TEARS IN THE BACK SEAT
Emotional May reaches endgame as Cabinet turns on her and top minister quits
HISTORY looks to be repeating itself as Prime Minister Theresa May gazes tearfully out of her car window.
In a scene reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s departure, Mrs May knows she is about to be ditched by the Tory Party.
Andrea Leadsom quit the Cabinet to fight for the top job – and control of Brexit.
THERESA May’s premiership was hanging by a thread last night after a senior minister quit amid a full-blown Cabinet revolt over the PM’s Brexit plans.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom stood down, adding to growing pressure on Mrs May to do the same.
Brexiteer Mrs Leadsom, who would have been in charge of taking the Prime Minister’s Brexit bill through Parliament, said there had been a “complete breakdown” of the Cabinet.
Mrs May yesterday refused to meet top Cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
Many colleagues want her to rip up her Brexit bill, and with it her leadership. But former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “The sofa is up against the door, she’s not leaving.”
However, insiders say Mrs May could quit within days.
Ministers are today demanding one-on-one showdowns with her to tell her the game is up.
Some suggest she could resign tomorrow before the first results of today’s European elections are revealed on Sunday.
Mrs May had been due to meet Tory power broker Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, early next month to agree a timetable for her departure.
But she is now expected to meet Sir Graham tomorrow.
FURIOUS
In a day of high drama, senior Tories from across the party insisted Mrs May’s days as PM were numbered.
One Cabinet minister told the Mirror: “We’ve reached the end of the road with this Prime Minister.”
Chief whip Julian Smith held talks with middle-ranking Brexiteer ministers who threatened to quit all at once unless the PM stood down.
The Pizza Club group of Brexiteer ministers, led by Mrs Leadsom, fuelled rumours by failing to turn up for the start of Prime Minister’s Questions.
A source said: “They’re furious with the PM. They want her to go now.”
Mrs Leadsom warned the PM’s plan to give MPs a vote on a second referendum would be “dangerously divisive”. She came second to Mrs May in the 2016 leadership contest and is understood to be planning to throw her hat in the ring for the top job.
Her resignation letter last night said: “No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have, but I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country.”
Tory backbenchers met behind closed doors to decide whether to oust Mrs May before election results come out on Sunday night.
Her Cabinet team was seething that her Withdrawal Agreement Bill went further than agreed by them.
They were enraged over the PM’s promise to legislate for a second referendum if MPs decide to back one.
The requested emergency meetings by Mr Hunt and Mr Javid prompted speculation they were planning to break the news gently to the PM that her time is up – as Ken Clarke did with Margaret Thatcher when she was PM.
But as rumours swirled around, Downing Street insisted Mrs May had no immediate plans to step down. An ally said: “Her calculation is they won’t have the balls to come for her, because none of the leadership contenders want to be seen holding the knife.”
Earlier, Mrs May faced MPs for the first time since she dropped her second referendum bombshell in a speech on Tuesday.
In a sign that her authority was rapidly slipping away, Tory MPs were silent as she took her place on the Commons frontbench. As she vowed to press ahead with a fourth vote on her Brexit plans, she insisted: “I believe in what I’m doing.”
The PM appeared to admit her leadership is on its last legs. She said: “In time, another Prime Minister will be standing at this despatch box. But while I am here, I have a duty to be clear with the House about the facts.
“If we are going to deliver Brexit in this Parliament, we’re going to have to pass a Withdrawal Agreement Bill,
we will not do so without votes on the issues that have divided us most, [including] votes on customs arrangements and a second referendum.”
Mrs May was under huge pressure from her top team to pull the Brexit vote scheduled for Friday June 7, and almost certain to be lost.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: “I think we will reflect over the course of the next few days on how people look at the proposition that has been put forward.”
The Commons rises for the Whitsun recess today and MPs won’t return until the first week of June.
One Cabinet source told the Mirror: “If you don’t do it today, she’s safe for
IAIN DUNCAN SMITH ON PM TOUGHING IT OUT
two weeks.” But a No10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is focused on the job in hand and what the last 24 hours have proved are that it’s a big one.
“We’ve got a job of work to do and that won’t be easy.”
Downing Street also said: “Andrea Leadsom has served with distinction and great ability...
“We are disappointed that she has chosen to resign, and the Prime Minister remains focused on delivering the Brexit people voted for.”
Wounded Mrs May is set to spend today campaigning for the EU elections but the Tories are expecting a historically catastrophic result. There is specand ulation they may receive less than 10% of the vote. Commenting on Mrs Leadsom’s resignation from the Cabinet, Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery said: “The Prime Minister’s authority is shot and her time is up.
“While the Tories are ripping themselves apart, our country is in crisis.
“The Government has made a catastrophic mess of the Brexit negotiations, our steel industry is under threat and Universal Credit is pushing people into poverty. For the sake of the country, Theresa May needs to go, and we need an immediate general election.”
