Secret Tory battle cry of ‘DD for PM’
Brexit chief David Davis is urged to stand May’s grip on power is ‘clearly limited’, MPs told
DAVID DAVIS has been urged to stand for Prime Minister at a secret Commons meeting of Conservative MPs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
A leading Tory MP was applauded when he told the Brexit Secretary – in front of more than 40 colleagues – that he should succeed beleaguered Theresa May in Downing Street.
Sources say Sir Desmond Swayne, who was a close parliamentary aide to David Cameron, told the gathering that Mrs May’s grip on power was ‘clearly limited’ and he ‘could not think of a better leader’ than Mr Davis. In response, Mr Davis insisted his current Cabinet position was his ‘last job’ in politics.
The call to arms has been exposed as allies of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson say they increasingly fear Mr Davis is forming an axis with Chancellor Philip Hammond to run on a joint ticket if Mrs May resigns or is ousted in the coming months.
Although Mr Hammond’s calls for a ‘soft’ Brexit make him unpopular with the Eurosceptic wing of the party, forming an alliance with ‘hard’ Brexiteer Mr Davis as his deputy could defuse this resistance – although Mr Davis’s supporters prefer the idea of Mr Hammond as the junior partner. Either formulation could prove impossible for Mr Johnson to defeat.
Downing Street suspects that Mr Hammond is ‘on manoeuvres’ for the leadership, if only for an interim period until the conclusion of Brexit talks in 2019.
Iraq War veteran Sir Desmond made his incendiary remarks at a drinks party organised by former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson following the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday.
According to two sources present, after Mr Davis had updated the MPs on the progress of Brexit talks, Sir Desmond stood up and said: ‘ The Prime Minister’s time is clearly limited.’
The MP for New Forest West – who wears a homburg hat around Westminster and swims a quarter of a mile in the Serpentine lake every day the Commons is sitting – added: ‘It’s quite clear we will have to think of a successor and I cannot think of a better leader than the person we have just heard speaking.’
His remarks were greeted by applause – described as ‘resounding’ by one source, but ‘more of a smattering’ by another. Mr Davis responded: ‘Thank you, but this is my last job in politics.’
Glum Tory MPs are increasingly talking about whether the so-called ‘ men in grey suits’ in the party should intervene to persuade Mrs May to stand down – as they did with Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
Under this scenario, rather than generate the required 48 letters from Tory MPs to trigger a no-confidence vote, they are debating whether to ask Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, to go and see Mrs May on the eve of the summer recess and request her resignation. A leadership contest could then be held over the summer, with a new Prime Minister in place in time for the party’s annual conference in Manchester in October.
In the wake of the disastrous Election result, Mrs May told the members of the committee that she would ‘ serve for as long as you want me to’.
One MP said: ‘ Theresa is only staying there out of duty. It wouldn’t take more than a slight breeze to dislodge her.’ Another MP said: ‘The mood in the party is as bad as I have ever known it. The past fortnight has been my worst time in the Commons. We can’t carry on like this for two years. It would feel like an eternity. We need a proper summer leadership contest, not a coronation like last year.’
He added: ‘An alternative is that she spends the summer up a mountain, thinking about her future’ – Mrs May is said to have decided to call the Election during a walking holiday with her husband in Wales – ‘but that would leave her in place as a lame duck at conference’.
When Mrs Thatcher narrowly failed to win the first round of her leadership battle in 1990, her colleagues persuaded her to leave Downing Street voluntarily. She later described this as ‘treachery with a smile on its face’.
Mr Johnson’s allies are suspicious about a new warmth they have detected between Mr Davis and Mr Hammond. One said: ‘It looks like some sort of caretaker leadership pact in the making, probably until after Brexit in 2019. If they persuade [Home Secretary] Amber Rudd to join them then they have a possible future leader on the team as well.’
Mr Johnson insisted last week that he would not run for leader until 2019. His pledge came shortly after a disastrous BBC interview in which he stumbled over a series of policy questions. But Tory MPs find it hard to believe that he could resist standing if Mrs May triggered a contest by resigning.
Last night, Sir Desmond said: ‘I sang his [ Davis’s] praises but I prefaced it with the remarks that the current PM is the only person that stands between us and Bolshevism, and it’s absolutely essential that we get behind her and that we have a long period of stability.’
He said he told fellow MPs: ‘But there will come a time when we’ll have a new leader and given what we’ve just heard, I can’t think of a better candidate.’
Sir Desmond added of Mr Davis: ‘In the past, I’ve not been his greatest fan. I campaigned for Cameron when they were head to head. But what’s come over in the last few weeks and months is his genuine enthusiasm and belief that we can make a success of this and his ability to communicate that. That’s what I thought and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying so.’
A spokesman for Mr Davis said: ‘David has nothing to add to what he said at the event, which is that he is loyal to the Prime Minister. He thought it would be polite to update the room on the progress of the Brexit talks.
‘David works closely with Philip on Brexit. He has made clear that he regards any leadership talk as self-indulgent.’
‘Theresa is only staying there out of duty’