MAY: I’M NOT A QUITTER
PM to lead Britain into bright Brexit future
THERESA May yesterday put herself on a collision course with Tory critics by insisting she was “not a quitter”.
As she arrived in Japan for post-Brexit talks, the Prime Minister was asked if she would quit before the next election.
“I’m in this for the long-term,” she declared and spelt out her mission to give Britain a “brighter future... standing tall” on the
global stage. Her shock defiance will have a potentially incendiary effect in a party still battered by June’s botched election campaign that cost the Tories their majority.
It is also at odds with her own contrite promise to dismayed Tory MPs just after the election that she would stay only as long as they wanted her to dig the party out of the “mess” she had plunged it into.
Her insistence that she has a long-term vision for Britain and means to see it through is a gamble designed to strengthen her hand against plotters.
But many will think it an unrealistic promise which could easily backfire and her enemies will recall the U-turn she performed on her previous vow not to call an election before 2020.
The widespread assumption of many was that she would stay to deliver Brexit in 2019 then make way for a successor to take the country forward. Some MPs want her to go much earlier.
But yesterday she firmly denied speculation including one report she had hatched a plan – designed to keep her unhappy MPs in check during Brexit talks – to quit at the end of August 2019.
That would be five months after Britain is likely to have left the European Union and three years ahead of the latest date for the next election, in 2022. Mrs May is in Japan for three days of talks about security and post-Brexit trade. Asked by reporters travelling with her if she intended to fight the next election she said: “Yes, there’s been an awful lot of speculation about my future which has no basis in it whatsoever. I’m in this for the long-term. There’s a real job to be done in the United Kingdom.” Asked to confirm she would not quit before the next election she responded firmly: “I’m not a quitter.” Pressed to say she intended to lead her party into the election, she said: “Yes. I’m here for the long-term and it’s crucial, what me and my government are about is not just delivering on Brexit, we are delivering a brighter future for the United Kingdom.” She may be seeking to avoid what was widely thought to be a mistake by her predecessor David Cameron in the 2015 election when he said publicly it would be his last as leader.
His statement was viewed as fatally undermining his authority by setting the clock ticking on the leadership race to succeed him.
Mrs May and her allies will be intent on the reaction of Tory MPs to her announcement, when they return to Westminster next week after their long summer break.
They will also have an eye on the party’s grassroots activists preparing for their first Tory conference since the disastrous election decision which left her heading a minority government.
Mrs May is widely expected at October’s gathering in Manchester to offer some kind of apology to her party’s campaigners, echoing that which she offered her MPs after the election result.