Speaking at a Conservative Party Conference to rounds of applause, ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson blasted Theresa May’s brainchild – the Chequers plan – as an “outrage of democracy,” which is “not taking back control,” but rather “forfeiting” it.
According to The Telegraph, a number of Cabinet ministers want Theresa May to step down as prime minister immediately after Brexit in March 2019, while others are allegedly ready to give her until 2020 if she announces the date of her departure at the next Tory conference.
“There are two schools of thought in the Cabinet. One possibility is that she will be forced out straight after we leave the EU in March next year to bring in a new broom who can rebuild the party before the next election. But there is a growing feeling that she could be allowed to stay on for longer than that, to get Brexit completely done and dusted so that the next leader can focus completely on domestic policy. That would mean she would be given one more party conference in a year’s time, but she would need to use that conference to announce when she intended to stand down,” a Cabinet source told the media outlet.
The ministers have reportedly agreed that Theresa May is no longer capable of holding her office or leading the party, and that it is essential to have a “new and fresh” leader who will be able to breathe new life into the Conservative Party.
“One of the reasons she may be allowed to stay on until 2020 is that most of the party still doesn’t think there is an obvious candidate to replace her who would command widespread support. Waiting a little longer would give a younger candidate, maybe someone no one is yet talking about, time to garner support. If you want the party to feel new and fresh going into the next election, you don’t necessarily want someone to be leader for more than a couple of years beforehand,” another insider told The Telegraph.
This comes a few days after The Telegraph published a leaked internal memo, detailing the pros and cons of her potential successors, including former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Theresa May is expected to deliver a keynote speech later in the day at the International Convention Center in Birmingham to issue support for her Chequers plan on Brexit.