PM’s grassroots activists in plot to force her out

GRASSROOTS Tories are plotting a noconfidence vote in Theresa May.

Constituency activists want to pressure her to stand down by forcing an extraordinary general meeting to allow a vote of party members.

The vote would not be binding on the Prime Minister, but the National Conservative Convention (NCC) would be obliged to hold the meeting if more than 65 Tory association chairmen called for one to be held.

The attempt has been organised by the Conservatives’ London East area chairman, Dinah Glover, who said she was confident of reaching the threshold soon – although would not disclose the number of signatories so far. ‘It’s a snowball; we will definitely meet the numbers and exceed it,’ she said. ‘It has been building for a lot of people.’

She said the delay to Brexit and Mrs May’s negotiations with Jeremy

Corbyn were ‘low points’, and labelled taking part in EU elections as ‘a very public humiliation’.

The motion drafted by Miss Glover says the party ‘no longer feel that Mrs May is the right person to continue as prime minister to lead us forward in the negotiations’.

It adds: ‘We therefore with great reluctance ask that she considers her position and resigns, to allow the Conservative party to choose another leader, and the country to move forward and negotiate our exit from the EU.’ An extraordinary meeting of the NCC – the members’ body made up of about 800 senior party officers – has never been called before.

Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday led calls for Mrs May to stick to her offer to resign next month. The Prime Minister’s offer was conditional on MPs passing her Brexit deal, which has since been defeated for a third time.