By thinking up the dementia tax did Damian Green knowingly sabotage the Tories chances of winning the 2017 general election outright? After all, the Ashford MP was an enthusiastic Remainer in last year’s EU referendum. As Secretary of State for Work & Pensions maybe it was his way of sabotaging Brexit if he could engineer Mrs May failing to get an outright majority. There are claims the policy was submitted to the election manifesto behind the backs of his cabinet colleagues and the Tories ended up blowing 20%+ lead in the polls as a consequence of its announcement. The Brexit talks, due to commence next week, maybe delayed indefinitely.
Chris Heath
source?
Hello Mick
None as such, but my dad said to me that it was Green who announced the dementia tax (without the Cabinet being consulted) and I checked that he was the Work & Pensions Secretary and it all seemed to fit into place. Maybe May’s close advisers might have colluded with him, but the dementia tax was slipped in four weeks into a seven week campaign without being properly discussed and Theresa May, no matter how genuine her good intentions, failed to spot it was a trap.
Also the students and 18-24 year olds got their revenge for tuition fees, (introduced by Tony Blair’s New Labour in 1998) and for the EU Referendum ‘leave’ result last year, something they particularly resented.
Also, and here’s another theory, Ben Gummer, who wrote the Tory 2017 manifesto, is the son of John Selwyn Gummer, a leading Tory ‘Wet’ who stabbed Maggie Thatcher in the back and served throughout John Major’s cabinet. The Gummers have significant ties to farming and environmental interests who might have stood to lose millions through Brexit and the retraction of EU subsidies.
Chris