Theresa May urged to quit as PM today amid continued Brexit backlash

Theresa May was urged to announce today she was quitting as Prime Minister as MPs returned to Parliament after the Easter break.

Senior Conservative MP Nigel Evans, joint secretary of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, led the charge against Mrs May as fresh Tory infighting over the delay to Brexit erupted.

“I would be delighted if she announced today … her resignation and we could then have an orderly election to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, speaking in a personal capacity.

“The only way we’re going to break this impasse properly is if we have fresh leadership of the Conservative Party.”

The Ribble Valley MP claimed “the call for her resignation now is growing into a clamour”, with 70 heads of Conservative Associations saying they have no confidence in the Prime Minister and 40 per cent of Conservative councillors likely to support Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in the European elections.

He tweeted: “Over Easter I have concluded the PM should make way for fresh leadership quickly … time for a new start.”

Mrs May was chairing Cabinet this morning with the Tories facing the loss of hundreds of councillors in the early May local elections and then the prospect of a hammering in the European elections at the end of the month.

Many Conservative MPs are aghast at the party’s situation and some are talking of changing the leadership rules so a fresh bid to topple Mrs May can be launched swiftly, rather than having to wait until December, a year after the previous attempt to oust her.

But one 1922 executive committee member said: “It’s very dangerous to change rules just because you do not want one individual to remain as leader.”

Another stressed that before Easter the executive was opposed to amending the rules and he had not detected any change from that position.

“Changing to a new leader would almost certainly stop Brexit from happening,” he added, stressing that some on the Tory Left would quit if a hardline Brexiteer took charge.

Fresh talks were due to take place between the Government and Labour today but hopes of a breakthrough were low.

Prisons minister Rory Stewart, a May loyalist, acknowledged “a lot of MPs are cross and impatient” but argued she should keep her job. “The problem is not the Prime Minister, the problem is Brexit,” he insisted.

“The idea somehow that some new, fresh leader with extraordinary charm and nimble feet would be able to suddenly get the deal across the line is mistaken.”