May vows to stay despite backlash
THERESA May has vowed to fight on and deliver Brexit, after one of the toughest days of her premiership saw her hit by four ministerial resignations and a wave of demands for her removal as Prime Minister.
Dominic Raab and Esther McVey sensationally walked out of Mrs May’s Cabinet, while leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg declared he had no confidence in her leadership amid a furious backlash against her plans for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
During three hours of questioning in the House of Commons, the PM faced Tory backbench accusations that the Brexit deal agreed by Cabinet on Wednesday was “dead on arrival” and would never survive a parliamentary vote expected next month.
Only a handful of her own MPs spoke up in favour of the plan, denounced by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a “half-baked deal” which did not meet the six tests his party had set for it to get their support.
But in a defiant press conference in 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister insisted she would “see this through”.
Standing before a pair of Union flags, Mrs May compared herself to her stubborn but effective cricketing hero as she told reporters: “What do you know about Geoffrey Boycott? Geoffrey Boycott stuck to it and he got the runs in the end.”
Her appearance came at the end of a chaotic day in which the value of the pound plunged amid widespread doubts over whether Mrs May could deliver her deal or would even be able to cling on to power.
Mr Raab – the man chosen in July to represent Mrs May in negotiations with Brussels – quit as Brexit Secretary, warning the deal represented a “very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom” because of provisions for Northern Ireland.
And Ms McVey resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary, telling the PM she could not defend the agreement.
Two more junior ministers – Suella Braverman at the Brexit department and Shailesh Vara at Northern Ireland – also quit, and Mrs May also lost two parliamentary private secretaries and a vice-chairman of the party.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, dramatically announced that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Mrs May’s leadership, declaring that her deal “turned out to be worse than anticipated”.
His move is expected to be matched by other ERG members, raising expectations that the tally of letters to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, may soon pass the threshold of 48 which would trigger a confidence vote.
But at a press conference, Mrs May said: “I believe with every fibre of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people.”
The developments threaten to derail the Prime Minister’s Brexit strategy ahead of a crucial EU summit, which European Council president Donald Tusk confirmed would take place on November 25, “if nothing extraordinary happens”.