END OF THE MAY
PM’s Brexit quit pledge fires gun on Tory leadership race with at least 15 ministers and MPs saying they will run
THERESA May’s dramatic resignation last night fired the starting gun on a Tory leadership contest, as a sea of contenders rushed to succeed her.
At least 15 Tory ministers and MPs have told allies they will run for the nation’s top job and are frantically now building campaign teams, The Sun has learned.
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One of the biggest names in the frame, Boris Johnson, made the first move last night by declaring “with the deepest regret” he will now vote for the Brexit deal.
But within minutes of her dramatic and emotional 5pm announcement, a bitter backlash erupted among Mrs May’s loyalists.
Much of their fury was directed at the former Foreign Secretary, who they blamed for pushing the PM over the cliff.
Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan, an avowed critic of Boris, said: “To say she has been hounded out is to put it mildly.
“For anyone to have extracted this from her to serve their own interest will single them out forever with a black mark.”
Another May loyalist, Tory MP Gillian Keegan, also blasted leadership hopefuls after Mrs May’s 1922 Committee announcement, saying: “There are a lot of people in that room who want the job”.
Tories declared Mrs May’s resignation speech was “the best she has ever given”.
The PM also told Committee Room 14 of the House of Commons: “This has been a testing time for our country and our party. We’re nearly there. We’re almost ready to start a new chapter and build that brighter future.
“But before we can do that, we have to finish the job in hand.
“I don’t tour the bars and engage in the gossip – but I do make time to speak to colleagues, and I have a great team in the Whips’ Office. I also have two excellent PPSs.
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“I know some people are worried that if you vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, I will take that as a mandate to rush on into phase two without the debate we need to have.
“I won’t – I hear what you are saying.”
The room was so packed that Cabinet ministers arriving late, including Justice Secretary David Gauke, were turned away to avoid a crush.
DFID Secretary Penny Mordaunt and whip Jo Churchill were also stuck outside and forced to press their ears to a heavy wooden door to listen.
As many as 10 Tory diehards told Mrs May immediately they would be switching their votes.
One, ERG member Pauline Latham, announced she would vote for the Brexit deal as she left the room, telling The Sun: “The Pm has made the right decision. She’s read the mood of the party - which is a surprise”.
The PM’s resignation was a carefully coordinated pact, secretly negotiated by former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith after he presented Mrs May with the plan at her Chequers country retreat on Sunday night.
Under its terms, Mrs May agreed to consider going if IDS could get the votes from Tory arch-eurosceptics for her deal.
Mrs May discussed the prospect of having to quit with her most senior aides on Monday and Tuesday.
But she only made up her mind to finally go over Tuesday night, having discussed it through with husband and closest political confidante, Philip.
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She delivered the verdict to No10 aides only yesterday afternoon, a few hours before announcing it.
Mr Duncan-Smith saw the PM at 2pm yesterday to deliver a final message to her that nothing but a clear declaration that she would resign this summer would work with her angry MPs.
A senior Tory source said: “IDS made it clear she had to be completely unequivocal, no caveats or conditions, or there would be a bloodbath at the ’22. It worked”.
Boris Johnson was among at least 30 out of 75 Tory MP diehard Brexiteers and Remainers who had declared they will switch their vote and support the PM by last night.
Senior Tories now think their rebels - dubbed “the irreconcilables” - can be squeezed down to as low as just 16 – 12 Brexiteers and four Remainers.
That would leave Mrs May needing 22 Labour MPs to back her to pass the deal even without the support of the DUP’s 10 MPs.
All eyes will be on the DUP today, who were last night still holding out and refusing to back the deal because of their Irish backstop concerns.
In a highly-charged meeting of the Brexiteer ERG group last night MPs tore into each other as they split down the middle over whether to back the deal.
Boris Johnson announced he was backing the deal “with the deepest regret,” while former leader Iain Duncan Smith also told the meeting he had switched.
Allies of Mr Johnson said he had successfully campaigned for a change in the second round of negotiations - and the PM announcing a timetable for her departure was “enough to back the deal”.
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An ally added: “The alternative was going to be Parliament frustrating Brexit or no Brexit at all. It’s the best worst option. He will now work hard to ensure we don’t end up in a permanent backstop.”
But ERG deputy Steve Baker delivered an extraordinary speech attacking the PM - describing her pledge to quit as a “pantomime” and said it had been “consumed with a ferocious rage”.
He told colleagues he was even considering quitting the party over the deal.
The hardliner, who served as a Brexit minister until last summer, branded colleagues backing the deal “fools and knaves and cowards” who were “voting on things they don’t even understand”.
In an astonishing attack Mr Baker blasted: “We’ve been put in this place by people whose addiction to power without responsibility has led them to put the choice of No Brexit or this deal. I may yet resign the whip than be part of this.”
He added: “I could tear this place down and bulldoze it into the river.”
One ERG source said: “It was the most astonishing speech - he was hugged afterwards by everyone - and we’re not a hugging group.”
ERG sources said between 40 and 50 members of the group had shifted to backing the deal but there were still at least 30 who will not vote for the deal.
But one MP put the figure between 45 - 50.
Several influential figures such as former Brexit ministers Dominic Raab and Suella Braverman and ex-Cabinet minister Owen Paterson remain undecided.
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One ERG member who has switched to backing the deal said there were “too many still willing to die in a ditch” for the deal to pass.
An ERG source said: “There is no way enough votes are coming out of that room to put the WA through.”
Even if Mrs May does win the Meaningful Vote – now pencilled in for tomorrow, the original Brexit day – she still must then hold her coalition together to pass a major new law, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, to enact it.
Aides said the following Tory leadership contest could be as short as four weeks, but is more likely to last eight or even 12 weeks – meaning Mrs May could go as early as June or as late as September.
A No10 source said: “It all depends on how long it takes MPs to whittle it down from 20 candidates to two to send out to the members”.
If she stays in No10 beyond May 25, she beats Gordon Brown’s record of 2 years and 319 days, and becomes Britain’s 35th longest serving British Prime Minister.
Senior Cabinet ministers heaped tributes on Mrs May last night.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted: “Dignity, honesty & bravery from the PM tonight. We must maintain trust in our democracy and deliver Brexit.
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But before she said she’d quit, Cabinet ministers failed yesterday to publicly give her their longterm support.
Asked whether the PM should stay on in No10, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom indicated the PM should call it a day if Brexit takes place on May 22.
Ms Leadsom would only say: “I am fully supporting the Prime Minister to get us out of the EU. What happens after that is a matter for her”.
PM Theresa May confirms that she'll quit as Prime Minister if MPs approve her Brexit deal
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