Give up, you’ve lost all authority,
● Corbyn tells Prime Minister to let Labour take on negotiations ● Sturgeon attacks government ‘shambles’ after resignations
Theresa May was told to step down following the Cabinet mutiny over Brexit policy, facing taunts from opponents from all parties that she had lost her authority.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Prime Minister of letting a “Tory Party civil war” get in the way of a good Brexit deal and called on her to let Labour take over negotiations with Brussels.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined the attack following the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, saying the meltdown showed the Prime Minister was “ebbing authority by the day”.
Facing Mrs May after she gave a statement to the Commons, Mr Corbyn told the Prime Minister she was presiding over a “crisis” and said the Tories were incapable of “governing and negotiating for Britain”.
The Labour leader said: “For the good of this country and its people, the government needs to get its act together and do it quickly and if it can’t, make way for those who can.”
Ms Sturgeon tweeted in response to Mr Davis’s resignation: “The Chequers unity didn’t last long.
“This UK government is in utter chaos and ebbing authority by the day. What a shambles.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford piled on the pressure, telling the Prime Minister that Mr Johnson “should have been sacked for being a national embarrassment”.
He said: “It is hard to believe that it’s taken the Prime Minister
JEREMY CORBYN two years to put together a proposal … and two days for her Cabinet to fall apart.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the chaos demanded an immediate general election, saying Mrs May had “no authority left”.
“The Prime Minister is in office, but not in power,” he said. “This is not sustainable.
“The Tory crisis makes a Labour government with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister a very real possibility.
“The resignation of David Davis and the chaos at the heart of the Tory government underlines that a general election can happen at any time.
“For Scotland this is the chance to change course, securing billions of investment in our economy and services and away from austerity.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable called on the Prime Minister to back full membership of the EU single market and customs union “now she has lost the support of her Brexit fundamentalists”.
And the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said the chaos in government meant the Article 50 deadline for leaving the EU had to be extended beyond March next year.
He was backed by the Labour chairman of the House of Commons exiting the EU committee, Hilary Benn, who told the Prime Minister in the Commons the post-brexit transition period that runs until December 2020 “will inevitably have to be extended”.
Mr Brake said: “Theresa May has had almost two years to put together a coherent proposal for the future of our country and has wholly failed to do so.
“With just eight months to go before Brexit, and a new ministerial team being inducted, extending Article 50 is the only viable option left for the Conservative government.
“If Theresa May does not act immediately, she will drive the UK right off the Brexit cliff.”
Labour MP Yvette Cooper demanded a full parliamentary debate and vote on the government’s plan for negotiations agreed at Chequers, telling Mrs May: “When she is in such a mess she cannot just keep standing there saying, ‘Nothing has changed, nothing has changed’. It has.”
“For the good of this country and its people, the government needs to get its act together and do it quickly and if it can’t, make way for those who can.”