This book would count as character assassination if Theresa May had a character to assassinate

As Britain blundered its way towards Brexit, Tim Shipman’s No Way Out outlines how idleness and incompetence almost undid the peace process

Anti-hero’s journey: Theresa May. Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Róisín Lanigan

Theresa May was always doomed. When she became British prime minister in May 2016, her premiership was a poisoned chalice, handed to her by David Cameron after his bet on a European referendum went drastically wrong. From the outset, her short reign — almost exactly three years — was predetermined to be dominated by Brexit, and the misfortune and misery just piled on from there. She presided over terrorist attacks in Westminster, London Bridge and the Manchester Arena, poisonings in Salisbury, the Grenfell Tower fire and a seemingly endless run of no-confidence votes.

Delusional and Sphinx-like, with a tendency towards “pathological secrecy”, May was a Thunderbirds puppet held together by sheer political hubris. She had wanted this job since she was 18, but for some reason in the decades since, the politician hadn’t bothered to learn how to actually speak to people. “It is hard to think of another modern prime minister who lacked the force of personality to make themselves the centre of attention the second they entered a room”, said one colleague of the ‘blank’ premier.