BORIS: TORY MPS MUST BACK MAY
Call for unity on day Michael Gove returns to Cabinet
CABINET ministers rallied around beleaguered Theresa May last night in a desperate attempt to halt bitter Tory in-fighting over her leadership. Boris Johnson led declarations of loyalty to the Prime Minister, imploring the party to pull together after last week’s catastrophic election collapse and prevent Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn taking power.
“I’m going to be backing her. Everybody I’ve been talking to is backing her as well,” said the Foreign Secretary, pictured yesterday, insisting he is not preparing a leadership challenge. In a dramatic twist last night his former leadership rival, Michael Gove, was brought back to the Cabinet
out of the political wilderness to be Environment Secretary. The appointment of the star of last year’s Vote Leave campaign sends a signal that Mrs May is committed to a fullblooded Brexit.
She had sacked him a year ago on taking office after his sensational feud with Mr Johnson during the Tory leadership contest.
Throughout yesterday the rattled Tory high command remained in crisis mode as a string of senior party figures urged Mrs May to quit.
And in a vengeful outburst, former Tory chancellor George Osborne condemned the Prime Minister as “a dead woman walking”.
Last night Mrs May appeared to avoid the question of how long she would stay in office. She said: “I said during the election campaign if elected I intend to serve a full-term. But what I’m doing now is actually getting on with the immediate job.
“The Brexit negotiations start in just a week. We need to get those right and make a success of it.”
She wanted a “country that works for everyone” and a Cabinet to reflect the talent “from across the whole of the Conservative Party”.
Poisonous recriminations have engulfed the Tories since the General Election called by Mrs May to try to win a landslide victory which ended up robbing her of her majority with a Labour “coalition of chaos” waiting in the wings.
She is due to meet Arlene Foster, the leader of the 10 MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, tomorrow to finalise a “confidence and supply” deal to prop up her minority Government.
All weekend the mobile phones of Tory ministers, MPs and aides buzzed with speculation about an imminent leadership challenge.
Allies of Mr Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davies were both forced to deny the senior figures were plotting to oust the Prime Minister.
One MP, a firm supporter of the Foreign Secretary, said: “This is all absolute nonsense. Some people can smell blood around Theresa and want to whip up mischief. Boris is furious about this. What we need above all else at the moment is stability.”
Last night Mr Johnson said: “Jeremy Corbyn did not win this election. It’s absolutely right that we form a government.” He sent a stronglyworded mobile phone message to Tory MPs urging them to cease the squabbling. “Folks, we need to calm down and get behind the Prime Minister,” he said.
He pointed out that Mrs May had won “more votes than anyone since Margaret Thatcher” in last Thursday’s poll. “We must get on and deliver for the people of this country, including a great Brexit deal.
“The public are fed up to the back teeth of politics and politicians and they certainly do not want another election.” Speculation about Mrs May’s future was fuelled by Mr Osborne yesterday. “Theresa May is a dead woman walking. It is just how long she is going to remain on death row,” said the former chancellor sacked by her last year.
Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Osborne said Mrs May was on the brink. “I think we will know very shortly. We could easily get to the middle of next week and it all collapses for her,” he added.
Other senior Tories said Mrs May should go before the next election but warned against a rushed exit.
Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan told ITV’s Peston On Sun-
day: “I think it’s fairly clear Theresa May cannot lead us into another election. Of course we don’t know when that’s going to happen, and I don’t think we should rush that.
“But if we’re going to have a leadership contest what we cannot do is have another coronation like last summer.”
Former business minister Anna Soubry said Mrs May’s position was “untenable” long term but warned against rushing to replace her.
She told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “We need stability, we need to put that sense of the economy and our country and the nation’s interests absolutely at the forefront, none of this messing about behind the scenes.”
Cabinet ministers are believed to have extracted a promise from Mrs May that she will run a more cooperative and inclusive Government.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “We are going to see, I hope, more collective decision-making in the Cabinet. I and other senior colleagues have made that clear to her,” he told Andrew Marr.
Mrs May is due to face a meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee at Westminster this afternoon.
Chairman Graham Brady said he did not believe there was a mood among Tory MPs for a leadership contest creating fresh instability.
He added: “I think there is zero appetite amongst the public for another general election at the moment and I don’t detect any great appetite amongst my colleagues for presenting the public with an additional dose of uncertainty by getting involved in a rather selfindulgent Conservative Party election campaign.”