May’s moves: How the papers reacted to Dancing Queen

Theresa May’s performance – both her words at the Conservative conference lectern and her feet which brought her there – are the talk of Thursday’s papers.

The Prime Minister came on to Abba’s Dancing Queen and followed with a quick duo of self-depreciating lines about her speech last year, which was marred by a persistent cough and a collapsing backdrop.

The speech itself saw Mrs May promise an end to austerity as she made a series of spending commitments.

The Times leads with the headline “May moves to end austerity”, with Patrick Kidd writing that hints of the so-called Maybot were absent.

He wrote: It (her speech) was delivered with vim and vigour and a sense of humanity and purpose.

“It was not her usual robotic performance. We need to see more of this.

“She left the stage to Mr Blue Sky by ELO, a song whose chorus asks ‘please tell us why you had to hide away for so long’. Many of us were saying exactly the same thing.”

Mamma May-A! reads the Daily Mail headline, with the paper saying Mrs May “danced her way back to authority”.

Quentin Letts, the paper’s sketch writer, said the May premiership got some much needed va-va-voom with the “opening boogie-woogie”.

He wrote: “Gone was the lurgified croaker of the 2017 conference. In pin-slender trouser suit accompanied by her favoured thick-chain necklace, she combined executive chic with a slightly heavily-worn mirthfulness.

“She’ll never challenge Miranda Hart in the comedy stakes, but for once she had the audience laughing with and not at her. This, comrades, is progress.”

The Daily Mirror ran with a similar idea for its headline, but Mamma Miarrgh gives a fair assessment of its view on the speech.

“Theresa May waltzed on to the stage, and then spent the next hour dancing around the truth,” the paper’s Jason Beattie wrote.

The paper’s leader went further, saying Mrs May deceived herself and the country, adding: “The Prime Minister knows her party is split on Brexit and her Chequers plan is on life support – so it was preposterous for her to call on the party to come together to deliver a deal loathed by Tory Remainers and Leavers alike.

“She may have danced on stage but she cannot dance around the difficulties ahead. The applause at the end of her speech was just a synthetic show of unity.”

The Sun writes: “She began with Dancing Queen, delivered some good news on Money, Money, Money and invited us to Take A Chance On Me.

“Against the odds, Theresa May’s speech yesterday was quite the hit”.

While the Daily Telegraph’s Matt cartoon also takes inspiration from the dancing – showing a Strictly set where the host is saying Anton du Beke is due to give his plans for Brexit in response to Mrs May’s moves.