May Faces Coup in Her Party Over Agreeing on Brexit Deal With Labour – Reports
AP Photo /Frank Augstein
The prime minister, unsuccessfully struggling to deliver the UK’s promised divorce from the EU, has already survived a no-confidence vote. This made Theresa May immune to a forced resignation until the end of this year, but did not relieve her from pressure within the Conservative Party.
Theresa May’s reported plans to ally with the Conservatives’ political rivals, the Labour Party, has discouraged her fellow Tories. The Daily Telegraph reports, that Conservative lawmakers “will move to oust” her this week if she strikes an agreement with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, designed to avoid sending new MEPs to the European Parliament.
According to the outlet, the prime minister has been warned about it. The newspaper cites senior Tory sources saying that May will be “gone very quickly” if she agrees to meet Labour’s demands to install a UK-EU customs union after Britain leaves the bloc.
The outlet cites a senior minister, as saying “That will be the decision point for a lot of MPs when it comes to deciding the Prime Minister’s future”.
“It’s going to be very difficult to support any deal Labour would support. It all comes down to the same old problem, that they want a full and permanent customs union, and we made a manifesto pledge to leave the customs union”, the minister reportedly stated, adding it was going to be “a trust problem”.
Meanwhile, the grassroots Tories are paving the way for the prime minister to leave her post. According to multiple reports, an unprecedented confidence vote on May is expected to take place at an Extraordinary General Meeting, scheduled for 15 June. Even though the vote is non-binding according to the existing 12-month moratorium, losing it would put a great deal of pressure on the prime minister, who has already survived an internal no-confidence vote, to resign.
READ MORE: Conservative MPs Secretly Plotting to Remove Theresa May as PM — Report
There was certain speculation that backbenchers on the party’s 1922 Committee might change the existing rules, but they eventually rejected the calls for amendments and decided to grant the party leader a 12-month grace period to go unchallenged.
However, as its joint executive secretary Nigel Evans hinted, they are ready to review this stance “if she tries any stalling”.
“No-one expects her to be in Downing Street beyond June 30 and there is growing discontentment with her within the Party”, he told the outlet.
In March, May promised to step down if Tories back the Brexit withdrawal deal she negotiated with Brussels. She noted that she knew that the MPs did not want her to lead the next phase of the Brexit negotiations, saying “and I won’t stand in the way of that”.