Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SHAMELESS
» Scheming Johnson tipped to launch a leadership bid after stabbing May in back » Weak PM is hit by Brexit resignations... then names Hunt as Foreign Secretary GOVERNMENT IN CRISIS
TREACHEROUS Boris Johnson yesterday declared war on Theresa May and her soft Brexit strategy. Johnson, who quit the Cabinet with David Davis, stabbed her in the back saying: “The dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.”
Mrs May’s weak grip on power is fading, with one Tory MP declaring her time is “over”. Arch-leaver Johnson is tipped to launch a leadership bid in a shameless power grab. Jeremy Hunt is the new Foreign Secretary.
THERESA May was scrambling to save her leadership last night after being stabbed in the back by Boris Johnson.
Tory MPS warned her job was at risk unless she abandoned her soft Brexit blueprint, after the Foreign Secretary’s bombshell resignation.
He quit just hours after Brexit Secretary David Davis, who is replaced by staunch Brexiteer and Housing Minister Dominic Raab.
Jeremy Hunt moves from Health Secretary to replace ruthless Mr Johnson, now tipped to launch a shameless bid for leadership.
It is dramatic U-turn after he and Mr Davis backed Mrs May’s Brexit plan at Chequers on Friday.
Three other senior Tories also last night resigned, plunging the Government into chaos.
Former Culture Secretary Matt Hancock takes Mr Hunt’s old role.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The Chequers compromise took two years to reach and two days to unravel. We have a crisis in government. It is clear this government cannot secure a good deal.”
In a bitter attack in his resignation letter, Mr Johnson accused the PM of leading the UK into a “semibrexit” with the “status of a colony”.
Blasting her EU negotiations, he said: “It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering above them.”
He added: “On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congr- atulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward. As I said then, Government now has a song to sing.
“The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and I find they stick in the throat.
“We must have collective responsibility. Since I cannot in all conscience champion these proposals, I have sadly concluded that I must go.” He was joined by his parliamentary private secretary Conor Burns, Brexit Minister Steve Baker and Chris Green, parliamentary private secretary to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.
The departures have stunned Westminster and left Mrs May’s grip on power hanging by a thread.
Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said Mrs May’s time was “over”.
Battling to save her job in a showdown meeting with more than 300 Tory MPS in Parliament, the Prime Minister pleaded with
them to back her Brexit proposal. She insisted it is “the right Brexit deal for Britain”.
And her official spokesman told the Mirror she would battle any bid to oust her. Earlier, Tory infighting broke out in the Commons over the Chequers agreement.
Peter Bone MP faced shouts of “shame” and “nonsense” from Tory colleagues as he told how activists in his Wellingborough constituency, Northants, refused to campaign at the weekend as they felt “betrayed” over the result of Friday’s summit.
Mrs May insisted: “This is not a betrayal.” And accepting Mr Johnson’s resignation, the PM wrote: “If you are not able to provide the support we need to secure this deal in the interests of the UK, it is right that you should step down.”
His exit was announced by No10 at 3pm, just 30 minutes before Mrs May faced MPS to set out details of her plans. She was greeted by shouts of “resign” from Labour MPS. While Tory MP Bernard Jenkin said there had been a “massive haemorrhage of trust” in the Prime Minister.
Asked if Brexiteers needed to put her future to a party vote, he replied: “It may well come to that.”
Of the party’s 316 MPS, 48 must write to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to trigger a no-confidence vote.
He last night refused to say whether he had received any such letters. Brexiteer Tory MP Jacob Rees-mogg, chair of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic backbenchers, said he had not submitted a letter of no confidence.
But Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said: “Theresa May’s Government is in meltdown. The country is at a standstill with a divided, shambolic Government.
“The Prime Minister can’t deliver Brexit and has zero authority left.”
There was a fall in the pound against the dollar and the euro after Mr Johnson quit.
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage welcomed his resignation. He tweeted: “Bravo. Now can we please get rid of the appalling Theresa May and get Brexit back on track.”
Jeremy Wright was switched from Attorney General, the Government’s top law officer, to Mr Hancock’s Culture Secretary role.
Meanwhile a Sky Data poll found 64% of people do not have faith in Mrs May to get the best possible Brexit deal, a rise in mistrust by 31 points since March 2017.