LABOUR LEADER Jeremy Corbyn MP has called for a General Election to be held once Theresa May stands down – so that the public can decide who is their next Prime Minister.
With her authority over her Party’s MPs growing weaker by the day, Theresa May spoke to backbench Tory MPs this evening. She was hoping to persuade them to back the Withdrawal Agreement she has negotiated with the EU – the “deal” which sets out how the UK will leave the EU and the terms of a transitional period which will follow.
May openly acknowledged that MPs did not want her to be in charge of negotiating the next agreement with the EU – the one which will cover future relations, after the transitional period expires. She went on to say that if MPs agree her deal, she will stand down afterwards, and let a new Tory leader run the country and take charge of the negotiations with the EU on future relations.
Corbyn’s first response was that if Theresa May stands down, the voters should decide who runs the country – by having a General Election. If there is no election, it will be up to members of the Conservative Party to vote on who will take over as Leader of their Party – and, therefore, take over the top job in Parliament.
Much as backbench Tories, encouraged by the press, have been whipping up support for scapegoating Theresa May for the failure to agree the terms of “Brexit” (and much of the current confusion may indeed be her fault), the fact remains that the Tory Party is deeply divided over how to progress Brexit and how to run the country more generally.
MPs may agree that they have no confidence in Theresa May – but who will party members have confidence in to take her place? The manner of May’s departure suggests that some of her colleagues are prepared to back the EU deal in order to secure a leadership contest in which they can stand or in which they can back a candidate who might give them a job. Party members could be reluctant to vote for someone who is so quick to abandon what they have claimed are long-standing political principles in return for an opportunity to advance their own career.
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