PM ready to face down 20 leadership plotters
THE leader of backbench Tory MPs has told warring ministers to unite behind Theresa May – or risk handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Sir Graham Brady spoke out amid speculation that a leadership challenge could see up to 20 MPs standing to succeed the Prime Minister.
Sir Graham, the chairman of the 1922 committee, made his plea after a week of Cabinet infighting – and ahead of a crunch Brexit meeting at Chequers.
He said the lack of party unity makes it more difficult for Mrs May to negotiate with Brussels.
And he warned that voters would punish the Conservatives if they failed to rally behind the PM.
Writing in The Observer, he said: ‘The danger of disunity at the top of the party is not just that it makes the Prime Minister’s job more difficult in negotiations with Brussels, and therefore puts at risk the good Brexit deal that is in reach, it also gives an impression of division to the country.
‘Electorates these days are volatile, but one thing is certain: they do not vote for divided parties. It’s not just backbench Conservative MPs who expect ministers to pull together behind Theresa May: the great swathe of the electorate expects it too.’
Sir Graham said the PM was winning ‘considerable support around the country for her determined perseverance’ and said the negotiations were always going to be tough – especially as the Tories do not have a majority.
‘Unpicking four decades of EU law and regulation so closely entwined with our own statute was always going to be complicated,’ he wrote. ‘The arithmetic of this parliament makes it doubly so.’
He also accused Labour of making promises to respect the referendum but of playing ‘all the slippery games of opposition’.
His comments came ahead of a full Cabinet meeting on Friday at Chequers, at which ministers are expected to hammer out in detail Britain’s approach to the relationship it wants with the EU after Brexit, including on customs, trade and security.
Significant concessions to the EU would heighten speculation about whether one or more Brexiteer Cabinet minister could resign in protest. Yesterday allies of the Prime Minister said she would not be pushed out even if 48 Tory MPs signed a letter to sir Graham triggering a vote of no confidence.
Some had assumed that Mrs May would resign if 100 MPs voted against her, but allies told the The Sunday Times that she would be happy to win by one vote – meaning her opponents would need 159 MPs to remove her. Last night one MP tipped as a potential candidate, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said those who believed he would be the next Prime Minister were living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’.
He said: ‘I’d rather be Pope. I’d like to be Pius IX. He said no to every change and I have always thought that’s not a bad thing to do.’ Cabinet ministers tipped to stand if Mrs May were to resign include Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Last week, after Airbus chiefs warned a hard Brexit could cause job losses, Mr Hunt said it was ‘completely inappropriate’ for big business to intervene in rows over Brexit, setting up a clash with Business Secretary Greg Clark.
Mrs Leadsom gave an interview in which she weighed in on future customs arrangements, while Mr Williamson was reported to have said of Mrs May amid a row over defence spending: ‘I made her – and I can break her.’
‘Electorates don’t vote for divided parties’