Government whip in TEARS as he tells Theresa May she ‘betrayed Brexit and destroyed the Tory Party’
- Paul Maynard erupted when he heard PM speech and said he ‘wanted her gone’
- The Blackpool MP said: ‘When I was told we have to come and talk to you I cried’
- One MP present said: ‘I have never seen anything like it. Her authority has gone’
Blackpool MP Paul Maynard said he cried when he was told he had to go and talk to Theresa May
Theresa May was involved in an extraordinary confrontation with a tearful Government whip who told her that he ‘wanted her gone’ because she had ‘betrayed Brexit’ and ‘destroyed’ the Tory Party.
Paul Maynard erupted when he was invited as part of a group to hear the Prime Minister pitch the domestic policy plans she hopes to pursue when she has got her Brexit deal ‘over the line’.
Frustrated by Mrs May’s failure to execute Brexit, the Blackpool MP told her: ‘When I was told that we would have to come over and talk to you I began to cry.
‘I said I don’t want to go over and talk to that woman any more. She’s betrayed Brexit, destroying our party. I want her gone.’
The shocked Prime Minister replied: ‘I’m sorry you feel that way…’
One MP present said: ‘I have never seen anything like it. Her authority has gone.’
Out of 18 MPs in the whips office – supposed to enforce party discipline and run by Chief Whip Julian Smith – just one junior whip thinks Mrs May should stay in No 10.
Speaking to Mrs May, Leave-supporting Mr Maynard added: ‘I’m sorry, Prime Minister. I find this really difficult because I put a high price on loyalty.
This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but I’m going to have to say what I’ve got to say: I think things are slipping away from us.’
Mr Maynard was one of a number of MPs in the group who told Mrs May that her deal would never get through unless she resigned – only for her to insist that her departure would not make any difference.
The Prime Minister is now being advised to resign from all sections of her party.
Mrs May replied ‘I’m sorry you feel that way.’ And one MP who was present said: ‘I have never seen anything like it. Her authority has gone’
On Monday, Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, visited Mrs May in Downing Street and told her that a growing number of Tories believe she has to go.
Sir Graham, the party’s most powerful backbencher, said he had been ‘bombarded with text messages’ by colleagues urging him to confront the Prime Minister with demands that she should quit.
His words are echoed today by Nigel Evans, the secretary of his committee.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Mr Evans says that Mrs May must announce her departure in order to win enough support from Brexiteer MPs.
The Ribble Valley MP says: ‘The Prime Minister must now declare the timetable of her departure to get this most imperfect but necessary accord over the line. She must stay in office for only as long as it takes to win her deal.
‘Trying to cling on to power will endanger her deep desire to deliver on the referendum result and will only end in tears.
‘Such is the peril that Brexit now faces I believe that other Tory Brexiteers who so far have voted against her deal could be persuaded to back it if they were assured that the next phase of our negotiations with Brussels – on our future relationship – were led by a new Tory leader.
‘It might just persuade the DUP, who are vital to the Commons arithmetic, and with them Tory colleagues as yet unpersuaded of the settlement.
‘The current paralysis at Westminster is appalling to behold.’