British Prime Minister under fresh pressure as top aides quit

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to relinquish her two closest aides yesterday as she struggled to reassert her authority following a crushing electoral setback.

The Conservative leader has been warned her days are numbered after calling Thursday’s vote three years early, only to lose her majority in parliament.

Senior party figures have cautioned against any immediate leadership challenge, saying it would only cause further disruption as Britain prepares to start Brexit negotiations as early as June 19.

But reports suggest they demanded the departure of May’s joint chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, as the price for allowing the 60-year-old vicar’s daughter to stay in office.

May announced Friday she would seek to form a minority government with the help of a small Northern Irish party, the far-right Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

She put on a brave face, refusing to show any contrition for the election gamble that spectacularly backfired, but observers say she has been deeply wounded.

“From hubris to humiliation,” said the left-leaning Guardian. “May stares into the abyss,” wrote The Times, while Conservative-supporting The Sun tabloid said succinctly: “She’s had her chips.”

May had relied on Timothy and Hill for advice and support since her previous job at the interior ministry, and their resignations will be a personal blow.

Timothy said he took responsibility for the Conservative manifesto, including a plan for elderly social care that caused a backlash among many core voters.

A party spokesman confirmed the resignation of Hill, a combative character who one excolleague said had helped create a “toxic” atmosphere at the heart of government.

The news came as May prepared to name the rest of her cabinet, after revealing Friday that her five most senior ministers would remain in their posts.

Before the election, she had been widely expected to sack finance minister Philip Hammond following a reported clash over her Brexit strategy.

The Conservatives won 318 seats in Thursday’s vote, down from 331 in 2015, falling short of an overall majority in the 650seat House of Commons after the opposition Labour Party, led by socialist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn, scored hefty gains.

The DUP, which won 10 seats, said it is ready to talk with May about supporting her government, although such an alliance would be far from straight forward.

London’s neutrality in Northern Ireland is key to the delicate balance of power in the province once plagued by decades of unrest.

But the Protestant DUP was founded to defend Northern Ireland’s place in Britain against demands by Catholic republicans for a united Ireland.

On Brexit, the DUP supports leaving the EU but opposes a return to a “hard” border with Ireland — which could happen if May carries through her threat to walk away from the talks rather than accept a “bad deal”.

The prime minister has vowed to pull Britain out of Europe’s single market in order to end mass migration from the bloc, despite fears of the economic impact.

The DUP is “likely to increase the pressure on Theresa May to secure a comprehensive free trade agreement”, said Stephen Booth of the Open Europe think tank.

European Council President Donald Tusk has warned there was “no time to lose” in starting talks, after May started the twoyear countdown to Brexit on March 29.

The DUP’s opposition to samesex marriage and abortion has also alarmed some in May’s party, particularly Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who is gay. — AFP