Prime Minister Theresa May could be forced to resign within days according to reports from Westminster.
May faces a rebellion from members of her Cabinet over her decision to offer a second EU referendum. Backbench Conservative MPs were holding a meeting in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, where some called for a change to the Tory Party’s rules so that they could force her to resign.
The Prime Minister hopes to put her proposed Brexit withdrawal deal to MPs one last time, with a vote due in early June.
But it has become clear that there is almost no chance of her deal being approved. Instead, her attempts to win support for the deal have enraged some Tory colleagues.
A number of members of the Cabinet are angry that Mrs May promised to let MPs hold a vote on whether there should be a second Brexit referendum.
Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, demanded a meeting with the Prime Minister to push her to take back the pledge. This came less than four hours after she stood up in the House of Commons to defend her proposals.
And David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, asked to visit Mrs May in 10 Downing Street to complain that her referendum proposal undermined the case against holding a second independence referendum in Scotland.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also requested a meeting with the Prime Minister, apparently also to tell her that the referendum promise must be scrapped.
It appeared Mrs May turned down the requests and declined to see her colleagues.
BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg reported: “David Mundell is going to see the PM later this afternoon – several other Cabinet sources saying now they can’t see the PM lasting beyond Monday – others believe she will.”
And she said one Cabinet Minister had told her Mrs May “can’t make it beyond Monday” – although another had said the Prime Minister could stay on for “a few weeks”.
Walsall North Conservative MP Eddie Hughes said: “I’m grateful to the PM for calling an election that gave me the opportunity to serve the people of Walsall North as their MP – but now it’s time for a new Prime Minister to take over the negotiations to get us out of the EU.”
Mrs May made a series of concessions on Tuesday night as she attempted to win support for her Brexit deal with the EU.
She promised MPs they would get a vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum.
And she said there would be a vote on whether to adopt Labour’s plan to stay in a Customs Union with the EU after Brexit.
It was an attempt to win support from Labour MPs who have previously voted against her deal.
But her promises weren’t enough to win them over. Instead, she simply angered Tory MPs who felt that she had given too much ground.
For example, Solihull Conservative MP Julian Knight said on Twitter that he had previously backed the deal but added: “A second referendum would be a stain on the soul of our parliament and country.
“We should not be paving the way for a second referendum to happen. The last 24 hours been very painful.”
It was a heavy hint that he would vote against Mrs May’s deal this time.
The question for Conservative politicians now is whether the Prime Minister should bring her deal back to the Commons for another vote which she is almost certain to lose, or whether they should tell her that the time has come to stand down.
That would mean launching a contest to choose a new Conservative leader, who would also become Prime Minister.
Frontrunners in a Tory leadership contest include Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary; Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt; Environment Secretary Michael Gove, and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.
The European election results will also put pressure on the Prime Minister to go.
Voting takes place on Thursday May 23 and the results are announced on Sunday.
Everyone expects the Conservatives to do badly in the election. Even so, once the results are actually announced, if they are bad for the Tories then it will bring home to MPs the scale of the problem they face.
