Millions of British voters are today heading to the polls to give their verdict on Theresa May’s failure to deliver Brexit as her own MEPs warned they will all be wiped out spelling ‘the end of our party’.
Mrs May is holed up in Downing Street refusing to resign with the Tories predicted to get 12 per cent of the vote in the European elections – 23 points behind Nigel Farage Brexit Party who are on 35 per cent.
The PM’s party is also trailing Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the final opinion poll before today’s election has revealed, but they may just edge out the Greens. Some polls showed the Tories could win just seven per cent of the vote – their lowest share in history.
Calls by Tory MPs for the Prime Minister to quit after the polls close at 10pm have hit fever pitch with former May loyalist, Sir David Evennett, a south-east London MP, tweeting: ‘Theresa May must now resign. We need a new PM a new Cabinet and a new approach to Brexit.’
Tories have predicted the party’s candidates will be wiped out in today’s Euro elections with North West MEP Sajjad Karim warning today his party ‘will live to regret’ allowing people to vote today by failing to deliver Brexit, and said candidates had been cut adrift.
He said: ‘We will be annihilated, the Conservative party will be annihilated. It was pretty much a case of sending in the foot soldiers and then the generals abandoned the battlefield. It was quite clear those that were supposed to be backing us up on the battlefield all abandoned as well, and the candidates were all left there looking for where the next round of bullets was going to come from’.
And in private messages, fellow Brussels Tory Daniel Hannan said the Conservatives will be left with no MEPs as voters flock to Nigel Farage’s new party.
He also warned that the Tories faced ‘the end of our party’ and the election of a Corbyn government.
Theresa May at Downing Street’s rear entrance last night as her own MPs tried to force her out on the eve of today
Monks Father Mark Caira (front) and Father Leonard Norman from the Sancta Maria Abbey after casting their vote in the European Parliamentary election at Garvald Village Hall, Garvald, East Lothian
Labour party Leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves after voting in the European Parliament election at a polling station in Islington
Outgoing leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable and his wife Rachel Smith voting in Twickenham today
Mr Hannan, who represents the South East of England, made the comments on a WhatsApp group for Tory activists. ‘I am expecting us to end up with zero MEPs,’ he wrote. ‘Sadly it will give Corbyn unstoppable momentum and this, paradoxically, will derail Brexit. Funny old world.’ In separate messages, he suggested the Tories could slip below 10 per cent when votes are counted.
‘If our members stay away, or vote for another party, we may well slip below 10 per cent – a level from which no party bounces back.
‘We’re looking, not just at a Corbyn government, but at the end of our party as a viable movement.’
Mrs May is set to announce her resignation following a dramatic Cabinet revolt yesterday where ministers savaged her concessions to Labour over Brexit.
Andrea Leadsom piled pressure on the Prime Minister by announcing her own resignation from the Cabinet last night. In a parting blast, the Commons Leader said she could not stomach the latest version of Mrs May’s Brexit deal, with its offer of a second referendum.
Other ministers are said to be ready to go too if the Prime Minister tries to cling to power after today’s European elections. The Tories are set to be decimated by Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
It is understood that Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and David Mundell will use ministerial meetings with Mrs May today to warn that they also consider the Withdrawal Agreement Bill unacceptable in its current form.
Tory backbenchers were in uproar over Mrs May’s decision to seek Labour support in the hope of getting her deal through the House of Commons at the fourth attempt. At one stage yesterday, some aides believed she was on the verge of quitting on the spot – and even started preparations for a resignation statement.
But chief whip Julian Smith later told the 1922 Committee that Mrs May intended to campaign in today’s elections and would instead meet Sir Graham tomorrow.
A bleary-eyed Theresa May was driven away from Parliament after facing a brutal session of Brexit questions in the Commons chamber yesterday hours before Andrea Leadsom delivered a near-fatal blow to her premiership by quitting
Conservative MP and leadership hopeful Boris Johnson arrives at his London home amid government turmoil yesterday
Mrs Leadsom announced her resignation letter posted on Twitter this evening
Sources said meetings with senior ministers were postponed because Mrs May was having her regular audience with the Queen, who she was expected to brief on her intentions.
Conservative MPs were in uproar over the Prime Minister’s decision to seek Labour support in the hope of getting her deal through the House of Commons at the fourth attempt.
