Ruling party’s split on Brexit puts heat on prime minister

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May’s brief summer vacation from Brexit battles came to a noisy end Monday, as she faced attack from both sides of her divided Conservative Party.

Archrival Boris Johnson inflamed speculation that he aims to oust May by branding her plan for Brexit “a disaster.” Johnson fumed in a newspaper column that May’s proposal to retain close economic ties with the European Union after Brexit would leave Britain locked in the trunk of a Brussels-driven car with “no say on the destination.”

Meanwhile, a more pro-EU Conservative faction argued that Britain should keep even closer bonds with the bloc than May is proposing, at least temporarily.

Lawmaker Damian Green, an ally of May, conceded the prime minister was in a tight spot. “The government is walking a narrow path with people chucking rocks from both sides,” he told the BBC.

Johnson, who resigned as foreign secretary in July after feuding with May over Brexit, used his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph to accuse May of surrendering to the EU in divorce negotiations.

Johnson said that Britain has “gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank” and had agreed to pay a 40 billion pound ($51 billion) divorce bill in return “for two-thirds of diddly squat.”

Britain is due to leave the EU in March, but negotiations have stalled amid divisions within May’s Conservative government over how close an economic relationship to seek with EU.

A proposal hammered out by May’s Cabinet in July proposes keeping the U.K. aligned to EU regulations in return for free trade in goods.

May’s official spokesman, James Slack, dismissed Johnson’s attack, saying there were “no new ideas in this article to respond to.”

“What we need at this time is serious leadership with a serious plan and that’s exactly what the country has with this prime minister and this Brexit plan,” he said.