A month ago, if you’d asked the man in the street, “Who is Andrea Leadsom?” my guess is that you’d have got little more than a blank look in reply. Even two weeks ago, post Brexit, I think you’d have got more or less the same reaction. Now, however, far more people know of her, and not just because she’s a contender for the Tory Party leadership, and hence PM.

It’s all to do with her interview in the Times, in which she said that being a mother made her a more suitable candidate than her childless opponent, Theresa May, something she strenuously denied, but which has turned out to be completely true.

This prompted me to ask, was she stupid, badly advised or both?

I’ve now revised my opinion and feel sure that the entire “Wombgate” issue is a calculated ploy that sees the continuing use of Trump type tactics in British politics, ushered in by the Leave campaign during the EU Referendum.

It’s mainly down to Arron Banks, who was one of the founders and the main financier of the Leave.EU campaign and who said, after the Referendum:

“It was taking an American-style media approach. What they [Political strategists Goddard Gunster] said early on was ‘facts don’t work’ and that’s it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”

Now Banks is involved with the Leadsom leadership campaign, and I see the “I’m a mummy and she isn’t” interview as a cynical ploy by him and his pals to gain publicity and bring Leadsom and her reactionary ideas to the forefront of the campaign. After all, the leadership issue will be resolved through a vote that only involves 150 000 Tory Party members and many of these are reactionary too, and may not only admire Leadsom’s maternal guff, but also the rest of her retrograde ideas and opinions.

I’m not so sure that this is just about Brexit any longer. It’s now become a scenario for a power grab by right wing forces – certain elements in the Tory Party, UKIP (Banks is a fan) and anyone else who sees the population of the UK ready for the taking, in respect of its potential for political and financial exploitation. These forces are further to the right than any that have prevailed so far in the last century, and will make the 5 year Lib/Con Coalition and first year of the present Tory majority government seem like a stroll in the park.

Quite honestly, I’ve abandoned irony for now and see the mantra “we must take back control” as an obscene device that will result in even less control for those people who cheerfully spouted it during the Brexit campaign. Fair enough, if it was just the 52% who voted to Leave who were affected, I might be happy to write it off to a moment of madness, but it isn’t. We’re all going to suffer the consequences of Trump type political tactics and then the real madness will begin if Leadsom becomes PM.

By Steve Cobham, SY2E Editorial Staff