When Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 committee, was seen going into No 10 by the back door last week there was a frisson of excitement at Westminster.
Was Brady, the man Tory MPs write to if they want a leadership contest, going to tell Theresa May the 48-letter threshold necessary for a challenge had been passed?
In fact, he was having a personal briefing with May’s officials on the 585-page withdrawal document.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 committee, appeared on BBC One’s Sunday Politics. The Brexiteer could be offered a job in May’s Cabinet
The soul of discretion, Brady unusually spoke out yesterday in an interview on the BBC in what was seen as a warning to MPs not to challenge the PM.
Brady steadied May’s nerve when he went to see her in the 48 hours after last year’s botched general election when she was at her most vulnerable.
If she manages to see off any new leadership challenge, May will be tempted to reshuffle her ministers to try to reassert her authority.
Brady could be offered a Cabinet job. A Brexiteer, he has long had his eyes on the Tory chairmanship. Current chairman Brandon Lewis should take note.
Theresa May (pictured in her Downing Street office last week) is mounting a fight back after she was hit with a slew of cabinet resignations over her draft agreement to leave the EU and an increasingly likely no confidence vote
Support for May, the vicar’s daughter, arrives from neighbouring Tory MP for Windsor Adam Afriyie: ‘With so many against her, our PM must be beatified if she succeeds in getting a deal through the Commons under these conditions.
A person is beatified by the Pope only when they are dead and if they have faithfully lived a holy life and/or died a martyr’s death.
‘The PM may feel she is being politically crucified, but, thank Heaven, she is still very much alive and kicking.’ For now.