Brexit: Theresa May pleads for time as Boris Johnson targets No 10

Theresa May agrees to go by July but urges delay to leaders election to dent Boris Johnson’s hopes.

Theresa May has agreed to go before the summer recess. Picture; AFP.

Theresa May urged Tory MPs to delay a leadership election yesterday in a move that would dent Boris Johnson’s chances of becoming leader.

Mrs May resisted calls to set a departure date from No 10 during a “tense and emotionally charged” meeting with Tory MPs on the executive of the 1922 Committee.

She agreed that she would discuss a timetable for the leadership race but only after MPs had voted on Brexit legislation early next month.

“She said it would be a better contest if Brexit was out of the way. It would be a battle of ideas and who would be better placed to beat Jeremy Corbyn,” a source said. “The alternative was running the race dominated by the question of another extension of Article 50.”

Although she did not name Mr Johnson her argument was received as a tacit expression of support to the other leadership candidates, who are aiming to block his path to No 10.

The former foreign secretary yesterday confirmed that he was running and presented himself as the best candidate to stop the rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. His supporters believe that his best chance of winning the contest is for it to be held against the backdrop of a failure to achieve Brexit. Dominic Raab, the other leading Brexiteer candidate, also wants an early race.

Backers of other candidates, including Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, Matthew Hancock, the health secretary, and Sajid Javid, the home secretary, would prefer the contest to be run after a Brexit deal has been concluded. They believe they would benefit from the debate having moved away from Europe to issues like the economy, social mobility and education.

The Prime Minister will make a final effort to get MPs to pass her withdrawal agreement the week after next with success dependent on securing a deal with Labour.

Brexiteers anticipating a catastrophic defeat for Mrs May at next week’s European elections followed by another failure to get her deal past the Commons are already pushing for a leadership contest that concludes by the time MPs rise for their summer break in late July.

The attempt by Downing Street to delay a contest appears to be an effort to preserve Mrs May’s room for manoeuvre even after a fourth defeat for her deal. Although Mrs May controls when to start the race, its structure and length will be decided by the 1922 Committee and the party’s ruling board.

However, even her allies concede that it will be difficult for her to remain in office beyond July if she loses another Commons vote.

No 10 has yet to decide whether to publish the Withdrawal Agreement Bill before MPs leave parliament on a ten-day recess that starts next Thursday, the day of the European elections.

To meet that deadline Mrs May would have to have struck a deal with Mr Corbyn by Tuesday. She could introduce the bill when the Commons resumes on June 4 but that would give MPs little time to study it before the vote on whether to give it a second reading. A statement agreed with Mrs May and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, avoided making any explicit commitments and Downing Street sources queried claims that MPs had pressed Mrs May to agree to start the contest no later than June 30.

Sir Graham said: “The prime minister is determined to secure our departure from the European Union and is devoting her efforts to securing the second reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week commencing June 3, 2019, and the passage of that bill and the consequent departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union by the summer.

“We have agreed that she and I will meet following the second reading of the bill to agree a timetable for the election of a new leader.”

Mark Francois, vice-chairman of the European Research Group, suggested that further pressure might be needed to evict Mrs May from No 10. “One thing is now certain: all colleagues will have had the chance to review the results of the European parliament elections by the time the 1922 Committee next considers this,” he said. Mr Francois, a hardline Brexiteer, said that Tory MPs in marginal seats would be able to calculate their chances at a general election from the May 23 poll results.

Nigel Evans, another Tory Brexiteer, said: “I want her out. The process to replace her is already under way — we’ve got cabinet ministers speaking outside their portfolio — we might as well make it official. That’s going to take two months. She can remain PM and try to get this bill through during that time.”

The Times