Bad day for May as coup rumours swirl
Theresa May has been snubbed by a succession of European Union leaders, who have insisted there will be no renegotiation of the Irish border backstop under a Brexit deal.
The British prime minister conducted a whistlestop tour of Europe yesterday in an attempt to build momentum for Brexit concessions ahead of an EU summit today, but had little to cheer about when she returned home.
Angela Merkel told May at a meeting in Berlin there was ‘‘no way’’ the Withdrawal Agreement would be reopened. Rubbing salt into the wounds, the German chancellor told May that any Brexit negotiations had to be handled through the European Commission and not through bilateral talks with national governments.
May also travelled to the Netherlands and Brussels as she sought a "legally binding assurance" that the United Kingdom will not be trapped indefinitely in an arrangement that puts it into a customs union with the EU to avoid the return of a hard border in Ireland.
It came as the European Commission, France and other EU nations prepared to step up their no-deal Brexit emergency planning to heap yet more pressure on MPs in Westminster to accept May’s unpopular deal.
May met Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin yesterday. He called on Britain to revoke Brexit or extend the negotiation period to avoid a damaging no-deal.
May is expected to be told that she will face a vote of no confidence among Conservative MPs, after the intervention of a senior former cabinet minister.
Owen Paterson, a former Northern Ireland and environment secretary who backed Leave in the Brexit referendum, wrote to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, formally stating that he had lost confidence in the prime minister.
There is growing speculation that Brady has now received the 48 letters from MPs required to trigger a vote, which is expected to lead to a full-scale leadership contest in the coming weeks.
The BBC reported that Brady had requested to see May, amid calls from some Tory MPs for senior ministers to intervene and replace her with a caretaker leader before a formal vote is called.
Paterson’s intervention is expected to prove crucial, as many veteran Eurosceptic MPs have so far held back from calling for May to be replaced.
A vote on her leadership could now take place among Tory MPs as early as next week.
– Telegraph Group