No mechanism to remove PM from power, Tories told

PLANS to install a caretaker prime minister to replace Theresa May would be doomed to failure and place the Queen in a difficult position, senior Tories and historians have warned.

Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader, said he could not see how an interim prime minister would work.

“Anyone who the Cabinet try to install as prime minister would have to have the confidence of the whole of the Conservative Party and the DUP, otherwise they would face a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend.

Prof Richard Toye, head of history at Exeter University, said: “I see great difficulty in how they [Cabinet ministers] actually could do it, even if they resigned at the same time. Their idea to launch a coup is to talk to journalists – they haven’t really got a mechanism for bringing it about. Ministers are united in wanting rid of her but divided in who her successor should be.”

If Mrs May did resign to make way for a caretaker prime minister, she would be expected to recommend her successor to the Queen. However, she could also decline to do so and leave all responsibility to the Palace.

“If May declined to recommend a successor, that would create a problem,” Prof Toye said. “Palace officials would have to try and establish what the majority view of ministers and the Commons would be.”

He pointed out the last time the monarch had a significant role in the selection of a prime minister was in 1963, when Harold Macmillan stood down due to ill health and the Palace had to choose a successor without having a formal mechanism to do so.

Catherine Haddon, of the Institute for Government, a think tank, said having to select the next prime minister in these circumstances could put the Queen in a difficult situation.