May faces plot to oust her ‘in days’
THERESA MAY is facing a potential leadership challenge within days after 50 Tory MPS met last night to discuss how to get rid of her.
Brexiteers plotted to force a noconfidence vote in the Prime Minister, which could come before the Conservative party conference at the end of this month.
Leave supporters are so determined to kill off Mrs May’s Chequers plan for Brexit that they are prepared to oust her if she refuses to change tack.
One MP who was at the meeting said: “If she won’t chuck Chequers then I’m afraid the party will chuck her.”
The plan was hatched just hours after Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Mrs May with the Tory grassroots, launched a fresh attack on the “humiliating” Chequers proposal, which he said was “substantially worse than the status quo”.
Mr Johnson made a surprise appearance at the launch of an alternative Brexit plan by a group of Eurosceptic economists, his first public appearance since disclosures about his private life emerged last week.
He refused to answer questions about possible leadership ambitions, but the timing of any challenge to Mrs May now appears to be out of his hands.
Members of the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexit-supporting Tory MPS are planning to submit letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, calling for a no-confidence vote in Mrs May. The Daily Telegraph understands that 35 letters have been submitted to Sir Graham, just 13 short of the number that would automatically trigger a vote under party rules.
If Mrs May lost a confidence vote, she would be forced to resign.
One MP who was present at the meeting told The Daily Telegraph: “The discussion was around the timing of the confidence vote. There was talk of putting in 20 letters all at once so that we can control the timing.
“The mood in the room surprised me. It was open revolt. Chequers is more unpopular than the poll tax but the Prime Minister is still ploughing on with it.
“We’re now in a position that if she won’t chuck Chequers then I’m afraid the party will chuck her.”
The meeting was the first time ERG members have gathered since they returned to Parliament from the summer recess, and one ERG source said: “People have been speaking to their local party associations over the summer and they have been told that no one wants Chequers. We have to kill Chequers before Chequers kills us.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Sir Graham has the 48 letters before conference at the end of this month.
“The day after the disastrous 2017 general election result, Theresa May said she would serve the party as long as it wants her, but if she survives until conference she will discover that the members don’t want her any more.”
Mrs May has insisted in recent months that she would fight a no-confidence vote if one was triggered, as she believes she has the support of enough MPS to win through.
But another MP who was present at the ERG meeting said: “People were saying ‘we don’t meet anyone who wants her to stay. It would be a disaster if she stayed’.
“I have never seen anything like it. They were placidly going through ‘well how should we get the letters in?’ They were just matter-of-factly talking about this.”
The meeting was chaired by Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, because the group’s leader, Jacob Reesmogg, was unable to attend following a protest outside his London home.