May ‘to lead throughout EU talks and serve full five-year term’
THERESA MAY wants to stay on as Prime Minister for five years, her official spokesman has insisted as her ministers hit back at suggestions she should stand down after Brexit in 2019.
Mrs May now feels she can remain in 10 Downing Street until 2022, despite failing to win a Commons majority at last month’s general election.
Before the election Mrs May said that she would serve a full five-year term if re-elected as Prime Minister.
Since the June 8 poll Mrs May has said little about her future. On June 11 the Prime Minister refused to say whether she intended to serve a full five-year term in office, in an interview with Sky News.
Instead, she said: “I said during the election campaign that, if re-elected, I would intend to serve a full term. But what I’m doing now is actually getting on with the immediate job. And I think that’s what is important, I think that’s what the public would expect.”
The following day, Mrs May told her back-bench MPS on the 1922 Committee that she would “serve for as long as you want me to”.
But yesterday, asked if she intended to “stay for the full five years to the next election”, her spokesman said: “I have been asked this before, and I am sure I will be asked again, and the answer is ‘yes’.” Separately, Mrs May is being urged to resign as Prime Minister after Brexit in March 2019 to allow another prime minister to lead the party into the 2022 general election.
Some Cabinet ministers have been saying she should set out her timetable for going at this year’s Conservative party conference.
However, ministers warned that Mrs May risked becoming a “lame duck” and undermining the office of prime minister if she set out her plans this year.
One pointed out that Mrs May had to be at her strongest for a key summit on the next slate of Brexit talks in October in Brussels.
The minister said: “She does not need to do that.
“It is painfully obvious where we are going. My worry is if she sets out a timescale she confirms herself as a lame duck.
“It is very important in terms of the Brexit negotiation – she would be doing a Cameron [her predecessor as prime minister who told the BBC he would not stand for a third term in March 2015].
“My strong view is that she should not be wasting her time setting out her timetable for departure – she should just be getting on with her job.
“This is not a presidential system – we don’t operate one. We should not start pretending that we do. When prime ministers set a date for departure way in advance it undermines the office.”