‘May has set out timetable for her departure’
Prime Minister Theresa May does not need to spell out a timetable for her departure, prisons minister Robert Buckland said, adding the leader had already announced she would leave office after the first phase of Brexit.
May, who offered to quit if her deal to leave the European Union was passed by parliament, is under pressure to detail when she will leave office from angry Conservative lawmakers who want a new leader to try to improve the party’s fortunes.
“The prime minister’s said that she is going to go once the first phase of Brexit has been delivered,” Buckland told Sky News, adding that meant after the deal agreed with the EU in November was ratified by parliament.
“If that can be done quickly, then we have that timetable set out already. I don’t think she needs to say any more about that. What we need to do is to get on with the job,” he said, adding that the deal could be passed in the next few months.
The battle among leading Conservatives to replace Theresa May as prime minister threatens to derail talks with the opposition Labour Party and the bid to find a Brexit compromise, Labour’s John McDonnell said.
McDonnell, Labour’s financial spokesman and a member of the party’s negotiating team, said the situation was precarious.
“The problem they have is that literally in front of us they will fall out,” he told the Sunday Mirror.
“So the exercise here is holding themselves together. And that is proving impossible. The administration is falling apart.”
In terms of progress, the second most powerful man in the Labour Party said nothing new had been put on the table, and in some cases the talks had gone backwards.
“It’s so precarious. We’re dealing with an institution that might not be there in three weeks.” He said the talks had been made more difficult by May’s offer to resign because a new leader could rip up anything agreed by the current administration. – Reuters