Theresa May has no intention of setting out a fresh timetable for her departure, Downing Street has signalled, with a spokesman insisting she is determined to “get Brexit done”.
The spokesman dismissed calls from Conservative backbenchers for the prime minister to step down, saying she had already “made a very generous and bold offer” to the 1922 Committee of resigning if her Brexit deal is passed.
“She is here to deliver Brexit in phase one, and then she will leave and make way for new leadership in phase two,” the spokesman said. “That is the timetable she is working for: she wants to get Brexit done.”
Earlier, May signalled her intention to fight on in No 10, using prime minister’s questions to compare herself to Liverpool football club making a remarkable comeback to win the Champions League semi-final.
When the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, suggested May could learn how to do well in Europe from the Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, May replied with what appeared to be a scripted gag. “I actually think that when we look at the Liverpool win over Barcelona last night, what it shows is that when everyone says it’s all over, that your European opposition have got you beat, the clock is ticking down, it’s time to concede defeat, actually we can still secure success if everyone comes together.”
Her refusal to budge comes before a crucial meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, where they will decide whether to change party rules to allow another no-confidence vote on May’s future. The current rules say a prime minister cannot face another challenge within 12 months, and May won the last confidence vote in December.
Brexiter sources on the committee have said they are increasingly confident they may have enough support to remove the time limit, after a previous ballot went narrowly against changing the rules.
However, it is not yet sure to pass, nor is it certain that Tory MPs would vote by a majority to remove May; many soft Brexit supporters would rather she had passed a deal in order to prevent her successor campaigning for a no-deal departure from the EU.
In a sign of growing frustration among Tory MPs, the backbencher Andrea Jenkyns directly called on May to quit her post at prime minister’s questions.
“She’s tried her best, nobody could fault or doubt her commitment and sense of duty, but she has failed,” the Brexit-supporting MP said. “The public no longer trust her to run Brexit negotiations. Isn’t it time to step aside and let someone else lead our country, our party and the Brexit negotiations?”
However, May rebuffed the suggestion, blaming the MPs who failed to back her Brexit deal. “This is not an issue about me and it’s not an issue about her. If it were an issue about me and the way I vote, we would already have left the European Union.”
The prime minister is still trying to strike a deal with Labour to pass her withdrawal agreement before MEPs have to take their seats in the European parliament on 2 July, after abandoning their target of getting it done by the time of the elections on 23 May.
The Downing Street spokesman confirmed the Conservatives were preparing to campaign in the European parliamentary elections, saying the party was “up and running, and our message is that, there’s only one party that can deliver Brexit”. He said May would be taking part in some campaign events.
The government formally announced on Tuesday that it will not have a Brexit deal agreed in time to take part in the EU-wide poll on 23 May.
“Our aim is that these MEPs never take up their seats,” the spokesman said.
Asked why the Conservatives were taking part in elections they did not want to take place, the spokesman said: “Because it’s democracy.”
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