I would stand for leader, says Mcvey, as she calls PM’S position ‘very dubious’
THERESA MAY should make a “dignified departure”, says former Cabinet minister Esther Mcvey, who confirmed yesterday that she was prepared to stand for the Tory leadership.
The former work and pensions secretary said the collapse in Cabinet discipline had made the Prime Minister’s position “very dubious” and she should consider setting out a timetable for her departure by the summer in order to get her Brexit deal through Parliament.
“What is best for her is, really only she knows, but what I do know is we as a party want to be able to thank her,” Ms Mcvey told the BBC.
“She needs a dignified departure, so however that works best for her. She’s done so much to try and get this through, even though we’re not on the same side of the argument, we are Tories.”
Ms Mcvey said Mrs May had “made life very difficult for herself ” by agreeing to an extension of Article 50 after having said more than 100 times that Britain would leave the EU on March 29.
She said the ministers who abstained over no deal in face of a three-line whip should have resigned their positions. “By defying collective responsibility, they have made life very difficult for her,” she told Sky News. “They are making the Prime Minister’s position very dubious.”
Asked if Mrs May should set out a timetable for her departure to get her deal through, Ms Mcvey who resigned from the Cabinet in protest at the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, said: “She will have to think about that herself.”
Ms Mcvey confirmed, however, she would now support Mrs May’s “bad” deal because “no deal” was off the table and there was a risk of “no Brexit whatsoever”, but she said the “feeble” negotiators who handled it should go.
Asked if she would stand in a leadership election, Ms Mcvey said: “If there were enough people who supported me and there seemed to be a reasonable chance, I would.”
Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, said there needed to be “a change of leadership” in order for him to support the deal, saying the party needed “a new face and a new team to take us forward to the future relationship”.
Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, acknowledged Mrs May would quit if it was “in the best interests of the country” but played down suggestions that it was on the agenda. He said: “She absolutely is a kind of person who will always do what she thinks is in the best interests of the country. She’s a person with a very strong moral streak to everything she does and she will always do, I’m sure, what she feels is in Britain’s best interest.”
However, asked if she was going to stand down, he said: “The Prime Minister has already said to the Conservative Party that she will not lead the party into the next General Election in 2022. So she’s already made that clear.”
Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, indicated Mrs May could still lead the party in to a snap general election if there was an “emergency situation”. A threatened no-confidence motion by Labour – which Jeremy Corbyn indicated the party would table if Mrs May lost a third vote on her Brexit deal – could be backed by between six and 20 hardline Brexiteer Conservative MPS. The group, many of whom are standing down at the general election and are vehemently opposed to an extension of Article 50, have been dubbed the “suicide squad” because they would be instantly deselected.
The influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers has been urged to intervene amid growing anger at the breakdown in Cabinet discipline. Brexiteer MPS are furious at Remain Cabinet ministers who abstained over a vote that would have kept no deal on the table.