May forging on as prime minister
British Prime Minister Theresa May insists she is staying put, despite calls for her resignation after the Conservative Party’s poor election result.
Asked Sunday if she is now just a caretaker leader, May noted that “I said during the election campaign that, if elected, I would intend to serve a full term.”
The Conservatives won the biggest share of seats in Thursday’s election, but lost their majority in Parliament and will have to rely on support from a smaller party to govern. The outcome shocked the party, which had expected a big victory.
Now embattled, May appointed ministers to her shaky government Sunday, as some Conservative colleagues rallied to support her — and others said her days were numbered.
May is seeking a deal with a Northern Irish party to prop up the Conservative minority government, and lawmakers said the rebuff from voters meant the government would have to abandon planned policies and re-think its strategy for European Union exit talks.
A stream of senior lawmakers entered her office at 10 Downing St. on Sunday, to learn what roles they had been given in government.
May’s weakened position in the party rules out big changes to the Cabinet lineup. Downing St. has already said that the most senior ministers — including Treasury chief Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Amber Rudd — will keep their jobs.
As rumours swirled about plots to oust May, Johnson denied he was planning a leadership challenge.
He tweeted that an article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper headlined “Boris set to launch bid to be PM as May clings on” was “tripe.”
“I am backing Theresa May. Let’s get on with the job,” he said.
May’s party won 318 seats, 12 fewer than it had before the snap election — and eight short of the 326 needed for an outright majority. Labour surpassed expectations by winning 262.
Former Treasury chief George Osborne — who was fired by May last year — called May a “dead woman walking,” and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready to contest another election at any time.
“I don’t think Theresa May and this government have any credibility,” Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror, predicting that there could be another election within months.
“I can still be prime minister,” Corbyn said. “This is still on.”
Many senior Conservatives say May should stay, for now, to provide stability. But few believe she can hang on for more than a few months.
“I think her position is, in the long term, untenable,” Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry told Sky News.