Pressure mounts on May as second election touted
LABOUR is looking towards the potential of a second general election with excitement while Theresa May fights for her political life in Downing Street.
George Osborne – the former Chancellor sacked by Mrs May – stamped on any suggestion she will be able to stay in the top job.
He described her a “dead woman walking”, saying it was just a question of “how long she is going to remain on death row”.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn talked up the possibility of another election “later this year or early next year”, insisting the party was “ready any time”.
Former critics applauded Mr Corbyn, with Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock saying he would be “honoured” to serve on his front bench.
Plaid Cymru Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards urged Labour not to push for a second election but to work to keep the UK a full member of the EU single market.
THERESA May has been warned by senior Conservatives that she will never lead the party into another General Election after last week’s humiliation at the ballot box.
Former chancellor George Osborne said the Prime Minister was a “dead woman walking” and could be ousted in a matter of days.
However, Graham Brady, the influential chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said there was no appetite for a leadership contest which could see the party having to fight another General Election.
Mr Osborne, who was sacked by Mrs May when she became Prime Minister and who now edits the London Evening Standard, said it was clear her days in Downing Street were numbered after seeing her Commons majority wiped out in the election.
“Theresa May is a dead woman walking. It is just how long she is going to remain on death row,” he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.
“I think we will know very shortly. We could easily get to the middle of next week and it all collapses for her.”
Former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan, who was also sacked by Mrs May, predicted that there could be a leadership challenge over the summer.
“I think it’s fairly clear Theresa May cannot lead us into another election – of course, we don’t know when that’s going to happen, and I don’t think we should rush that,” she told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.
“But I do think if we’re going to have a leadership contest in the Conservative Party, what we cannot do is have another coronation like last summer.”
Asked about the timing of such a contest, she said: “Much to the upset probably of every journalist who was hoping for a summer off, I suspect it could be over this summer and I think it should involve our party conference as well.”
Former business minister Anna Soubry said Mrs May’s position was “untenable” in the long term but cautioned against a rush to replace her. “I just can’t see how she can continue in any long-term way. I think she will have to go, unfortunately. But not for some time,” she told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
“We need stability, we need to put that sense of the economy and our country and the nation’s interests absolutely at the forefront, none of this messing about behind the scenes.”
Mr Brady said he did not believe there was any mood among Conservative MPs for a leadership contest that would create fresh instability.
“I think that there is zero appetite among the public for another General Election at the moment and I don’t detect any great appetite among my colleagues for presenting the public with an additional dose of uncertainty by getting involved in a rather self-indulgent Conservative Party election campaign,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics.
Mr Brady acknowledged there had been anger within the party at Mrs May’s failure to express any regret for the Tory MPs who lost their seats when she returned to No 10 on Friday to announce she was carrying on at the head of a minority Government.
He confirmed that he had raised the issue with her before she gave an interview later that afternoon in which she said she was “sorry” at what had happened to them.
“Certainly one of the things I was very keen to press home was that in the past the Conservative Party has been very poor in its communications with colleagues who lost their seats in the General Election. I certainly did say it is very important we did better this time,” he said.
Mr Brady said the loss of their Commons majority meant much of the party’s election manifesto would have to be abandoned and that Mrs May would have to present a “slimmed down” Queen’s Speech.
“There is no point in sailing ahead with items that were in the manifesto that we won’t get through parliament. I think we are going to have to work very carefully. I have no doubt that it will be a slimmed-down Queen’s speech and we should concentrate on the bits that really have to be done,” he said.
He later confirmed Mrs May will be attending a meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee this afternoon.
Earlier, Arlene Foster, the leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists (DUP), confirmed she would be meeting Mrs May in Downing Street tomorrow with a view to finalising a deal to prop up a minority Tory government.
She said they had had “very good discussions” in Belfast on Saturday with Conservative chief whip Gavin Williamson, but declined to be drawn on the details.
While the DUP campaigned to leave the EU in last year’s referendum, it has refused to endorse Mrs May’s position that “no deal is better than a bad deal” – insisting that there must be no return of the “hard border” with the Republic.
At the same time Ruth Davidson, leader of the Conservatives in Scotland – where the party reversed the trend in England and gained MPs – has called for a new approach, building cross-party support for an “open Brexit”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond, meanwhile, is reported to have told the Prime Minister that she needed to put “jobs first” in negotiating a
new deal with Brussels, in comments seen as a coded attack on her focus on controlling immigration.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said senior ministers had made clear to Mrs May she operated in the light of the election result.
“We are going to see, I hope, more collective decision-making in the cabinet. I and other senior colleagues have made that clear to her,” he told The Andrew Marr Show.
“I think you will also see that she will want to work much more closely with the parliamentary party, both in the conduct of business and the development of policy.”
While he played down suggestions that would involve rethinking the approach to Brexit, he indicated that there would be a new emphasis on business.
“We want to work with business on this. It is very, very important that we are careful about the existing trade we do with Europe, about access to the single market in whatever new arrangement that we come to,” he said.
Sir Michael did not rule out the possibility of co-operating with the Labour Party over the negotiations.
“I welcome the fact the Labour Party have shifted their view now and do not seem to be calling for a new referendum,” he said.
“They, like us, I hope, now want to have a successful Brexit, an agreement that works for us, that works for the European Union, that does not jeopardise the jobs and trade we do with Europe, but still implements the overall result of the referendum last year.”