THERESA May’s jacket is on a shoogly peg this morning, with growing support for her to do the right thing and remove herself from office after a shambolic week.
In last night’s London Evening Standard, the paper edited by former Chancellor and political rival of May, George Osborne, it was revealed that five former Tory ministers have joined a plot to force the Prime Minister out.
According to the paper, a 30-strong group, the so-called men in grey suits, will send a delegation to No.10, telling the Prime Minister to resign before Christmas and before the start of any talks on a trade deal between London and Brussels.
READ MORE: Sturgeon compares Theresa May's disastrous address to Fawlty Towers TV comedy
A previous understanding within the party that May should stay while Brexit is unravelling, with many of her MPs terrified at the prospect of at least another two years under her leadership.
May had been supposed to use her speech at Tory conference on Wednesday as a fightback, and as a chance to end speculation over her future.
But the 45-minute address to the party faithful in the main hall of the Manchester Central was a shocker.
A prankster, fully accredited by the party, was allowed into the hall where he proceeded to hand the Prime Minister a mock P45 supposedly from Boris Johnson. She also suffered a horrific coughing fit, and had to stand idly by as the set fell apart behind her.
Former minister Ed Vaizey confirmed that “quite a few” of her MPs now want her to resign.
Vaizey, the former culture minister who is still a trade envoy for the Prime Minister, said he saw no “way forward” for her.
He told BBC Oxford: “I think there will be quite a few people who will now be pretty firmly of the view that she should resign.”
Asked if he thought she should step aside, Vaizey said: “I find it increasingly difficult to see a way forward at the moment and it worries me.”
He added: “The Tory Party conference was the great opportunity to reboot the party and therefore reboot the country, to give it a clear sense of direction and that didn’t happen. So yes, I am concerned.”
A senior Tory told the Standard: “We all realise the game is up. It would be better if she were to start the process, with a new leader before Christmas.”
However, Mark Pritchard, a former secretary of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, tweeted: “Trying to drum up a delegation of 30 MPs to try and circumvent this process is irregular, cowardly and will ultimately fail.
“Any minister with premature ambitions needs to put up or shut up and allow the Prime Minister to get on with her day job.”
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 and a party board member, also voiced his support - with some qualifications.
“What the Prime Minister now has to do is to demonstrate that she’s in charge,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.
“At the moment we, I have to say, are a little bit in limbo after the speech.”
Under party rules 48 MPs need to send a letter to 1922 chairman Sir Graham Brady to force a vote of no-confidence.
That, however, seems unlikely.
It seems likely at least one person will go sooner rather than later for the fiasco at the Tory conference.
MPs loyal to May are calling for Patrick McLoughlin, the party chair to be sacked.
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