PM ‘could stay if she loses vote’

THERESA May could ‘soldier on’ in Downing Street indefinitely if her Brexit deal is defeated, a close ally said yesterday.

In a dramatic gamble on Wednesday night, she told Tory MPs she was ready to quit this summer if her twice-defeated Brexit deal is finally approved in in the Commons.

Using that timetable she would resign as Tory leader on May 23, remaining as PM only until the party selects a new leader. But Downing Street indicated that her offer applied only if her deal gets through in the coming weeks. And Damian Green, who served as Mrs May’s deputy, predicted she would try to cling on, at least until Britain’s divorce from the EU is finalised.

With speculation mounting that the Brexit crisis could spark a snap election, Mrs May could even find herself leading the Tories into another poll.

Mr Green, a friend of Mrs May’s since university days, said: ‘She will take the path of soldiering on because she sees the great duty of her and her Government is to get a Brexit deal. She will carry on for as long as she is Prime Minister doing that.

‘Absolutely the last thing the country would need now would be a Prime Minister who walked away and said “OK, choose someone else”. This is very serious.’

Addressing the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs on Wednesday night, the Prime Minister acknowledged there was ‘a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations – and I won’t stand in the way of that’.

She was silent on what would happen if her deal failed to get through for a third time.