes, the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman was embarrassed and rightly so. Would he have said the same about a man? Unlikely.

She’s perceptive. More than 10 years ago, at the Tory annual conference in Bournemouth, Theresa May had the courage and nouse to tell her colleagues that they were in danger of becoming known as “the nasty party”.

This latest row over extremism must remind her of that personally. Has her department not been tough enough on extremists? Should something have been done before now? Is it all a minor spat cooked up to distract from other problems the party faces, which need no delineating here?

In the scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter who wins or loses the argument. However, if she can steer a straight course through the back-biting and the bitchiness, she will achieve a victory. She will prove that she can rise above the bitterness which is beginning to seriously damage her party with a rare quality in politics – dignity.

Say what you like about Theresa May. Talk about her shoes. Talk about her decision to go public about a serious health condition. Talk about her weight loss, if you must. You can’t say, though, that she isn’t doing sterling work as a senior female politician in a nasty, vituperative world.

And you can’t ignore the fact that 
she’s a senior female politician who is being tipped for the very top job in her party – something that you can’t say about any woman from Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Or Ukip for that matter.