Whitehall insiders said the legislation that Mrs May announced on Tuesday might now never see the light of day. Another ally said: ‘We completely understand what has happened over the course of the last 24 hours. She wants to be able to say that, in her own words, in short order. You will see that clearly when the elections are done.’
The Tory revolt came after ministers were briefed in detail on the proposed concessions to Labour, which also include the option of a temporary customs union.
Several were aghast at provisions in the legislation guaranteeing an act of parliament to deliver a second referendum if MPs voted for one.
Sources told the Mail that Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt joined Mrs Leadsom, Mr Javid, Mr Hunt and Mr Mundell in warning No 10 they could not support the legislation in its current form.
One Cabinet minister said: ‘A lot of ministers are going to struggle to vote for this. I would certainly struggle with it as it is. It is opening the door to a second referendum – why would we do it?
‘We cannot put this to a vote – it would expose exactly how split the party is and make life even harder for her successor.
‘I don’t think anyone in Cabinet is ready to call for her to go. People still want her to make her own mind up and leave on her own terms.
‘But there is a lot of pressure to pull the Withdrawal Bill – and that amounts to calling for her to resign.’
Page one of the reply from Prime Minister Theresa May to Andrea Leadsom after the Commons Leader resigned
Page two of the reply from Prime Minister Theresa May to Andrea Leadsom after the Commons Leader resigned
Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt will today urge Mrs May to pull the planned vote on the legislation, which No 10 said was still pencilled in for the first week of June.
Sources close to Mr Javid said the Home Secretary would demand that the Prime Minister strip out the provisions for a second referendum altogether before going ahead with the legislation.
Scottish Secretary Mr Mundell is also said to be unwilling to accept anything that opens the door to a second vote, arguing it would fuel demands for Scottish independence.
Mrs May also faced a backbench revolt yesterday, with MPs demanding that the 1922 Committee tear up its own rules to allow an immediate vote of confidence in the PM. Sir Graham came under fire at a stormy meeting of the committee after warning that a rule change would set a dangerous precedent.
One MP accused him of going native. Another branded him a ‘jellyfish’.
With polls suggesting the Conservatives could get just 7 per cent of the vote today, calls for Mrs May to go extended beyond the Tory Eurosceptic wing.
Leading moderate Tom Tugendhat said Mrs May had ‘to go – and without delay’.
‘She must announce her resignation after the European elections. And the Conservative Party must fast track the leadership process to replace her,’ he insisted.
Attention is expected to turn quickly to the timetable for Mrs May’s departure and the race to succeed her. Mrs Leadsom’s resignation last night appeared to put the final nail in the PM’s political coffin.
In her resignation letter, she told Mrs May that repeated compromises meant her plans did not represent Brexit in any meaningful sense.
But a Cabinet minister loyal to the PM rounded on Brexiteer leadership candidates such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab for encouraging their supporters to oppose the Bill, saying: ‘They have got their heads in the sand.’
Former Tory minister Nick Boles said: ‘I never thought Theresa May would be a good PM. I resigned as a minister the day she took office. But the sight of her former acolytes and boosters falling over themselves to bring her down is truly sickening.’
A YouGov poll for the Times showed both main parties being hammered when the results are published on Sunday.
It put the Brexit Party on 37 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 19 per cent and Labour on 13 per cent, just one point ahead of the Greens. The Tories were in fifth on seven points, just four ahead of Ukip. In a sign of ebbing support among activists, the ConHome website urged Tory supporters to abstain rather than vote for the party unless Theresa May quits ahead of polling today.
A former civil service boss was accused of ditching Whitehall impartiality by announcing he would be voting for the Lib Dems today.
Lord Gus O’Donnell said it was his ‘civic duty’ to vote for the most consistently Remain party.
The former cabinet secretary rote in the Times that the clearest choice was ‘voting Liberal Democrat in England, so that’s what I will do’. He said: ‘I would urge all those who support Remain to do the same. It feels very strange to be specifying a preference for a particular party.
‘However, as a crossbencher in the Lords, and faced with a decision that will affect generations to come, I believe it is my civic duty to vote and there is now no reason not to be clear about how I use this precious power that democracies bestow on their citizens.’
Tory MP Neil O’Brien said: ‘The trend of former senior civil servants getting involved in politics and particularly declaring their allegiance is going to be very bad for the civil service longer term.’
Yesterday another Conservative peer was suspended from the party whip for pledging to vote Liberal Democrat in the European elections.
