ON THE BRINK
Tory vultures circling over the PM as Hammond slams election campaign and her Brexit strategy
THERESA May is facing an hour by hour battle to cling on as Prime Minister after mishandling both the Grenfell fire tragedy and the Tory general election campaign.
The PM spent yesterday licking her self-inflicted wounds as Tory vultures circled around what was left of her premiership.
Cabinet colleagues are prepared to oust May if she loses votes on this week’s Queen’s speech – and Chancellor Philip Hammond stuck the knife in yesterday by undermining her.
In what could be the beginning of a leadership bid, Hammond said the UK would benefit from a transitional deal on a slope out of Europe, rather than the hard Brexit cut-off May has proposed.
But the PM is getting it from both sides – with Brexiteer Tory MPs reported to be prepared to challenge her with a vote of confidence if she retreats from her hard-line strategy.
David Jones, the recently sacked Brexit minister, said trying to stay in the single market or the customs union would be an “absolute betrayal of trust”.
The sidelined Chancellor re-asserted his authority with a highly critical assessment of May’s election campaign which, he said, should have focused more on the economy.
Hammond said he was unhappy with the low-key role he was given in the campaign and added that the Tories should have put more effort into “dismantling” Labour’s plans.
He said: “The end result is that, in my judgment, we did not talk about the economy as much as we should have done.”
He also said the Government “heard a message” in the election that people were “weary” of spending cuts.
The Chancellor, who has been calling for Brexit talks to prioritise the economy, warned that leaving the EU without a deal would be “a very, very bad outcome”.
Hammond said his priority for the Brexit negotiations is avoiding a “cliff edge” in March 2019, as he declared that continuing membership of the single market and customs union membership were off the table.
With Brexit talks set to formally begin in Brussels today, opposition MPs complained that the Government had no direction.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer said Britain could not remain a full member of the single market after leaving the EU but argued for keeping customs union membership “on the table”.
He added: “I think the Prime Minister has got us into a complete mess.
“She’s got no mandate here and she’s got no authority abroad and the negotiation is about to start.”
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell seized on Hammond’s criticism, saying: “The problem with the Brexit talks is that we have a Government in disarray. Removing this Government and allowing a Labour government, if necessary a minority government, to come into place would give us clear direction on all of this.”
Lib Dem treasury spokesman Sir Vince Cable said: “The Chancellor stated that British exporters need arrangements as close as possible to the ones they currently enjoy – and he is right.
“As David Davis boards the plane to negotiate Brexit on behalf of the Government, it is unclear what the Government’s position actually is.
“The Chancellor’s position would be untenable if his economic advice is not listened to by the rest of the Cabinet.”
The SNP’s Europe spokesman Stephen Gethins MP said people voted in the general election to reject May’s hard right Brexit stance.
He added: “We now have a Tory Government consumed by chaos on every front. And any attempts to avoid Parliament and the public in order to simply carry on regardless is outrageous and unsustainable.”
Former Tory minister Robert Halfon, who was axed from his frontbench role after the election, backed May but said the Conservatives need to change.
He added: “Unless we fundamentally change and work out what we stand for, show people we are on the side of the most disadvantaged, show people we are the real workers’ party in terms of wages, jobs and skills, in terms of welfare, rights, in terms of workers’ services ike energy bills, we won’t achieve what we want to, whoever is leader.”