MAY’S GAME OF CRONIES
Tory leadership fight hots up as PM goes on holiday
THE battle to replace Theresa May stepped up yesterday after the Prime Minister left for a hillwalking holiday in Wales.
A string of senior Tories jostled to parade their leadership credentials while Mrs May was away from No10.
Downing Street aides insisted she had no plans to repeat her fateful decision to call a snap election while on holiday two years ago.
But with fury among Brexiteers growing, the PM could still face a challenge.
Senior Tories are said to have agreed to review party rules stopping PMs facing more than one no confidence vote in 12 months.
Three potential successors – Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and HIGH DRAMA Dominic Raab’s tweet Boris Johnson – yesterday set out their bids for the crown. In a speech on violent crime, Home Secretary Mr Javid referenced his own tough upbringing. He said: “Instead of ending up in the Cabinet, I could have been taken into a life of crime myself.”
Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt urged colleagues not to get “sidetracked” into a debate about the PM’s future. But he warned she could struggle to hang on to power if she cannot get her Brexit deal through before European elections on May 23.
“That would be a very serious situation – I don’t pretend otherwise – but we aren’t at that point,” he said.
Mr Johnson said that after the UK got through Brexit a “pent-up tide of Tory ideas” would flood the country.
Another possible contender, ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, referenced the tussle for power in TV show Games Of Throne, hinting that outsiders should not be written off.
He tweeted: “I’m not alone in backing Arya. It’s never the favourite.”
Yet many of Mrs May’s main rivals do not want the job until the toxic issue of the EU divorce deal is settled.