Premier says she’s in firm control

LONDON — Beleaguered British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted Friday that she is in firm control of her Conservative government, after a party lawmaker said he had a list of 30 colleagues who want her to resign.

It was the latest challenge to the leadership of May, who gambled away her party’s majority in Parliament by calling a snap June election, then slogged through a mishap-marred speech to party members earlier this week.

“What the country needs is calm leadership, and that’s what I am providing with the full support of my Cabinet,” May declared Friday.

While many colleagues declared their support for May, Grant Shapps, a former Conservative party chairman, said “a growing number of people feel it’s time to make a change.”

The number of rebels falls short of the 48 lawmakers needed to trigger a formal leadership challenge under party rules, but the plot further rattles May’s shaky grip on power.

May became prime minister through a Conservative leadership contest when former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned in the wake of Britain’s June 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

Since then she has struggled to unite a government that is divided over how the country should leave the EU and what relationship it wants with the bloc after Brexit.

May was further weakened when she called a snap election that saw the Conservatives reduced to a minority government. A speech designed to reinvigorate the party descended into disaster this week as May was interrupted by a prankster and almost silenced by a sore throat. As she finally neared her conclusion, letters began dropping off the backdrop behind her.