Lord Cooper, the founder of pollster Populus who was David Cameron’s director of strategy in Downing Street, received the punishment two days after it was imposed on former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine.
He tweeted: ‘I have come to the same conclusion as Michael Heseltine, for exactly the same reasons – and will be voting Lib Dem in Thursday’s European parliament elections.’
Lord Cooper was subsequently told by his chief whip that ‘endorsing the candidates of another party is not compatible with taking the Conservative whip’.
Labour peer Lord Cashman said he had quit his party to vote Lib Dem.
The former EastEnders actor said: ‘I can’t trust Jeremy Corbyn or the people around him on the defining issue in postwar Britain, so on Thursday I will not be voting for the Labour Party. As Matthew Parris said, I am not a Liberal Democrat, but I support their absolute consistency. Voting Lib Dem in the EU elections.’
Later he wrote: ‘I think I’ve just resigned from the Labour party by declaring that I will support the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.’
Visions of Maggie: How images of bleary-eyed Theresa May being driven from Downing Street recall the final days of Mrs Thatcher’s 11-year reign
Pictures of a bleary-eyed Theresa May being driven away from Parliament last night bore an uncanny resemblance to those memorable shots of Margaret Thatcher on her last political legs in late 1989.
The then-Mrs Thatcher was seen in tears in the back of her car after a merciless string of Cabinet resignations.
The Daily Mail’s headline on November 22 – six days before she announced her departure – read ‘Battling On’, as she desperately scrambled for her colleagues’ support as they filed in to Downing Street to see her one by one.
But with her Deputy Geoffrey Howe and Chancellor Nigel Lawson gone and the second-lowest ratings of any post-war Prime Minister, it was only a matter of time before the Iron Lady crumbled. She resigned on November 28.
The final week of Mrs Thatcher’s premiership are strikingly similar to the horrific few days Mrs May has had.
She too faced a key ministerial resignation after Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said she could no longer support her approach to Brexit.
Other ministers are said to be ready to go too if the Prime Minister tries to cling to power after today’s European elections.
A bleary-eyed Theresa May leaves Parliament in the back of her car after a brutal day in Westminster yesterday
It is understood that Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and David Mundell will use ministerial meetings with Mrs May today to warn that they also consider the Withdrawal Agreement Bill unacceptable in its current form.
But she refused to see any of them on Wednesday afternoon, leading to claims she has ‘holed’ herself up in Downing Street amid the full-scale Brexit revolt.
Similarly Mrs Thatcher initially promised she would ‘fight on’ and ‘fight on to win’, despite failing to secure the 15 per cent majority she needed in the Tory leadership vote.
But she was forced to face facts when her own party demanded she withdraw.
Michael Heseltine’s Tory leadership bid, which was eventually overshadowed by John Major, was also based on profound differences over Europe.
This week Brexiteer Boris Johnson emerged as the favourite to replace the PM, who backed Remain in the 2016 referendum.
And with Andrea Leadsom effectively launching her campaign for the top job yesterday, today is likely to be the day we find out just when Mrs May plans to step down.
The Daily Mail front page from November 22 – six days before she resigned as Prime Minister – shows Margaret Thatcher in tears in the back of her car, much like Mrs May last night
‘But while I am here I have a duty to be clear with the House about the facts. If we are going to deliver Brexit in this Parliament we are going to have to pass a Withdrawal Agreement Bill,’ she said.
‘Our job in this House is to take decisions, not duck them.’
However, key Brexiteers were glaringly absent from the chamber as she spoke. Ms Leadsom, Liz Truss and Liam Fox were nowhere to be seen initially, with the frontbench filled instead by loyalist Remainers. Mrs Leadsom arrived about 40 minutes into the session.
Mrs May’s position is looking increasingly untenable, with even her closest allies calling on her to pull the proposed Brexit vote in early June and resign.
One Cabinet source said they did not believe Mrs May would survive much longer.
‘There are a lot of meetings going on. People are considering their options,’ the source told MailOnline. ‘She might not make it another 24 hours, never mind until Monday.’
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have slumped to just seven per cent in a poll on the eve of the European elections – an astonishing 30 points behind Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. Many MPs fear the party will suffer an unprecedented wipeout tomorrow – losing all its MEPs.
Key Brexiteers were glaringly absent from PMQs yesterday amid claims ‘secret meetings’ are taking place to oust Mrs May