‘We need Churchill, not Chamberlain’: Tory MPS call for PM to step down
TORY MPS yesterday urged their Cabinet colleagues to force Theresa May out of No 10 as they insisted: “We need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain.”
Support for the Prime Minister within her party reached a new low after she suggested Britain could take part in the European elections in the event of a long Article 50 extension.
Eurosceptics fear Britain will never leave the EU if a long delay is sanctioned by Mrs May, and many believe the best chance of saving Brexit is to replace her as Tory leader now.
Michael Fabricant compared Mrs May to Neville Chamberlain, the wartime prime minister who pursued a policy of appeasing Hitler to avoid war.
He said: “Even the Bank of England now says that a no-deal Brexit is workable given the tranche of legislation that has been passed since November on both sides of the Channel.
“At this difficult time we need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain.”
Brexiteers are incensed that Mrs May is prepared to contemplate a lengthy delay, during which Britain would elect MEPS if the Withdrawal Agreement is rejected for a third time. As the clamour for Mrs May to quit intensified, Sir Edward Leigh said that “three years after the referendum it would be utterly intolerable if we were in the EU during European elections”.
He suggested it would be better for the entire Government to resign “than be privy to such an appalling betrayal of the people’s trust”.
Steve Double said: “I think it is clear that she is not leading the party. She is isolated, sadly, from the majority now. We need to find a way forward and I think that requires new leadership. I know that many people feel that next week is a defining moment and I would very much hope that she would reflect on her position.
“We have got to, as a party, reunite and I don’t think we can do that around her leadership. I think I will be among many in the parliamentary party giving her a very clear message.”
Steve Baker, deputy leader of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPS, said: “We cannot keep grinding miserably forwards like this. The solution must lie in the hands of the Cabinet. They must seize control.”
One senior government minister said that opinion around the Brexit options had now hardened so much that if Mrs May either asked for a long extension or allowed Parliament to take control there would be multiple ministerial resignations.
Kenneth Clarke, an arch Remainer and former chancellor, was among Tory MPS saying Mrs May should stay.
He said: “The world would finally decide that the British and their political system had gone mad if we broke off to have six weeks of a bloody leadership campaign that would probably produce somebody who has no more chance of unifying the party.”