Where’s Theresa May?

It has been a running joke over past week as the UK General Election draws closer about the Prime Minister not appearing in public, but is there something more concerning at its heart.

Anyone who watched the BBC Leader’s Debate on May 31st would be hard pressed to miss the glaring absence of the Prime Minister. It became a recurring joke throughout the entire evening, with Tim Farron and Caroline Lucas being particularly vocal about her having sent Home Secretary Amber Rudd in her place.

Now there is more fuel for the fire as a leak in the BBC has revealed that Mrs. May is refusing to conduct any interviews at all with the broadcaster, who have in the past shown a pro-Tory bias. The news, that was sent to Owen Jones a columnist for the Guardian, was rapidly spread from his Facebook and Twitter pages, leading to further questions about why the Prime Minister is avoiding the public so much.

This follows a recent interview in the Plymouth Herald in which Mrs. May didn’t answer a single question, instead of running through the same half dozen sound bites that she has been repeating since she first announced the snap election.

With her refusal to take part in any of the forthcoming debates, and seems to refuse to answer questions when she does people are drawing two separate conclusions, depending upon their own political views. Those who look upon the Tories favourable say that this entire election should be based on who will negotiate Brexit, and therefore are not wishing to put focus on policies that may split the vote and risk Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.

However. The more left wing political supporters are drawing a completely different conclusion. They seem to think that Theresa May is running scared. There has been some opinion that Mrs. May was so assured of her victory when she first called the snap election she hadn’t planned a proper campaign strategy, and now that things appear to be swinging against her she’s trying to minimise her contact with the public to maintain her strong and stable ‘reputation’, and minimise the risk of making things worse.

There is now only a week remaining until the country head to the polling stations, but as the campaign continues Mrs. May appears to be withdrawing more and more from the public eye. There is even now speculation that however the vote goes on Thursday this election could now be the death-knell for Theresa May. There have been rumblings that her decision to call a snap election was not the right call, having originally planned for a land fall majority vote but now looking more and more like the best they can hope for is maintaining the seats they currently hold. As the Conservatives begin to loose seats it is clear where the blame will be placed by the members of the party.

Mrs. May is supposed to be appearing on BBC’s Question Time tonight in a head to head debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and at the time of writing she hasn’t pulled out, but given her recent track record, there is some doubt as to if she will turn up. We’ll all find out together tonight.