PM put under pressure to quit by her own MPS amid fallout from her failures
THERESA MAY yesterday faced renewed pressure to resign as Tory MPS warned they could support a vote of no confidence in the Government.
George Freeman, a Tory former minister, suggested a pledge from the Prime Minister to quit could persuade Brexiteers to support her deal.
But Sir Christopher Chope, the veteran Eurosceptic Tory MP, said Mrs May’s handling of Brexit meant he would now “seriously consider” voting to bring down the Government.
Mrs May’s grip on power has been significantly weakened in recent days after she was rocked by successive Brexit defeats.
The decision by a handful of Cabinet ministers to openly defy Mrs May on Wednesday in order to ensure a nodeal divorce from the EU was taken off the table prompted accusations that she had lost control of her Government.
Sir Christopher was asked in the House of Commons if he would now support a motion of no confidence in the Government and he replied: “Frankly, I would seriously consider that issue because it seems to me that I expressed no confidence in the Prime Minister when we had a vote within our own parliamentary party.
“My considered opinion now is that were a similar vote to be held of the Prime Minister there would be an overwhelming vote against the Prime Minister and an expression of no confidence in the Prime Minister.”
He said that if Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, brought forward such a vote disaffected Tory MPS who “feel that they are being betrayed” would have to “look carefully” at it.
Mrs May has faced calls from her own backbenchers to quit before and those calls reignited yesterday amid suggestions it could be the only way to get her deal over the line.
Mr Freeman, a Tory backbencher who campaigned for Remain, said Mrs May should now pledge to step aside.
He said: “Brexit is like a revolution that’s now eating its children, and that’s why I’ve said this morning that I think there’s so little trust left in the tank, that the 70 or so Conservatives who can’t be persuaded to vote for her withdrawal, because they can’t get the reassurance they need, the risks they see in the deal, they don’t believe the reassurances they’re given.
“Unfortunately I think the Prime Minister’s reached the point where she regrettably has got to say, ‘if that’s your fear, then vote for it and I’ll let you choose a new leader’.
“I think that’s now where we are.” Mark Francois, a Tory Brexiteer, said Mrs May’s “authority is seeping away” and it was time for her to ask herself: “Are you really in power? Are you really in office?”
Meanwhile, Nigel Evans, the joint executive secretary of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPS, said Mrs May needed to move swiftly to regain control of her party.
“Her authority was openly defied by Cabinet ministers and other ministers,” he said. “She needs to reassert her authority.”
‘The Conservatives who can’t be persuaded to vote for her withdrawal, don’t believe the reassurances they’re given’