‘We can’t bury our heads in the
party’s annual conference in Manchester not to act against Mrs May.
But after the snap election disaster and mishaps during her party conference speech, Mr Shapps said: “We can’t just carry on when things are not working out. The solution isn’t to bury our heads in the sand and just hope things will get better.
“It never worked out for Brown or Major and I don’t think it is going to work out here either.”
Cabinet ministers, including Michael Gove and Amber Rudd, and many MPs rallied around Mrs May as she faced the revolt from both sides of the Brexit debate.
It was not yet clear how many more rebels would join Mr Shapps in going public to call for Mrs May to fall on her sword. However, another former Cabinet minister said: “People are very worried.
“There is an awful lot of personal sympathy for her but that is tempered with a feeling that we simply can’t carry on like this.”
Another senior Tory MP said: “She has probably got one more crisis to finish her off. She is fatally wounded and has lost all authority. She should go.”
Mr Shapps described Mrs May as a “very decent woman” and praised her for the start of her premiership. “But the truth is we have fought and ended up in a bad position after the election and it leads to damaged leadership,” he added, referring to Boris Johnson’s laying down his personal red lines on Brexit.
“We have spoken to people from the Cabinet and one or two privately agree.”
However, Environment Secretary Mr Gove, who famously torpedoed Mr Johnson’s leadership bid last year, came to Mrs May’s defence.
He claimed that the “overwhelming majority” of Tory MPs — including the “entirety” of the Cabinet — wanted her to carry on.
“She showed an amazing degree of resilience and courage this week,” he
added, after comedian Simon Brodkin breached security to hand Mrs May a mock P45 during her keynote speech during the Tory annual rally in Manchester and she struggled through the address with coughing fits.
Home Secretary Mrs Rudd also went on the offensive to protect Mrs May while Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the powerful Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said the attempt to force her out lacked credibility and was set to fail.
“Grant has many talents but the one thing he doesn’t have is a following in the party. I really think this is now just going to fizzle out,” he added.
Forty-eight MPs are needed to trigger a vote of no confidence in Mrs May though Mr Shapps made it clear that the plotters thought that even 30 rebels may have forced her hand.
Meanwhile, the uncertainty around Westminster saw sterling fall 0.34 per cent against the dollar to $1.307 midmorning and by 0.25 per cent against the euro to €1.117 ahead of the next round of Brexit talks.