48 hours that left May clinging
Britain’s Prime Minister faces toughest challenge of leadership
Leaving Chequers on Saturday NZT, Britain’s Prime Minister could be forgiven for thinking she had got away with it, albeit by the skin of her teeth.
Having secured the agreement of most of the Cabinet for her Brexit plan, despite criticism from Boris Johnson and David Davis, she had seen out the week without any resignations.
But today she faces the toughest challenge of her time in Downing Street to date.
The resignations of two of her most senior Cabinet ministers comes amid growing talk of a leadership challenge. There are also claims she may struggle to get Brexit legislation through Parliament, as her now free former ministers exert pressure from the backbenches. Talk of a possible coup has shifted from tea-room whisper to a real possibility.
It began with a growing sense of unease in Number 10 after the meeting at Chequers broke up. Davis had openly challenged May and her new deal for Brussels in front of other ministers. Earlier he had penned a letter, warning that European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier would reject her proposed customs arrangement out of hand.
Having failed to convince her to reconsider, Davis left his colleagues in no doubt about the scale of the climbdown being offered, and there was a sense he could be on the brink of walking out.
As the Cabinet were driven home in their ministerial cars, pro-Brexit Tory MPs were scathing about the plan and the grumbling grew louder. Some were furious that the Brexit and Foreign Secretaries had failed to resign after it became apparent that the deal could seriously hamper the UK’s ability to strike new free trade deals.
Others were stung by a sense of betrayal. May’s White Paper revealed concessions to the EU they thought had been taken off the table months ago. Yet, the dam did not burst.
As May and her aides gathered to deconstruct the day before, there was still a sense that the Cabinet may hold together. Ministers Chris Grayling and Philip Hammond penned a joint newspaper opinion piece and Michael Gove agreed to defend the deal on the political television shows. But the pressure rose again as sources threatened a leadership battle in the morning newspapers and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the pro-Brexit Tory group, threatened to vote down the deal in Parliament.
Davis discussed leaving government with his wife and political friends at the weekend. On Monday NZT, he met the chief whip in Westminster, spoke to May on the phone and it was all over. Steve Baker, a Brexit minister, became the second to leave. Rumours began to swirl of a coordinated scheme to challenge the leadership as thoughts turned to Boris Johnson.
The Foreign Secretary failed to turn up to a meeting of Cobra, then cancelled a lunch at the Western Balkans summit, which he was due to host. Johnson’s advisers stopped answering their phones, then it emerged the Foreign Secretary was holed up in his official residence with his closest aides, where he was reported to be considering his options. A live TV feed outside showed his ministerial car waiting to take him to the meeting. Sources said he told his driver three times he was ready to leave and three times failed to get into the vehicle.
Then, as May was being driven to the House of Commons, a short statement dropped into the in-boxes of political journalists, reading: “This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work.” In a move designed to deprive him of the chance to announce his decision himself, the Prime Minister had released the news before he had finished writing his resignation statement.
Even so, as she stood in the House of Commons, the mood was sombre. Conservative MPs were glued to their phones amid claims more ministers could resign.
May left the chamber to face down her MPs at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, amid claims 48 of her own party had submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her. One MP told her that “the 17 million people who voted to leave would feel betrayed and they feel very strongly about it”.
Johnson told May the Brexit “dream is dying, suffocated by self-doubt” and accused her of raising the “white flag” of surrender to the EU. Under May’s Brexit plan, Johnson predicted that “we are truly headed for the status of a colony”. May told Johnson she was “sorry, and a little surprised” by his departure, “after the productive discussions we had at Chequers”. But she added that “it is right that you should step down” if he could not support her Brexit deal.
Johnson’s departure was the most dramatic ministerial resignation since Geoffrey Howe quit as deputy prime
minister in 1990, bringing about the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.
May replaced him as Foreign Secretary with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Dominic Raab was promoted to Brexit Secretary from housing minister.
May insisted she would stay and fight for re-election should MPs force a no-confidence vote. But the resignations acted as a rallying call to Brexiteers who have vowed to do whatever it takes to kill off the Chequers agreement. Sources in the European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Tory MPs claimed they had other ministers “lined up” to resign one by one until May was forced to tear up her plans.
Even if May survives as Prime Minister, her chances of getting her Brexit deal through Parliament were diminishing by the hour as more and more Conservative MPs voiced their opposition, and Labour said they would not support the plan.
May’s predicament was openly mocked in Brussels. Donald Tusk, the European Council President, said: “I can only regret that the idea of Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson. But . . . who knows?”
Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip, said that he was ready to return as the party’s leader if the Brexit process was not “back on track” by March next year. He called on Tory MPs to send confidence letters to oust the “appalling” May.
At the meeting with her MPs, May was unapologetic about her decision to pursue her plan, saying: “To lead is to decide.”