May set to reveal date of her departure from No 10
● Prime Minister expected to lay out timetable for successor to be picked
Theresa May is expected to announce the date of her departure from Downing Street today, sources have revealed.
The Prime Minister is thought to be about to lay out a timetable for her successor to be chosen – with 10 June predicted to herald the star t of the leadership race.
The Prime Minister survived an extraordinary coup attempt on the eve of Europ ean elections ye sterday, naming a new Commons Leader to replace Andrea Leadsom, who resigned from Cabinet on Wednesday night.
But as voters went to the polls in an election that the government had maintained would never happ en, Mrs May was forced to pull her Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), due to be published today, after senior ministers said they could not support her offer of a Commons vote on holding a second EU referendum.
The Prime Minister will today meet the chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to discuss her position. The executive of the 1922 is understood to have
voted in a secret ballot to change party rules, allowing an immediate leadership challenge and sealed their decision to use it as a threat in case Mrs May refuses to commit to resigning by 10 June.
Senior Downing Street staff were reported to have had their leave today cancelled in case of an announcement from the Prime Minister. But a 1922 source told journalists: “My feeling is that she will stay until 10 June.”
It had been thought Mrs May would seek to cling on to power until after Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted the Prime Minister would last for another fort night until the US president’s visit, saying yesterday: “Theresa May will be there to welcome him and rightly so.”
But Mr Hunt became the first Cabinet minister to tell Mrs May to scrap the WAB alto - gether after the Brexit legislation was pulled from the Commons schedule.
It was a “step too far” to ask Tor y MPS to vote for it when it was clear it could not pass the Commons, he told Theresa May.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid also had a “frank discussion” with the Prime Minister about her Brexit plan.
He is understood to have made clear that he does not believe the government should be “paving the way” for a second referendum.
The government had said the WAB would be published to day, and a vote at second reading would take place in the week beginning 3 June.
But the legislation was not announced when the forthcoming Commons agenda was published yesterday, and on the likeliest date for a vote – Friday 7 June – parliament is not currently scheduled to be sitting.
Government whip Mark Spencer, standing in for the ex-Commons Leader Ms Leadsom,t old the Commons :“We will update the House on the publication and introduction of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on our return from the Whitsun recess.”
Mr Spencer indicated that the government did still intend to push for a vote at second reading in the first week of June.
Mrs May’s official spokesman said that agreement on the parliamentary schedule in that week had not yet been reached through the “usual channels” – meaning between party whips.
AD owning Street spokesman added :“The Prime Minister is listening to her colleagues about the bill and will be having further discussions.”
The government also announced that Ms Leadsom was being replaced as Commons Leader by junior Treasury minister Mel Stride.
SNP MP Pete Wishar t said withdrawing the WAB “has confirmed beyond any doubt that this Tory government is in a state of paralysis, completely dysfunctional and unable to get on with the day job”.
Mr Wish art added :“This is the final humiliation for Theresa May, who surely cannot remain in office much longer.”
Ahead of her meeting with Sir Graham Brady, 1922 Committee treasurer Sir Geoffrey Clifton-brown said yesterday: “I want her to give a timetable for when she will go.
“I think this blank denial from Number 10 today may be a smokescreen because she does not want to influence the outcome of the European elections. Maybe she will still quit tomorrow.”
Asked what would happen if the Prime Minister did not announce a resignation date, Sir Geoffrey said: “I think there will be overwhelming pressure for the 22 to change the rules and hold a ballot on confidence in the Prime Minister.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell, the first Cabinet minister to request a meeting with Mrs May on Wednesday over fears a second EU referendum would be exploited by the SNP, was not expected to meet the Prime Minister after returning to his Borders constituency to vote.
Sir David Even nett became the latest Conservati
“This is the final humiliation for Theresa May, who surely cannot remain in office much longer”
PETE WISHART