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson criticised Mrs Leadsom’s decision to
step down on the eve of the elections. He said: “I accept she may want to go but to do it the night before an election looks odd... It’s also a slap in the face to Tory party members working hard to get their candidates elected.”
Labour’s Jess Phillips said she liked Mrs Leadsom and hailed her work on introducing proxy voting for MPs, adding: “I think she’s wrong about a second referendum threatening the union and being divisive but I wish her well.”
Tory MP Craig Tracey appeared to mock Mrs May’s crumbling authority. He said: “Just heard Larry the Downing Street Cat is considering his position.”
The sofa’s up against the door... she’s not going anywhere
BORIS Johnson last night led the field of backstabbing Tories saddled up for a leadership race, as Theresa May made her last stand – but looked set to free-wheel out of No10 in days.
The Prime Minister is expected to meet Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt – her preferred choice to be her successor – this morning.
But David Lidington, a former Europe Minister who is the PM’s de-facto deputy, could find himself the caretaker boss as the political crisis grips the country.
When Mrs May finally takes the short car journey from Downing Street up The Mall to Buckingham Palace and meets the Queen to resign, she will be expected to advise the monarch on who to appoint as her successor.
Which means Mr Lidington, a figure largely unknown outside Westminster, could be the UK’s new PM by the weekend.
Leadership hopefuls were licking their lips last night as Mrs May’s time in No10 drew to a close.
Brexit paralysis in Westminster – and the hostile reception for the PM’s revamped deal – has fuelled expectation that her premiership has hours rather than days or weeks to go.
Mr Johnson confirmed last week that he would enter the race, telling the British Insurance Brokers’ Association: “Of course I’m going to go for it.”
He already has a formidable campaign team.
His allies have been drumming up support among sceptical backbench MPs with small majorities, trying to convince them only Mr Johnson can beat both Labour and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
They point to his record in winning the London mayoral race twice, in 2008 and 2012, and spearheading the 2016 Brexit campaign.
But the battlefield for the top job is crowded, with former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Mr Hunt all considering tilts for the leadership. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss, Esther McVey, former Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom and International Development Secretary Rory Stewart have also declared they will run.
Many have given speeches or interviews designed to build their profile ahead of a pitch for No10.
Ms Mordaunt has courted the Conservative right with her support for Forces’ veterans facing prosecution over their service in Northern Ireland decades ago.
Mr Hunt has frustrated some colleagues with interventions outside his ministerial brief, particularly when he called for defence spending to rise above the NATO benchmark of 2% of GDP. Mr Raab has also announced plans which play to the Tory membership – the activists he would need to win over if he gets to the final run-off.
He called for a five pence cut in the basic rate of income tax, costing tens of billions of pounds.
But all eyes are on Mr Gove, who torpedoed Mr Johnson’s leadership bid in 2016 in the aftermath of the referendum. Mr Gove stabbed his pal in the back and announced his own claim for the top job.
Mrs Leadsom was in the final two with Mrs May, but scuttled her own campaign by suggesting she
would make a better leader because she had children, while Mrs May did not.
Some of the potential candidates would only join the contest to try to secure themselves a better Cabinet post from whoever wins the race and becomes PM.
One of the first jobs facing the next PM will be to welcome Donald Trump on his three-day state visit.
The US President arrives on Monday, June 3, and will join a ceremony in Portsmouth on June 5 marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day sailings.
Leaders, including the PM, are due to travel to Normandy on June 6 for commemorations marking the invasion which liberated Europe. If she is still in power, Mrs May plans to jet back from France for a Commons vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which is likely to suffer a heavy defeat.
Amid widespread opposition to her
STEPHEN DOUGHTY LABOUR MP ON BREXIT TURMOIL
The chaos and disorder of reckless Tory Government is doing serious damage
proposal from her own party, Environment Secretary Michael Gove refused to even confirm the vote would take place in the week starting June 3.
Another defeat would plunge the Government into fresh chaos.
The UK Prime Minister, whoever it is, is due to attend an EU Council summit in Brussels on June 20, when they will have to face fellow bloc chiefs and explain the latest fiasco.
MPs may try once again to force indicative votes and thrash out a form of Brexit they can agree on and which can command a majority in the House. Anti-Brexit campaigners will step up their calls for a second EU referendum.
Labour MP Stephen Doughty said: “The chaos and disorder of this reckless Tory Government is doing serious damage to jobs and our futures.
“It must be resolved, but the only way forward – whoever is leader or Prime Minister – is to put this issue back to the people for their final say.
“For the sake of the country’s future we need to find a way forward.”
Best for Britain chief Naomi Smith urged people to “make their voices heard” at today’s European elections, “by backing parties committed to giving the people the final say on Brexit and whether we leave the EU”.
She said: “The future of this country is being decided by a small group of extreme Brexiteers hellbent on making their ideological fantasies come true.
“Theresa May has bowed to them every step of the way, but it’s still not been enough.
“We will continue to push for the people of this country to have the final say, not just a small group of men in double-breasted blazers.”