PLOT TO DE-THRONE BORIS
Theresa May is ‘planning to demote Boris Johnson’ in Cabinet reshuffle after as battles to save her leadership
THERESA May is planning to demote Boris Johnson in a Cabinet reshuffle, it was claimed last night.
The Prime Minister signalled she is willing to move the Foreign Secretary in the coming weeks.
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She will aim to reassert her authority after Mr Johnson recently spelled out his Brexit position in a 4,000 word essay.
It will be part of a move to bring in fresh blood to the Cabinet and other Ministerial positions while removing others.
Amid reports of Boris' potential demotion, Scots Tory boss Ruth Davidson lashed out at the "personal ambition" of Tories plotting to oust the Prime Minister.
Asked about her options for BoJo, Mrs May said: “It has never been my style to hide from a challenge and I’m not going to start now.
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“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.”
One senior figure in tune with the PM’s thinking said: “There is not a binary choice between keeping Boris and sacking Boris.”
The reshuffle could come after the two-day European Council meeting starting on October 19.
In an interview with the Sunday Times following her disastrous conference speech where she suffered a coughing fit, she said: “I didn’t come into politics for an easy life”.
A prankster also gave her a fake P45 and the set started falling apart behind her during the set-piece event at the Manchester rally last week.
But she said: “I am a very determined person. I am not someone who gives up.”
Should Mrs May sack Boris?
MICHAEL HESELTINE has again called on Theresa May to sack Boris Johnson for disloyalty.
The former Deputy PM said it would be a “high risk policy”, but she must teach him a lesson.
Sir Michael told the World this Weekend: “I think that if she wants to reassert her authority she would have to sack him but of course it’s a high risk policy because he’ll be on the backbenches and he won’t go quietly.
And he said: “I think Mrs May has an almost insoluble problem because she’s got a deeply divided Cabinet, a deeply divided country and deeply divided party.
“How can a government survive with that sort of dialogue in the background?”
And he said the Prime Minister would not be able to deliver on her promise to build more affordable homes as she was too "absorbed in Brexit".
But Nadine Dorries says that it should be Remainer Philip Hammond who should be sacked:
She told Peston on Sunday: "If I were the prime minister, the person I would be demoting or certainly sacking would be Philip Hammond.
"I think he's been deliberately trying to make the Brexit negotiations difficult, stall them, obsufucate the issues, I just don't think he's been 100 per cent on board."
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She also said: “The truth is my feelings can be hurt, like everyone else, but I am pretty resilient.”
She also announced a review into the “events of the day”.
The paper also suggests that three Cabinet Ministers had conversations on Thursday night about forcing the PM to leave her office by the end of the year.
It also said half the Cabinet wants Mrs May to leave her post in the next two years.
Meanwhile, Boris has suggested that only "nutters" in the Tory party want to oust Mrs May and potentially trigger another election.
He backed the PM to secure a "great and successful Brexit" and said the "people of this country don't want a General Election".
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said about the attempted leadership coup: "From what I can see the Tory herd has refused to be so goaded.
"We have sniffed the air and turned sensibly away from the cliff."
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Now Scots Tory boss Ruth Davidson has taken a swipe at Boris Johnson and fellow Conservatives plotting to overthrow the PM.
"We are really lucky to serve our country," she told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show this morning.
"It should never be about private ambition."
She slapped down the "unfortunate shenanigans" that had dominated last week's party conference, but insisted that "the push back has been strong" against the rebels who have tried to oust the PM.
Ms Davidson, who many think should make a run for the leadership herself, said Boris had insisted she was behind every letter of the PM's Florence speech and she wanted to "see the Prime Minister hold him to that".
She again refused to rule out standing as Tory leader herself, but insisted: "I've got a job at the moment."
But she did admit that a Scot could "absolutely" become Tory leader one day.
She later told ITV's Peston on Sunday: "She is the best person we’ve got. She has grit, determination and she absolutely has my support."
And on the rumours of a reshuffle she said that there had to be "the right person in the right portfolio doing the right job".
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