Tories plot to topple ‘three-legged horse’ Theresa May with a coup of mass resignations this Autumn
Mrs May accepted responsibility for the snap election disaster during the Tories's summer party
FURIOUS mid-ranking Tory ministers are trying to engineer a coup of mass resignations in a bid to oust Theresa May this Autumn, The Sun can reveal.
Fears the Prime Minister is a “horse with a broken leg” propped up by a “self-indulgent” Cabinet, have left junior members of the government despairing.
The growing disquiet amongst the junior ranks came after the Cabinet ruled out challenging the wounded premier for at least two years.
Now a secret circle of lower-rung ministers are weighing up whether to try dethrone the PM by stepping down before the party’s conference in October.
And one senior minister told The Sun they were considering resigning to spark a challenge before the party’s annual gathering scheduled to open in Manchester in three months time.
A government source said they were fed up of seeing the “ragdoll” PM “pushed around” on issues like public sector pay by the “self-indulgent” Cabinet “clearly just positioning for a contest in two years’ time.”
The source added: “Selfish cabinet ministers are simply putting their own ambition before the country — it’s self-indulgence and there is going to be backlash.”
Westminster is awash with speculation that the next leader will come from the widely-praised 2010 generation of Tory MPs that includes Cabinet ministers Amber Rudd, Priti Patel and Sajid Javid.
And friends tip junior ministers like Dominic Raab, Rory Stewart, Philip Lee and Damian Hinds to run in a future leadership race.
This latest headache for No10 came as Theresa May told billionaire Tory donors the party could not just “sit back licking our wounds” as she grovelled over her snap Election humiliation.
Addressing the Conservative’s lavish summer party at West London’s exclusive Hurlingham Club, the humiliated PM accepted responsibility for the poll disaster.
Meanwhile Cabinet leadership hopefuls like Boris Johnson, Amber Rudd and David Davis pressed the flesh at annual fundraiser.
Billionaire Tory-backers like Michael Hintze, Peter Cruddas and Mick Davis dug deep — with one punter paying £160,000 for dinner with the PM, despite her weakened position.
But dinner with Boris Johnson went for a lesser £15,000 bid.
One source told The Sun: “It was a much more muted affair than under David Cameron, but David Davis was very popular and the Cabinet hopefuls were shamelessly working the room.”