Brexit: Calls grow for Theresa May to resign in bill backlash
The prime minister is facing growing calls to resign amid a backlash against her Brexit plan from Conservative MPs.
Several cabinet ministers have told the BBC that she cannot stay, with one saying it is “the end of the line”.
Others, though, insist Theresa May should push on with her plan to put her Withdrawal Agreement Bill to a vote.
Mrs May’s own MPs have been unhappy with the concessions she has set out in the bill, but she has called for “compromise on all sides”.
The BBC’s political editor says Home Secretary Sajid Javid has asked to see the PM to push her to remove the second referendum vote requirement contained in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has also requested a private meeting with the PM.
Both men are seen as possible contenders to be the next Conservative leader.
Laura Kuenssberg also said the so-called “Pizza Club” of Brexiteer cabinet members met while Mrs May was answering questions in the House earlier – a move she described as “a bad omen for the PM”.
Leadership rules
Mrs May has been met with criticism from all sides since setting out what she called a “new Brexit deal” on Tuesday evening – it was, she insisted, Parliament’s “last chance” to get Brexit done.
Arguing again for her plan on Wednesday, Mrs May told MPs the bill – which includes the promise of a vote on a further referendum and different customs options – would be published on Friday.
The PM has pledged to set a timetable for a new leader to take over after MPs vote on the plan, but the clamour is growing for a departure sooner than that.
Calls for Mrs May’s resignation are also coming from some Conservatives who have, until now, stayed loyal.
Writing in the Financial Times, Tom Tugendhat said: “Leadership matters; it has been absent for too long,” he said. “This can only change with a new prime minister.”
Former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb has said Mrs May should go as soon as possible, and there needs to be a new PM “within weeks”.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said one government minister had told him that the PM “has to go now”, while a former minister has said the nation should be spared the “self-indulgence” of a Tory leadership contest.
He added that MPs will consider the bill at its second reading on a “pencilled in” date of Friday 7 June.
‘Not a compromise’
Labour has also criticised Mrs May’s new Brexit plan, with its leader Jeremy Corbyn saying her “bold new deal” was a “repackaged version” of her withdrawal agreement that has been voted down in the Commons three times.
He added: “No Labour MP can vote for a deal with the promise of a prime minister who only has days left in her job.”
Mr Corbyn said the issue of Brexit had been “dividing our society and poisoning our democracy”, but claimed Mrs May’s deal “does not represent a genuine compromise”.
Addressing her critics in her speech, Mrs May said: “In time, another prime minister will be standing at this despatch box, but while I am here, I have a duty to be clear with the House about the facts.
“If we are going to deliver Brexit in this Parliament, we have to pass a Withdrawal Agreement Bill, and we will not do so without holding votes on the issues that have divided us the most,” she said.
“In the end, our job in the House is to take decisions, not duck them.”