Tory MP launches savage attack on Theresa May hours before conference speech - and demands she quit
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Loading... - Jen Murphy
- 03 Oct 2021
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A Tory backer of Boris Johnson has issued a savage verbal attack on Prime Minister Theresa May - saying he has "no confidence in her leadership over delivering Brexit ".
James Duddridge has now handed in a letter of no confidence in the Tory leader. She needs 48 against her to trigger a leadership contest.
His assault comes just hours before Mrs May tries to permanently bury the woes of last year's speech - when she coughed out of words, accepted a prankster's P45 and the stage set collapsed.
Mrs May will freeze fuel duty for a ninth year costing almost £1billion, claiming the UK's best days lie ahead and Brexit Britain is "full of promise" in her address in Birmingham.
But Mr Duddridge claimed Boris Johnson's 33-minute speech to 1,500 members yesterday revealed a glimpse of the future of the party - and she shouldn't "limp on".
It comes as fresh, separate reports emerge about senior Tories discussing how long Mrs May can stay on.
Mr Duddgridge, the MP for Rochford and Southend East, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We need a strong leader and we haven't got that at the moment.
"Boris yesterday was inspirational, motivational and rallied the troops, rallied politicians, something you could get behind and that's what we need.
"We need a leader not a chief executive, an administrator, we need a vision to go forward and that's what Boris presented yesterday."
He added: "We haven't got someone that can effectively negotiate with the European Union at the moment, the Brexit negotiations have been an absolute disaster.
"The Cabinet, the team were railroaded into Chequers, the Prime Minister is haemorrhaging support in Cabinet and in her party, no-one seriously expects her to fight another general election.
"Yet we limp on and pretend we're all behind a leader who is not delivering."
According to the Daily Telegraph, talks have begun about when Mrs May should be ousted if she refuses to quit before the next general election.
Several Cabinet ministers want her to go immediately after Brexit day in March - but others could give her until 2022.
One source told the newspaper: "There are two schools of thought in the Cabinet.
"One 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."
Mrs May's deputy David Lidington brushed off the claims, telling ITV: "I sit in a cabinet that is utterly united in working with the prime minister on the proposals we've put forward to the EU."
He added: "We don't have time for plotting".
And May-loyal Tory MPs mounted a concerted bid to trash Boris Johnson's name on the party circuit last night, saying he had not said anything new or given a clear vision of the future.
One Tory MP told the Mirror Mr Johnson's tactics were "verging on insane".
