PM ready to face down 20 leadership plotters
THE leader of backbench Tory MPs has told warring ministers to unite behind Theresa May – or risk handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Sir Graham Brady spoke out amid speculation that up to 20 MPs could stand for the leadership if the Prime Minister were to resign.
Mrs May’s allies have insisted that she will stand firm, and would happily see off any challengers by a single vote.
Sir Graham, the chairman of the 1922 committee, made his plea after a week of Cabinet infighting – and ahead of a crunch Brexit meeting at Chequers.
He said voters would punish the Conservatives if they do not rally behind the PM. But last night Tory MP Jacob ReesMogg, a leading Brexiteer, warned that Mrs May risks the collapse of her Government if she fails to deliver the Brexit she promised. He suggested that he and fellow Eurosceptics could vote against such a deal.
‘Theresa May must stand firm for what she herself has promised,’ he told The Daily Telegraph. ‘One former Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, decided to break his manifesto pledge and passed legislation with
the majority of his party voting the other way. This left the Conservatives out of office for 28 years.’
It came after Sir Graham wrote in The Observer: ‘The danger of disunity at the top of the party is not just that it makes the Prime Minister’s job more difficult in negotiations with Brussels, and therefore puts at risk the good Brexit deal that is in reach, it also gives an impression of division to the country.
‘Electorates these days are volatile, but one thing is certain: they do not vote for divided parties. It’s not just backbench Conservative MPs who expect ministers to pull together behind Theresa May: the great swathe of the electorate expects it too.’
Sir Graham said the PM was winning ‘considerable support around the country for her determined perseverance’. He also accused Labour of making promises to respect the referendum but of playing ‘all the slippery games of opposition’. His comments came ahead of a full Cabinet meeting on Friday at Chequers, at which ministers are expected to hammer out in detail Britain’s approach to the relationship it wants with the EU after Brexit, including on customs,
trade and security. Significant concessions to the EU would heighten speculation about whether one or more Brexiteer Cabinet ministers could resign in protest. Yesterday allies of the PM said she would not be pushed out even if 48 Tory MPs signed a letter to Sir Graham triggering a vote of no confidence. Some had assumed that Mrs May would resign if 100 MPs voted against her, but allies told The Sunday Times that she would be happy to win by one vote – meaning her opponents would need 159 MPs to remove her. Yesterday Mr Rees-Mogg, said those who believed he would be the next Prime Minister were living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’.
Cabinet ministers tipped to stand if Mrs May were to resign include Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Ministers have been told there is no chance of a bespoke trade deal with the EU following Brexit, it was claimed last night.
Mrs May’s chief Brexit negotiator, Oliver Robbins, is said to have briefed colleagues that there is a choice between just two options because the EU is holding firm and under no pressure to soften its stance towards Britain.
The Times claimed ministers were told it would be a straight decision between choosing a Norway- style deal, which would see the UK remain in the single market but operate under EU rules, or go after a plain free-trade agreement which has been criticised by business leaders.
‘Electorates don’t vote for divided parties’