May faces furious UK lawmakers in test of strength
MAY’S PLANS HAVE BEEN THROWN INTO CHAOS ALONG WITH THE UK’S ENTIRE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE FOLLOWING THURSDAY’S VOTE
A day after she was forced to promote prominent Brexit hardliners in her bid to cling to power, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face furious lawmakers from her Conservative Party in a showdown that could signal the end of her premiership.
May, who chairs a meeting of her new Cabinet on Monday morning, will hear firsthand the anger of Conservative members of Parliament who blame her for the catastrophic election campaign that saw the Tories unexpectedly lose their parliamentary majority.
Graham Brady, the lawmaker who heads the backbench 1922 committee of rank-and-file Tory lawmakers, said “there will be lots of colleagues wanting to air their concerns.”
Ministers including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Trade Secretary Liam Fox rallied to May’s side, saying the time is wrong for a leadership challenge or another general election. Johnson earlier denied newspaper reports that he would try to unseat May.
“It’s the height of self-indulgence to go in for this sort of thing, Brexit Secretary David Davis said on Monday in an ITV interview, when asked about the chances of May being dislodged by her own party. “I’m a 100 per cent unswerving supporter.”
May’s plans have been thrown into chaos along with the UK’s entire political landscape following Thursday’s vote. The premier was unable to carry out wholesale cabinet changes that had been mooted before the election, with most ministers staying in the same jobs.
May named Michael Gove, who unsuccessfully ran against her for the party leadership last year and whom she then fired from the Ministry of Justice, as her new environment secretary. She also appointed leadership challenger, Andrea Leadsom, to leader of the House of Commons, putting her in charge of pushing Brexit-heavy legislation through Parliament.
Yet she did promote her close friend, Damian Green, to first secretary of state, making a Remain campaigner her second in command in an indication that May could be preparing to soften her Brexit stance.
May appeared to acknowledge her time was limited, when she was asked if she would stay in her post until the next election, scheduled to be held in 2022.
“I said during the election campaign that if re-elected I would intend to serve a full term,” she told Sky Television on Sunday evening in her official London residence. “But what I’m doing now is actually getting on with the immediate job — and I think that’s what’s important.”
One sign of May’s weakness is the appointment of Gove, who ran for the Tory leadership in the wake of the Brexit referendum after betraying an earlier agreement to back Johnson.