It is too early to say where 2016 will rank in modern world history compared with the likes of 1789, 1914 and 1939. But it was clearly the most dramatic moment in British politics since the Second World War. The drama was accompanied by no small measure of comedy and farce. Here are the people of the year — the highs, the lows, the noble and the ignoble.
POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR
Like Fortinbras at the end of Hamlet, when the main characters are dead, Theresa May tiptoed through the wreckage left behind by the Brexit vote and Michael Gove’s betrayal of Boris Johnson to emerge triumphant without ever telling people what she really thinks about anything.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Nigel Farage helped secure the EU referendum and was instrumental in turning out the white working class that seldom bothers to vote. He capped the year by becoming bezzies with the new leader of the free world.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE? AWARD
Donald Trump looked shell-shocked by victory when he met Barack Obama in the White House. But he can’t top the grim expressions sported by Michael Gove and Boris Johnson the morning after the referendum and David Cameron’s resignation. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, said: “They looked like a couple of teenage arsonists.”
SOUNDBITE OF THE YEAR
May might have won for “Brexit means Brexit” until the Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies improved it with “Brexit means breakfast”. Most memorable was Ken Clarke’s description of May as “a bloody difficult woman”, which so delighted her that she adopted it as a campaign catchphrase.
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BEST MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
It doesn’t get much better than Ed Balls descending from the ceiling to Great Balls of Fire. It doesn’t get much worse than National Living Rage, the Christmas single by Labour MPs. But the signature musical moment belongs to David Cameron. After announcing when he was leaving No 10, Cameron went back through the famous black door chillaxed and humming: “Doo-do, doo-do. Right.”
RESIGNATION OF THE YEAR
Iain Duncan Smith flounced out of the cabinet over disability benefit cuts in March’s budget. Diane James, the second of Ukip’s three leaders this year, stood down after 18 days — the shortest reign since Lady Jane Grey. But the winner is Labour’s Pat Glass who became shadow education secretary in June. The following day she announced she was quitting as an MP at the next election and resigned from the front bench in despair at Jeremy Corbyn.
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
The former London mayor Ken Livingstone made a surprise reappearance when he got into a shouting match in the street with Labour MP John Mann after claiming that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist. Livingstone locked himself in a loo while journalists bombarded him with questions about the Nazi dictator. But Ken can’t beat the return of Boris Johnson, who went from potential prime minister to dead in the water to one of the great offices of state in a few days.
SEX SCANDAL OF THE YEAR
Tory leadership hopeful Stephen Crabb was caught sexting and left the cabinet to actually spend time with his family. SNP lotharios Stewart Hosie and Angus MacNeil were both caught dating the same woman, Serena Cowdy. But it’s hard to top Keith Vaz, the Labour former chairman of the home affairs select committee, who was caught with two male escorts pretending to be a washing machine salesman called Jim.
WORST CAMPAIGN STUNT
George Osborne’s emergency budget sank both the “remain” campaign and his own leadership hopes. But the “Leadsom for leader” march on parliament, with Theresa Villiers looking like a captive prisoner, redefined awful. Andrea Leadsom travelled by car.
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PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE YEAR
Angela Eagle launched her leadership challenge to Corbyn and asked for questions from the press. “BBC, anyone? Robert Peston, where are you?” Sadly the hacks had fled to watch Leadsom throw in the towel. Labour’s irrelevance encapsulated.
ALAN PARTRIDGE AWARD
In a year of dire leadership campaigns, the Labour MP Owen Smith took the biscuit with a series of gauche outbursts. He vowed to “smash” May “back on her heels”, called Corbyn a “lunatic” and said he had beaten off “1,200 boys and three girls” to “pull” his wife. “That must be leadership.” Aha!
BIGGEST LOSER OF THE YEAR
Cameron lost only once. Zac Goldsmith was favourite to be London mayor despite the slogan “Back Zac and crack” London’s problems and a pledge to be “pansexual for London”. It didn’t help that he claimed to love Bollywood but couldn’t name one film. Goldsmith voted for Brexit but when he resigned his Richmond Park seat over Heathrow expansion, his “remain”-supporting constituents voted for the Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney instead. Doh!
FEUD OF THE YEAR
Nicky Morgan made a late bid for glory by condemning the prime minister’s lederhosen. But only one political punch-up involved actual blows. Ukip’s Mike Hookem and Steven Woolfe exchanged insults and claims of physical violence.
THE THICK OF IT AWARD
Transport secretary Chris Grayling criticised cyclists before knocking one off his bike with a car door.
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DOCTOR EVIL AWARD
While everything above was unfolding, one man was cackling like a Bond villain. Vladimir Putin helped Trump to triumph, bombed Syria and divided Europe.
May will be just about managing on Mondays
Theresa May is to launch a blitz on domestic policy in the new year to distract attention from the government’s efforts to draw up a plan for Brexit, writes Tim Shipman.
A leaked version of the government’s news “grid” shows the prime minister plans to emulate David Cameron by making three key announcements on successive Mondays in January — a tactic her predecessor employed last year and this year.
May will make a speech on social policy on January 9. A week later the government is due to publish a long-awaited white paper detailing legislation designed to provide 1m new homes by 2020.
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On January 23, May and the business secretary, Greg Clark, will unveil the government’s industrial strategy. Tax breaks and investment will be targeted at such key sectors of the economy as the car industry, pharmaceuticals and centres of technical excellence.
May wants press and public talking about her agenda for social reform to boost the “just about managing” classes. But insiders say the first substantive cabinet meetings about Brexit, at which firm decisions will finally be taken, are also due to take place in January.
A senior Tory said: “This is Cameron’s playbook all over again, a new year salvo to convince everyone the government is doing something other than Europe. But everything comes back to Europe eventually.”