‘Hypocrisy’ of Tories who’ve put the knife in

TORY leadership candidates were branded hypocrites last night for praising Theresa May after her resignation.

They lined up to laud her dignity and sense of duty – despite spending the previous weeks doing their best to unseat her.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called her a ‘true public servant’, a day after telling her he was withdrawing his support for her Brexit deal.

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the leadership race, thanked the PM for her ‘stoical service’ on Twitter. The message was retweeted by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, with the comment: ‘What a hypocrite.’

And Andrea Leadsom said she wished Mrs May all the best, just two days after bringing her premiership to the brink by resigning as Leader of the Commons over Brexit.

The string of messages wishing her well was criticised by Angela Rayner, Labour’s education spokesman. She tweeted: ‘The sight of sycophantic Tory wannabe leaders lining up to heap praise on the PM for her courageous and stoic leadership is nauseating, many of these potential Tory leadership candidates have been persistently undermining the PM for such a long time waiting for this day to arrive.’

Last week, while Mrs May was still trying to get her withdrawal deal approved by the Commons, Mr Johnson said he would stand in a leadership contest.

But yesterday the former foreign secretary praised her ‘dignified’ exit, tweeting: ‘It is now time to follow her urgings: to come together and deliver Brexit.’ Labour MP Steve Reed said: ‘ You created this whole mess then knifed the woman who failed to clear it up, your self-serving hypocrisy

‘You created this whole mess’