Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Her future in question, U.K. leader aims for deal
LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May reshuffled her Cabinet a bit Sunday and mostly kept out of the public eye as she worked to strike a deal with a small party of hardright unionists in Northern Ireland to prop up her government, which lacks a majority in Parliament.
As May and her representatives wrangled with the Democratic Unionist Party, based in Belfast, her fellow Tories were grumbling that the Conservative prime minister had not only bungled the campaign but was performing poorly in the days after its surprising conclusion Thursday.
On the Sunday talk shows in Britain, former Tory Chancellor George Osborne, now editor of the Evening Standard and a critic of the prime minister, called May “a dead woman walking” and suggested that she would be out of office by next year.
Anna Soubry, a Conservative member of Parliament, said she could not predict when May might go but called the prime minister’s position “untenable.”
Other Tories, while avoiding such assessments, were more forthright in predicting that the prime minister is unlikely to lead the Conservative Party in any future elections.
Formal Brexit talks are scheduled to start June 19, the same day as the Queen’s Speech, to be delivered by Queen Elizabeth II from the throne of the House of Lords. The speech, written by May’s ministers, includes a list of the laws the government hopes to get approved by Parliament over the coming year.
Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who pushed for Britain to leave the E.U. but has been absent from the public stage since the election, denied news accounts that he was maneuvering to replace May.
Johnson said he is backing May. “Let’s get on with the job,” he tweeted.
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon disagreed Sunday that May was mortally wounded and said he expected the Tory members of Parliament to support her this week.
May’s main opponent, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, appeared on the Sunday talk shows, too, looking either “serene” or “smug” — depending on the commentator’s opinion. Labour came out of Thursday’s election with a substantial growth spurt.
Corbyn said it is “quite possible” that there will be another election this year or early next year. “We cannot continue like this,” he said, predicting that even a loose alliance between the Conservatives and the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland cannot endure.
Another top Labour leader, John McDonnell, said Sunday that May’s partnership with the Irish unionists will be a “coalition of chaos.”
On Saturday evening, the prime minister’s office suggested a deal had been struck for a “confidence and supply” agreement with the DUP, a socially conservative and traditionalist movement. Downing Street said the deal would be revealed Monday to the Cabinet.
But Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, said, “Discussions will continue (this) week to work on the details and to reach agreement on arrangements for the new Parliament.”
One of the prime minister’s representatives then put out another statement, explaining that no final deal had been struck and suggesting that talks will drag into this week.
Tories said the deal with DUP should be completed this week and will include an economic aid package for Northern Ireland and the promise that there would be no referendum on the question of unifying Northern Ireland — a part of the United Kingdom along with England, Scotland and Wales — with the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign nation and a member of the European Union.
On Sunday, May named her Cabinet. Most of the ministers remained in their seats. A few were demoted; a few rose. “More reappointment than reshuffle, but it looks like business as usual for a prime minister and maybe that’s partly the point,” tweeted the BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins.