AN UNDER siege Theresa May was fighting for her political life yesterday as she suggested she would not shy away from sacking foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a move that would split the Tory Party.
The Prime Minister has managed to face down, for the moment, a post conference call to resign by 30 MPs. At the conference she was plagued by a coughing fit, a collapsing slogan board and a prankster who was given the full freedom of the conference by its security, to mock May by handing her a P45.
While a Cabinet reshuffle could enlarge the number of conspirators against her, sacking Johnson over his two Brexit interventions to undermine the PM’s authority could well split the party. Meanwhile a delusional PM was claiming she was providing, not ‘strong and stable’ but ‘calm leadership’ with the ‘full support of my Cabinet’.
Asked what she planned to do with the foreign secretary, May indicated she would be prepared to demote him. In a desperate bid to portray herself as a strong leader, she told The Sunday Times: ‘It has never been my style to hide from a challenge and I’m not going to start now. I’m the PM, and part of my job is to make sure I always have the best people in my cabinet, to make the most of the wealth of talent available to me in the party.’
May added that she had an ‘uncomfortable’ time during her party conference speech but never considered leaving the stage early. Amid the speculation over the Prime Minister’s future, Johnson urged Tory colleagues to ‘get behind the PM’ this time without a knife, and turn their fire on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn instead.
The infighting continued with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also making a show of backing the Prime Minister, saying there had been some ‘unfortunate shenanigans’ in the party ‘but the pushback has been pretty strong’.
In a swipe at Johnson, she told yesterday’s Andrew Marr Show, adopting a holier than thou mode, being a politician is ‘about delivering for the country, it’s not and should never be about private ambition’.
Former prime minister John Major has also lashed out at ‘disloyal’ Tory MPs and ministers, saying he views the turmoil in the Tory party with ‘increasing dismay’. He urged May to take radical action to win over voters by increasing public spending and reviewing controversial welfare changes.
This came as May has reportedly decided, according to The Sunday Telegraph, to seek the support of the Tory right by committing billions of pounds on preparing Britain to leave the European Union without a deal. The plan will be ‘unlocked’ in January if no concrete progress is made with Brussels, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
It will be spent on measures which include new technology to speed up border customs checks if the UK has to revert to a World Trade Organisation tariff system, the paper added.
