Remainer Amber Rudd ‘kills chance of becoming Prime Minister’ after threat to delay Brexit
Senior Tories who were ready to back the Work and Pension Secretary's leadership bid feel let down by her 'treachery' after vowing to rebel to avoid No Deal Brexit
AMBER Rudd has killed off her chance of ever becoming PM after threatening to delay Brexit.
Senior Tories who were ready to back a leadership bid feel let down by her “treachery”.
They witnessed the fury of party activists after the Work and Pension Secretary publicly defied Theresa May.
A Cabinet minister told The Sun on Sunday: “Amber has completely blown her chances.
“It’s not just the Brexiteers she has enraged but also the moderate core of our MPs. They are really upset at the way she broke ranks to undermine the Prime Minister last week.”
Ms Rudd, seen as a front runner for the Tory crown when Mrs May goes, was one of three ministers who vowed to rebel to avoid a “no deal” Brexit.
'BLOWN HER CHANCES'
But top Tories said her stand had backfired. One declared: “She’s p***ed on her chips.”
The grassroots verdict on Ms Rudd was delivered to senior MPs during weekend gatherings in their local constituencies.
She was likened to fellow ex-Home Secretary Ken Clarke, a failed in three attempts to land the top job
A minister said: “I’ve no idea what possessed her to take this drastic course of action at such a delicate stage of Brexit talks.
“Perhaps she wanted to give a clearer definition of herself among Remainers. But all she has done is to define herself in the way Ken Clarke did.
“The level of disgust is so high in the Parliamentary party that she’d never get on the final ballot paper – and even if she did, the grassroots would never accept her.”
The backlash was echoed in a poll when a third of Tories branded Ms Rudd’s behaviour “disloyal and disgraceful”.
That view was express by 35 per cent of Conservative supporters and 24 per cent of all voters in a OnePoll survey for The Sun on Sunday.
A further 16 per cent of all voters – and 23 per cent of Tories – dismissed Ms Rudd and fellow rebels David Gauke and Greg Clark as “just Remainers who want to overturn the referendum result”.
And 15 per cent say they are putting their own leadership ambitions before Brexit.
The Sun on Sunday Says
PUBLIC fury with meddling Brexit blockers has reached boiling point.
Our new poll shows that a staggering three quarters of Britons blame self- serving, hapless Parliamentary representatives for the shambles we are in.
Nearly half brand the behaviour of MPs “a complete and utter disgrace” and 40 per cent say any delay in the UK leaving the EU would be “unacceptable”.
So, The Sun on Sunday names and shames some of those politicians who claim to support democracy but flatly fail to represent the views of their constituents.
Dozens who serve the constituencies where voters backed Brexit are betraying the trust of those people by deliberately dithering or pushing back on the March leaving date agreed in Article 50.
Prominent among them is Cabinet rebel and leading Remoaner Amber Rudd.
Almost 56 per cent of her Hastings constituency voted to leave. Regardless, she broke ranks to push the Prime Minister into abandoning No Deal, undermining the Government’s negotiating position.
Such shenanigans must end. If Theresa May can win sufficient concessions from Brussels to allay genuine fears over the Northern Ireland backstop, MPs must unite behind her.
As the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has said, the future of the next generation is at stake, and further delay will resolve nothing.
Remainer MPs must put their trust in the people and their faith in the ability of this great country to prosper once we are outside the EU.
Anything else is a shameful betrayal.
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