THERESA May has been forced to abandoned plans for a major Cabinet reshuffle next month because of the Brexit delay.
The new blow to the PM’s survival hopes comes as it emerged that three out of five party members plan to refuse to vote Tory in the euro elections.
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Close allies had urged the PM to carry out a big clear of her ageing top team. The move would have helped fend off calls for her to resign immediately after an expected local election meltdown on May 2.
Ushering in a younger generation of Tory MPs to the Government’s top ranks could have kept the PM in No10 until December, Cabinet allies argued.
But the new six-month delay to Britain’s EU exit until October has plunged Mrs May into a fresh crisis and destabilised her yet further.
A senior No10 source told The Sun: “A reshuffle is going to be impossible now. Things are just too precarious.
TORIES TO VOTE FOR FARAGE
“The last thing we need is any more enemies on the backbenches.”
Pressure on Mrs May to resign spiralled again yesterday with the revelation that 62 per cent of her own Conservative party members now plan to vote for the Brexit Party as a protest if Britain is forced to elect MEPs again.
The survey of 1,132 members by the Conservative Home website found just 23 per cent would back the Tories in the nationwide poll on May 23.
Another shock opinion poll of Tory councillors in the Mail on Sunday also revealed 40 per cent of them will vote for Nigel Farage’s new party.
FRESH CHALLENGE FOR MAY
And it was also reported yesterday that the leader of a powerful committee of backbench Tories is preparing to tell Mrs May that seven out of 10 of her MPs want her to resign by June 30.
Sir Graham Brady has also called a meeting of 18 members of 1922 Committee’s executive to discuss whether to change Tory rules to allow a fresh challenge on the PM before December.
The PM won the right to serve on unchallenged for 12 months after defeating a bid to oust her before Christmas.
Mrs May been forced to promise Tory MPs that she will not lead the country into the second phase of Brexit talks, which will focus on Britain’s future relationship with the bloc.
Tory party chiefs fear they could lose as many as 1,000 councillors in the local elections next week.
The Government’s ongoing Brexit turmoil and an impossibly high bar from 2015’s success will mean losses will stretch into “the high hundreds”, one senior figure has claimed.
Them, the Tories gained 541 seats because of a high turnout for then leader David Cameron.
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