YP Comment: Theresa May: How long can this go on? Queen's Speech to be delayed

Yet, while both the Brexit and Foreign Secretary claimed that it was ‘business as usual’ for the Government after it lost its Commons majority in last Thursday’s election, it is nothing of the sort. Mrs May is only still in office because there is no better alternative and the Tories can’t afford to risk another election.

However the leadership vacuum is disconcerting. Not only was yesterday’s Cabinet meeting delayed by several hours, but next Monday’s Queen’s Speech has been postponed in an unprecedented move.

Even though the delay was attributed to it taking at least a week for the vellum, on which the Speech is written by calligraphers, to dry, its contents do, in fact, still hinge on the outcome of today’s talks between Mrs May and Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 MPs now hold the balance of power.

Yet, while the Tories and DUP do have common ground, the latter’s illiberal and outdated approach towards social policy repulses many and could still be Mrs May’s undoing. Any pact also risks offending another electoral dynamic in play – the 13 Conservative MPs elected in Scotland. Their leader Ruth Davidson, the one Tory to emerge from the election with credit, has championed same-sex marriage, for example, and has reiterated her view – from a position of electoral strength – that Britain should seek to remain in the single market when it leaves the European Union.

Though this latter view is shared by her colleagues in Northern Ireland who favour an open border with the Republic of Ireland, not least because the peace process must not be compromised, this centrist position contradicts Mrs May’s pre-election approach and the stance adopted by her more ardent Brexiteers.

And while Mr Davis said that the Government’s Brexit strategy has not changed, other than the fact that the timing of next week’s talks is also up in the air, he must know that he – and Mrs May – are at the mercy of new political forces in play.

As the PM prepares to travel to Paris to meet France’s youthful new president Emmanuel Macron, a leader with a strong mandate of his own, she will be reflecting upon the invidiousness of her own predicament. Parliament has not sat since April 27 when it was dissolved in order for Mrs May to hold the election that she did not have to call. The longer its full resumption is delayed, the greater the sense that this Government cannot function. For, given voters chose not to entrust a single party to run the country, they do expect MPs from all parties to be building a consensus on issues like Brexit, national security and social care.

Yet, even if the Tories do cobble together a policy prospectus which is more uplifting than the disastrous election manifesto, it would, quite probably, be so threadbare that it would reflect even more poorly on the chaos in Downing Street. And while Theresa May will be keen to avoid any false starts, this impasse does not bode well for her short-term future – never mind her desire to serve a full five year term as Prime Minister – as Ministers tell the country at large to ‘keep calm and carry on’. How long can it go on like this?

Food for thought – Gove’s mission

MICHAEL Gove is both a surprising and intriguing choice as Environment Secretary. Surprising because he appears to have no experience of farming, and that his ‘know-it-all’ approach does not always help the Tory party’s image; intriguing because Mr Gove is a political ‘big beast’ whose presence at Defra might help to raise the rural economy’s profile.

An architect and advocate of Brexit, it now falls to Mr Gove to come up with a new system of farm subsidies which will replace the Common Agricultural Policy in 2019. However, if he’s to win the grudging respect of farmers, he needs to listen to, and respect, those who work the land. If he starts a turf war which is akin to his past battles with the teaching profession, there will only be one winner – and it won’t be the Minister in his new wellies.

Yet, as Mr Gove becomes acquainted with his new brief, his reward for the loyalty he has shown towards Mrs May since being sacked last summer, he needs to be working tirelessly on behalf of Britain’s food producers. And that does not just mean fact-finding trips to events like next month’s Great Yorkshire Show – it also means persuading every Government department and quango to promote UK food and drink. If he can persuade his old foe Boris Johnson at the Foreign Office to become a global ambassador for UK farmers, not only will it show that this Government can make a difference – but that humble pie is off the menu.