UPDATE: Official Statement:
Following meetings of the 1922 Executive Committee and the Conservative Party Board today, the rules on how the Conservative Party leadership contest will proceed have been agreed.
UPDATE: Official Statement:
Following meetings of the 1922 Executive Committee and the Conservative Party Board today, the rules on how the Conservative Party leadership contest will proceed have been agreed.
(Updated: 24th May 2019, 2:35 am)
In a last-ditch bid to buy more time for her Brexit deal, the PM is set to refuse spiralling Brexiteer demands to quit immediately despite losing much of her Cabinet’s support, allies say.
– Mrs May will begin the day with a meeting with the Tories‘ backbench 1922 shop steward Sir Graham Brady
– She is then expected to address the nation from Downing Street to explain why she is leaving ‚the job I love‘
However sources said meetings with senior ministers were postponed because Mrs May was having her regular audience with the Queen, who she was expected to brief on her intentions.
Theresa May is still clinging onto power after the executive of the 1922 Committee failed to agree a rule change which would allow a fresh bid to oust her.
– Theresa May’s plan to bring forward new Brexit Bill is in tatters after repeated attempts to woo Labour MPs
– Her chances of getting the deal through are fading as Tories voice opposition with 65-plus set to rebel
– Michael Gove has refused to guarantee that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill would come to the Commons
– Tory 1922 committee is meeting at 4pm – after PM faces Commons – with members pledging to topple her
Theresa May’s premiership is on the brink amid a full-scale revolt over her new Brexit deal, with Tory MPs calling for a change in the party rules to facilitate a leadership challenge.
As Mrs May faces her final battle:
– Tory grandees threaten to change party rules so the leader can be removed immediately
– Fed-up backbenchers said she should go now and leave Brexit to her successor
– The PM’s DUP allies warned she is leaving Britain at the mercy of the EU
– Even Mrs May’s most loyal MPs said she should scrap the planned vote on her deal
Environment Secretary Michael Gove gave an apparent hint that a big Commons vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, due in the week of June 3, should be pulled.
Sources said several Cabinet ministers agreed with him that the vital Bill should be kept back for a new Tory leader to manage.
A long-standing – but not usually a very public – critic likened me to a spectator at the guillotine as I stalked the commons corridors.
I asked him when he felt the political blade would fall on Theresa May’s premiership.
With a smile, he said: „Soon – very soon.“
Mrs May will meet Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, to set out a timetable for her departure after the second reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week beginning June 3, he said today.
Brexiteer Sir Graham told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster programme: “I’ve heard people suggest I would be an interim Prime Minister.
“My simple answer to that is I don’t think we need an interim Prime Minister.
“I don’t think the British people want people to be stepping in to do interim jobs. I think they’re be looking to chose someone for the long term.”
– Sir Graham Brady suggested she could introduce the Withdrawal Agreement Bill – in the ’near future‘
– But some Tories believe the decision will see her caught in a trap if it fails to pass
– Tories fear a hammering at European elections at hands of the new Brexit Party
– Some officials believe they will get less than 10 per cent of the vote on May 23
George Osborne tells Sky News he thinks the time has come for a new leader and new mandate in the Conservative Party.George Osborne tells Sky News he thinks the time has come for a new leader and new mandate in the Conservative Party.
(24.04.2019)
Sir Graham Brady has told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that there is not yet „public clarity“ on when the prime minister will leave office.
July is no good, there won’t be a Conservative Party that is resueable by then, the 1922 Committee are, in Thatchers words FRIT. Mrs May has to go NOW, tomorrow would not be soon enough!
The Labour MP accused the Conservative Party rules of forcing a form of „dictatorship“ on Parliament as nothing can be done to oust the Prime Minister before the end of the year. Ms Hoey urged Theresa May to resign from her post as soon as possible in the best interest of the country and to help find a solution to the Brexit impasse.
Theresa May is to meet the chairman of an influential committee of backbench Tory MPs, Sir Graham Brady, amid calls for her to set a firm resignation date.
It follows a request from the 1922 Committee for „clarity“ on the issue.
Some even urged Sir Graham to quote the iconic line from the final episode of Line of Duty, where DI Kate Fleming AC-3 officer DI Michelle Brandyce to “stop making a t*t of yourself and p**s off”.
The PM’s response to Sir Graham will be vital and he will then report back to the 1922 committee tomorrow.
Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, is expected to meet Ms May on Tuesday to again urge her to set a date for her departure.
If she refuses, they will consider rewriting the rules to allow a fresh vote of no confidence this summer – a move the 1922 stepped back from last month.
Mr Brady met privately with the PM before the committee talks, which began yesterday.
Some 1922 Committee members want to change rules to allow second no-confidence vote
The new Independent Group of MPs has agreed to back Theresa May in any vote of no confidence, one of its most prominent members has said.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, former Conservative MP Heidi Allen said the group – which also consists of eight Labour MPs – had decided not to do anything that would facilitate a general election.
Sources within the 1922 Committee suggest that there is a fair chance the executive will endorse a rule change tonight allowing a fresh challenge if a third of the parliamentary party indicates they will support it – effectively raising the threshold in terms of numbers of MPs required and removing the one challenge-a-year rule. Alternatively the 12 month challenge delay period could be reduced to six months – meaning the next leadership challenge would be on from June 3rd.
Theresa May should announce her resignation as prime minister „today“ in order to break the Brexit impasse, a senior Conservative has said.
Nigel Evans, secretary of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, told the Today programme that new leadership was needed, warning that the process „can’t start soon enough“.
…
Sources said the MPs believe desperate action is needed before Downing Street thrashes out a soft Brexit compromise with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. One said: “They’re saying this is about the survival of the party itself.”
The ballot wouldn’t be officially binding – but if Mrs May lost it could speed up her departure from No10.
The Prime Minister made a personal plea to her backbenchers to support a plan to renegotiate the Northern Irish backstop, but Eurosceptics refused on the grounds that it would not be legally binding.
On Monday night Downing Street frantically tried to claw back support by telling Brexiteers Mrs May will seek to reopen the EU Withdrawal…
Die Schwelle für die erforderliche Zahl an konservativen Abgeordneten sei erreicht worden.
There is nothing more dangerous and self-defeating in politics, as in every other area of life, than the inability to discern the true significance of events, viewing them instead through a prism of self-interest, groupthink and partisanship. That is the problem currently blinding all those in the Westminster bubble.
As the Prime Minister continues to face pressure over her leadership, the county’s MPs – like the rest of the country – are split on whether the deal delivers what the government promised.
But only one has decided to join those who have called for a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister by submitting a formal letter to the chairman of the 1922 committee Graham Brady – the MP for Gravesham Adam Holloway.
MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party are expected to abstain for a second time on crucial Budget votes in the Commons in protest at Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
It comes after Eurosceptics in the party faced questions over the apparent collapse of their efforts to trigger a no confidence in the prime minister.