PM DIGS IN
Theresa May not going anywhere despite Brexit shambles as Tory contenders jostle for position
THERESA May was tonight forced to deny she'll quit as PM after her Brexit deal was all but killed off in the Commons.
The Prime Minister hasn't discussed resigning with her top team, her spokesperson has said.
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Earlier this week it was rumoured that Mrs May could be forced to go if she suffered another damning defeat.
Ministers floated the idea of the PM naming the day she would step down as Tory leaders too to persuade the Brexiteers to get behind her.
Nicky Morgan said last weekend: "Her position is going to be very difficult if the agreement goes down on Tuesday".
And an MP was overheard earlier saying they may back the deal, but only if the PM keeps 29th March as the exit date "or she must resign". "It's as simple as that".
But they said even that wouldn't likely be enough to win them over, and it "will not get the vote through".
David Davis said on Sunday: "You can change the leader, but you can't change the numbers."
This evening her critics have refrained from openly calling for her to quit.
MPs voted overwhelmingly to reject her new EU deal tonight in Parliament, but she's insisted she's not going anywhere.
Mrs May has repeatedly said she's staying on to finish delivering Brexit and beyond.
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MOST READ IN BREXIT
All week leadership contenders have been jostling for top position in case she is forced out over Brexit.
Dominic Raab fired the starting gun with a speech about education earlier this week.
And David Davis wrote in The Times about intrusive tech harvesting Brits' personal information like never before.
Mr Gove made a rallying cry of his own in the Daily Mail, urging his colleagues to get behind the PM and help deliver Brexit.
Even Boris was out and about in the papers too, blasting Mrs May's deal and saying he still won't vote for a deal that ties us to the EU.
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The Sun Says
THERESA May’s new Brexit defeat represents a catastrophic failure by a Parliament of pygmies.
They handed the British people the right to determine if we left the EU, solemnly pledged to see the result through and made it law. They have twice now rejected the only available deal and calamitously let the nation down.
Many have sold their election promises and constituents down the river.
Three years since the referendum and just 16 days before our scheduled exit, no one even knows if Brexit will happen.
This great country is in the grip of chaos which is terrifying families and crippling businesses. Our politicians should hang their heads in shame.
Mrs May’s deal isn’t great. But it would have got Brexit done, as a weary population desperately wants. It would have killed off a hideously divisive new referendum and more paralysing uncertainty.
So many MPs have been inept, dishonest or both. Very few escape blame.
For all her admirable resilience Mrs May has made fundamental errors. Not least on Monday when she secured changes from the EU then oversold them on live TV, only to have her own Attorney General knock them down.
Given his advice was so pivotal, why was he not in the loop throughout?
Or yesterday, so terrified of Cabinet Remainers quitting that she allowed her party a free vote today to rule out No Deal — our final bargaining chip.
Meanwhile Tory Brexiteers who rejected the deal have lost the plot.
We respect them for standing by Brexit, 17.4million voters and democracy. But how can they not grasp that Brexit is in mortal danger? They are vastly outnumbered by Remainers now hell-bent on imposing their will.
Some Remainers colluded with the EU. All have backed Brussels over Britain and now have the gall to lament the chaos they themselves have caused.
Their stinking duplicity is only matched by Labour’s. Corbyn’s mob take the public for fools, posing as Leavers one minute, Remainers the next. Their sole concern is their party.
How they whooped like excited kids as Mrs May’s defeat became clear. To them Britain’s grave plight is just a tribal game.
Then there’s the EU and its three-year campaign to humiliate and punish Britain, hoping to overturn our Leave vote. It has soured relations for a generation.
No wonder Tories do not trust Brussels not to trap us in the backstop.
No one can predict what happens now.
If the ERG get a third chance to back the deal they must take it. By then Brexit’s impending death should be very clear. But no MP should be in any doubt how voters see them.
Their stock was already low. Their conduct at this critical moment in our history has shamed Parliament.