Backbenchers Anne Marie Trevelyan and Tracey Crouch were among a 'large number' who told whips she 'had to go' she attacked warring MPs for the Brexit deadlock
THERESA MAY was under intense pressure to name a date for her resignation as Tories panned her blistering attack on Parliament.
Amid uproar in Westminster, backbenchers Anne Marie Trevelyan and Tracey Crouch were among a “large number” who told whips she “had to go”.
Ex-Minister Guto Bebb labelled the speech an “utter failure of judgement”.
A Whitehall official separately compared the Mrs May’s attack on warring MPs over the Brexit deadlock her ‘Ratner’s moment’ - while sources claimed Chief Whip Julian Smith was openly describing the address as “appalling”.
Steve Double, MP, told The Sun he was aware of a number of colleagues who had told the PM to her face that if they’d only now vote for her deal if she committed to resigning.
A number of the 39 Tory rebels who backed the PM’s deal last week now warned they may ‘switch’ back to opposing it again – including Ben Bradley and Maria Caulfield.
The 39 met the PM just before she made her speech on Wednesday night.
One MP said: “The point was made by several people that if she wanted to get her deal through she would have to say ‘I’m leaving on such and such a date.”
Nigel Evans – secretary of the influential Tory 1922 Committee – admitted the PM would have to go if the UK signed up to an extension that forced the UK to hold European Elections.
One Tory told The Sun: “There is utter fury at what happened last night.
“The idea that the PM could hold drinks with 39 of us who backed her deal – then cross the road and say that?” Another said: “Patience in the PM has snapped. The speech was the final straw.”
The fury came as the PM’s Downing Street address on Wednesday sparked another bitter row with Speaker John Bercow. The Speaker intervened in the Commons to tell MPs they were not “traitors."
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt defended the PM by saying she was under “extraordinary pressure”. But doorstepped on a trip to Essex, Home Secretary Sajid Javid refused to back Mrs May’s blast.
Former Labour Minister Caroline Flint yesterday insisted she would still support the PM in a ‘Meaningful Vote 3’ and called her deal the best “compromise” available.
But leading Labour MP Lisa Nandy warned the PM she had thrown away any chance of winning over any more Labour backbenchers to her cause.
Downing Street needs at least 25 Labour MPs to back the PM’s deal next week to stand any chance of passing it through the Commons.
Ms Nandy said: “There is absolutely no chance she is going to win over MPs in sufficient numbers after that statement.”
And Labour backbencher Wes Streeting said Mrs May could have blood on her hands. He stormed: “Theresa May knows that MPs across the House are subjected to death threats – some very credible.
“Her speech was incendiary and irresponsible.
“If any harm comes to us, she will have to accept her share of responsibility.”
