Theresa May mocked as ’dead woman walking’

Tory knives out after disaster poll

BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May was seeking a deal with a small Northern Irish party yesterday to stay in power after losing her party’s parliamentary majority in a catastrophic electoral gamble just days before Brexit talks are set to start.

But with May’s personal authority in tatters, there were reports that moves were under way within her Conservative Party to dislodge her, while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested he could replace her.

“Theresa May is a dead woman walking,” former Conservative finance minister George Osborne, who was sacked by May when she became prime minister last year, told the BBC.

With Britain due to start negotiating the terms of its exit from the European Union with the bloc’s 27 other members on June 19, the political crisis in London could not have come at a worse time.

Those exit talks, expected to be the most complex in post-World War 2 European history, are supposed to wrap up before the end of March 2019 – a timeline that was already considered ambitious before May’s electoral debacle.

Her Downing Street office had announced on Saturday that the “principles of an outline agreement” with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had been agreed, only for the DUP itself to cast doubt on that account hours later.

“The talks so far have been positive. Discussions will continue next week to work on the details and to reach agreement on arrangements for the new parliament,” it said.

It was another humiliation for May, and a sign that the socially conservative DUP, with its strong focus on Northern Ireland’s specific political complexities, will not necessarily be a compliant partner for her minority government.

The DUP statement put Downing Street on the back foot, coming amid the resignation of her two closest aides and advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, prompting a carefully worded response yesterday that said May had “spoken with the DUP to discuss finalising” a deal in the coming week.

“We will welcome any such deal being agreed, as it will provide the stability and certainty the whole country requires,” the Downing Street statement said.

Many critics, including Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, have expressed concerns over the DUP’s stances against gay marriage and abortion, among other issues.

Others have also said a Conservative-DUP deal could endanger Northern Ireland’s peace settlement, which relies on the British government being a neutral arbiter between those who want the province to remain in the United Kingdom and those who want it to become part of the Republic of Ireland.

The Conservatives won 318 House of Commons seats in Thursday’s election, eight short of an outright majority.

Labour, the main opposition party, won 262. The DUP won 10.

Labour’s tally, even when added to those of potential allies such as the Scottish National Party and other smaller parties, was still short of a majority.

May had called the snap election with a view to increasing the narrow majority she had inherited from her predecessor David Cameron. At the start of the campaign, she was enjoying poll leads of 20 points or more over the main opposition Labour Party.

But after a poor campaign and an unexpectedly stiff challenge from Labour, her plan went wrong.

While the to-and-fro between Downing Street and the DUP was unfolding, several British newspapers were reporting that some prominent Conservatives, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit minister David Davis, were being urged by supporters to challenge May for the party leadership. — Reuters