May’s leadership relaunch hit by new speculation on future

THERESA May’s attempt to relaunch her leadership around her first anniversary in office has been undermined by a fresh wave of speculation about her survival.

The Prime Minister will use a speech tomorrow to stress her “determination” to deliver Brexit and the programme of social reform she first announced a year ago in Downing Street.

She will say she has an “unshakeable sense of purpose” to build a stronger, fairer nation and her “commitment to change in Britain is undimmed”, despite losing her Commons majority.

“I am convinced that the path that I set out in that first speech outside Number 10 and upon which we have set ourselves as a government remains the right one,” she will say.

Acknowledging the election result was “not what I wanted”, she will try to reach out to other parties in the Commons by asking for ideas on tackling the country’s challenges.

“We may not agree on everything, but through debate and discussion… ideas can be clarified and improved and a better way forward found,” she will add.

The SNP Government said that if she was serious about consensus she should give Scotland a seat at the Brexit negotiations.

However, Mrs May’s bid to reassert her authority before Thursday’s publication of the EU Repeal Bill has been hurt by a former Cabinet minister saying she has to go.

Andrew Mitchell, a close friend of Brexit Secretary David Davis, a potential replacement for Mrs May, was reported saying she was “dead in the water”.

The former international development secretary, who was Mr Davis’s campaign manager for the Tory leadership in 2005, was reported to have told a group of Tory MPs his view on June 26, after Mrs May struck a deal with the DUP to keep her minority government afloat.

The Mail on Sunday quoted an MP at the One Nation Commons dining club saying: “Mr Mitchell effectively said she was dead in the water.

“He said she was weak, had lost her authority, couldn’t go on and we needed a new leader. Some of us were very surprised and disagreed with him.”

Mr Mitchell downplayed the remarks but did not deny making them, saying: “This is an overheated report of a private dinner conversation.”

Grant Shapps, the former Conservative Party chairman, also wrote in a newspaper article that Mrs May needed a “completely different model to remain in power” after relying too heavily on a team with a “dysfunctional, arrogant and corrosive attitude”.

Mrs May was criticised in her first year for being cut off in Number 10 by her feared special advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, who quit after the election after being branded “toxic”.

Ms Shapps said: “She must throw open Downing Street to welcome innovative ideas, listen to business and make better use of the party’s broad talent in parliament and further afield.”

There were also reports a small group of Tory MPs wanted Mrs May to quit ahead of the Tory party’s autumn conference, despite the risk of a general election that Labour might win.

But Justice Secretary David Lidington said “summer parties” and “too much warm Prosecco” were behind the leadership rumours.

SNP Brexit minister Michael Russell said: “If the Prime Minister is genuinely interested in creating a consensus then Scotland should have a seat at the negotiations to leave the EU.

“Single market membership, whether for the UK or Scotland, must now be back on the table.”

Ideas can be clarified and improved and a better way forward found