Sky Views: May must do more than Brexit

Beth Rigby, Senior Political Correspondent

A New Year, but the resolution unchanged: Theresa May will again kick off 2018 with a promise to tackle injustice and build a Britain that works for everyone.

Today there will be an announcement on raising school standards, with more to come on housebuilding as well as a prime ministerial speech on the environment next week.

Mrs May has been billed as the custodian of Brexit, but this is a Prime Minister who wishes to be remembered as a social reformer too and wants 2018 to be the year that her post-Brexit blueprint for Britain begins to take shape.

The public could be forgiven for greeting her promises with a big dose of scepticism; New Year resolutions are rarely kept - and hers are no exception.

This time last year, the Prime Minister promised a housebuilding revolution, a big push on mental health and a new wave of grammar schools. A disastrous snap election and torturous Brexit negotiations put paid to almost all that as 2017 morphed into a battle for survival rather than a stage for social change.

But the surprise upturn in her fortunes on the back of December's crucial breakthrough in Brexit negotiations has replenished her power base. Rather than limping into 2018, she has the authority now for a reboot of her programme for the government and top team.

Whitehall sources expect her to kick off the next week with a Cabinet reshuffle to showcase her domestic priorities, and bring a new generation of MPs - those elected in 2010 and 2015 - into the ranks.

Some MPs are muttering that Justine Greening might be moved out of education as the Prime Minister looks for fresh talent to drive through her schools and social mobility agenda.

Brexit's been banked; voters are more interested in how Mrs May is going to improve their schools, their pay packets, their kids' job prospects, the housing market.

Relations between the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister have deteriorated in recent months amid divisions overs Mrs May's desire to bring back grammar schools. The Prime Minister's former co-chief of staff Nick Timothy has also publicly rebuked Ms Greening in recent weeks over her "disappointing" Social Mobility Action Plan.

There is also wide speculation that the Prime Minister will move Patrick McCloughlin from the position of party chairman as she looks to revive the party ahead of the London elections in May and begin the longer-term work of trying to appeal to voters under 40 who deserted the Tories in the 2017 election.

Promotion could come for Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, Dominic Raab, the justice minister and employment minister Damian Hinds.

But the biggest changes are expected lower down the ranks, with newer MPs brought on to test their mettle and show the public who the next generation of Tories will be: Watch for promotions of female ministers such as Margot James, Harriet Baldwin, Clare Perry and Therese Coffey. Watch too for rising backbench stars such as Rishi Sunak, Johnny Mercer, Nigel Huddleston and James Cleverly.

Such a reboot will reassert her authority over the party. It will also breathe fresh life into what has sometimes felt like a zombie government: Mrs May simply cannot let her government be single-mindedly consumed by Brexit in 2018.

In Westminster and Whitehall, politicians, journalists and civil servants may be gripped by Brexit. But beyond the confines of SW1, the country has moved on. Brexit's been banked; voters are more interested in how Mrs May is going to improve their schools, their pay packets, their kids' job prospects, the housing market.

"The context for this comes from 18 months ago when she stood on the steps of Downing Street as the change candidate," explains one of her allies recalling her 'burning injustices' speech. "She has to go through with that."

Only 8% of people actually stick to their new year resolutions, according to research by the University of Scranton.

But this year the Prime Minister really must follow through.

Mrs May is delivering on Brexit. What she must do now is convince the public - and in particular the under-45s - that her government can deliver a fairer society too.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

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