May is warned backbenchers want her out by summer break
CONSERVATIVE MPs want a new leader before October’s party conference, Theresa May was told last night.
Sources said backbench shop steward Sir Graham Brady told the PM that MPs want her to quit before the summer break.
This would allow time for an ‘orderly transition’, with a new leader in place when the political year restarts in the autumn.
Sir Graham, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, is said to have proposed the deadline during face-to-face talks with Mrs May last night.
He is said to have warned her that, in the wake of last week’s disastrous local elections, Tory MPs are agitating again for her to set out a timetable for departure.
The PM said in March that she was willing to step down this month if MPs passed her Brexit deal. But allies last night indicated that she remains determined to take Britain out of the EU before she steps aside.
One said: ‘The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to see us through the first phase of Brexit. That remains the case.’
Eurosceptic MPs yesterday stepped up calls for Mrs May to go. Sir Bill Cash said: ‘The time has come for her to resign. She needs to be given a date. The sooner the better. But it needs to be done in an orderly manner.’
Former Tory vice-chairman Rehman Chishti said it was now time for Mrs May to make a ‘dignified exit’. ‘We need to look at the timeline for a swift departure so we can move on,’ he added.
But senior Tory MP Charles Walker said Eurosceptic hardliners were to blame for the failure to leave the EU – and should now consider leaving the Conservative Party. Mr Walker, vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, said that 28 so-called Brexit ‘Spartans’, along with six diehard Remainers who voted against Mrs May’s deal at every stage, should consider finding a party that ‘better reflects their views’.
He urged hardliners to ‘stop making all our lives miserable and difficult and go find another party.’ He added: ‘There are colleagues who have suggested the Prime Minister should go, the Prime Minister has said that she wants to leave early in her premiership, but she doesn’t want to leave this God Almighty mess.
‘I think there’s a blame displacement process going on within the Conservative Party at the moment, laying it all on her shoulders. We all need to take personal responsibility for the fact that we are still in the EU and that we are in government.’
Neither Downing Street nor Sir Graham would comment on the meeting last night. Sir Graham is expected to report back to the 1922 Committee tonight.
No 10 has denied reports that it would take legal action to prevent a change in the Tories’ leadership rules.