Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem

Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem
Tim Shipman

The unmissable inside story of the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal, the greatest challenge for a prime minister since the Second World War.By the bestselling author of All Out War, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2017.This is the unmissable inside story of the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal – the greatest challenge for a prime minister since the Second World War.Fall Out tells of how a leader famed for her caution battled her bitterly divided cabinet at home while facing duplicitous Brussels bureaucrats abroad. Of how she then took the biggest gamble of her career to strengthen her position – and promptly blew it. It is also a tale of treachery where – in the hour of her greatest weakness – one by one, May’s colleagues began to plot against her.Inside this book you will find all the strategy, comedy, tragedy and farce of modern politics – where principle, passion and vaulting ambition collide in the corridors of power. It chronicles a civil war at the heart of the Conservative Party and a Labour Party back from the dead, led by Jeremy Corbyn, who defied the experts and the critics on his own side to mount an unlikely tilt at the top job.With access to all the key players, Tim Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller, exploring how and why the EU referendum result pitched Britain into a year of political mayhem.

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Copyright (#u691ffe73-8586-5741-89c5-6427c5d20d82)

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Tim Shipman 2017

Cover illustration by Morten Morland/Spectator

Tim Shipman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008264383

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780008264390

Version: 2018-05-01

Dedication (#u691ffe73-8586-5741-89c5-6427c5d20d82)

For Charlotte

Epigraphs (#u691ffe73-8586-5741-89c5-6427c5d20d82)

fall out v.

1 quarrel

3 come out of formation

fallout n.

1 radioactive debris caused by a nuclear explosion or accident

2 the adverse side effects of a situation

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1991 edn)

‘It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood’

Theodore Roosevelt, 23 April 1910

‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’

Mike Tyson

Contents

Cover (#u1f6dc5d3-7f34-5456-9be4-30aea6160218)

Title Page (#u6c0bf3c2-2c66-5b57-b452-be256e82e26f)

Copyright (#ud79b2108-effa-56c8-a587-0ef552738f01)

Dedication (#u2355f532-e1b7-5784-ae7e-2f15a6548a8f)

Epigraphs (#u1249e568-5223-5a4b-9d68-6d44b971345e)

Acknowledgements (#ud2577bec-b6da-503f-a62c-2e8999aa5b67)

Timeline (#ubd069157-58ca-5e07-ac0b-a8172acf69e8)

Introduction: Four Minutes to Ten (#ueb61e53e-8804-58f7-a850-130bc44109d3)

PART ONE: GENESIS (#ufb72d0f8-58eb-5651-9814-cfe9ea1f0cff)

1 ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ (#uff8eb7ac-2a59-5565-acaf-ce42e1dfbb91)

2 ‘No Running Commentary’ (#ue31828cc-099d-5628-aa92-bb2f4b94e995)

3 The Enemy Gets a Vote (#u46e53eef-a8ed-55f5-bb57-6d6ab216ce7a)

4 Enemies of the People? (#u11cc5ab6-6d08-567c-bda4-67670d4cd34c)

5 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Boris? (#u92113d07-5ec4-594f-8740-c68ae32e7195)

6 Ivan the Terrible (#ub52cd984-445b-5e6b-870f-08badabb453d)

7 Lancaster House (#ude96591f-ae0e-5acc-8764-3cf2a4de50a8)

8 The White House (#u397f181a-d4d7-5013-96b7-3da14a5fb4e9)

9 Triggered (#u1c6b5fd7-0e02-58b8-b54b-d16496977521)

PART TWO: HUBRIS (#u6948d0d1-89cf-54a4-a29f-8230409d1875)

10 ‘Economically Illiterate’ (#ude4c7938-8c46-512d-890f-1ad667a48407)

11 The Snarling Duds of May? (#ub3f95a82-ca00-5a31-825f-962fb226f523)

PART THREE: NEMESIS (#u0ff00ea3-00a6-5520-8f4c-3fb72d3bec45)

12 Bolt From the Blue (#u1d9b4eb1-f21e-58bd-8e13-5d97b5c9e8bb)

13 Leninists and Lennonists (#u2d09b39f-34f7-533d-8f4e-e712d4712222)

14 ‘Another Galaxy’ (#ub01ecb7a-8271-5b9f-b6c8-e80bf68fd1b4)

15 Strong and Stable (#ufcbc7b56-9cc8-5bb4-be1b-8d56202d2383)

16 From Sharks to Minnows (#u7bbae6f4-9a86-5b31-91a2-7c8380abb433)