Tories’ new plot to oust May

They want to rip up party rules to force fresh challenge within weeks

THERESA May could face a fresh leadership challenge within weeks after senior Tories agreed to launch a review of the party’s rulebook.

The backbench 1922 Committee is looking at whether to tear up the rules that prevent the party leader facing more than one challenge in a 12-month period.

Sources on the committee last night said the change would be debated by the ruling executive at its first meeting back after Easter on April 23.

Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady is understood to be seeking legal advice on the proposed change, amid concerns that it could be challenged by supporters of the Prime Minister.

If the switch is approved, it would clear the way for disgruntled Tory MPs to launch a fresh attempt to oust Mrs May before the end of this month. A senior Tory said: ‘There is a real push to get this sorted out. She cannot be allowed to go on.’ Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday led calls for Mrs May to stick to her offer to resign next month. The PM’s offer was conditional on MPs passing her Brexit deal, which has since been defeated for a third time.

But Mr Duncan Smith said the timetable ‘still stands’. He told Sky News: ‘The Prime Minister has already said she’d go; she said she’d go as and when the agreement was ratified which was looking at around May/June. I think those dates still stand.

‘I think what the Prime Minister has to do is to aim everything now towards departure before the Euros (elections) which would then allow her to step away having done what she said she would do, getting the UK out of the European Union one way or the other. Then we can have another leadership election and pick a new leader which is the way it has to be.’ Mrs May faced a formal vote of no confidence on December 12, winning by 200 to 117, a victory margin of 83. The party’s existing rules state that if a leader wins, ‘no vote of confidence shall be called for a period of at least 12 months’.

Some MPs have suggested that the rule change could not be brought in without the agreement of the Conservative Party board, which is led by Brandon Lewis, party chairman and a key ally of Mrs May. But two former 1922 Committee chairmen yesterday said the committee is the keeper of the rules.

Writing in the Telegraph, former MPs Michael Spicer and Archie Hamilton said it was ‘not the case’ that either the party board or the wider membership would have to be consulted.

‘If MPs believe that this rule is an impediment to their proper function and responsibilities for the leadership of the party, it is quite within their right to change these provisions,’ they wrote.

‘Conservative MPs are responsible for their party. If they wish a change to these rules there is nothing standing in their way.’ Sir Graham said he also believed the rules ‘could in future be changed by the agreement of the 1922 executive’, but warned that it was ‘less certain that it would be possible during the current (12-month) grace period’. A source said Sir Graham was seeking legal advice on whether a retrospective attempt to scrap the 12-month grace period could be challenged in the courts.

Some members of the committee’s ruling executive hope the prospect of a rule change might persuade Mrs May to go. One source said: ‘It would be better for everyone if she made up her own mind to leave rather than insisting on another divisive vote.’

Eurosceptic pressure for a new leadership contest has intensified since Mrs May abandoned the

March 29 Brexit date. After two extensions, the UK is not now due to leave the EU until October 31 unless MPs agree to pass Mrs May’s deal before then.

Sir Graham has refused requests from angry MPs to hold an ‘indicative’ vote on her future.

Eurosceptic MPs are stepping up pressure on her to stand down. Andrew Bridgen said she should resign before the local elections on May 3 to give the party the best chance of fighting them. ‘This year May has to end before the end of April,’ he said.

But Downing Street has indicated Mrs May plans to try and fight on until she has taken Britain out of the EU. Chancellor Philip Hammond said at the weekend that the PM ‘doesn’t have any intention of leaving’ until the Brexit deal is passed.

And some Tory moderates are urging her to fight on. Former minister Sarah Newton urged her to ‘ignore the bullies’ on the Eurosceptic wing and stay on.