Theresa May is expected to set out when she will quit as Conservative party leader today, after a cabinet revolt over her Brexit plan.
May will meet the leader of backbench Conservatives, Sir Graham Brady, on Friday to discuss her future after her authority was left in tatters following the backlash against her “new Brexit deal”.
It has been reported that June 10 will be the day May chooses to step down.
The new prime minister could be in place by the end of the summer to get a Brexit deal through parliament before October 31, the date currently set for the UK’s exit from the EU.
Damian Green, May’s former deputy, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme “it’s ending”.
He said May’s time in No.10 had been a “tragedy” as she had not been able to implement her domestic agenda or get a Brexit deal through parliament,
May’s leadership appears fatally damaged by the reaction to her latest Brexit plan, which offers MPs a vote on whether to hold a second referendum and a choice which could leave the UK in a temporary customs union with the EU – both measures which are unacceptable to Tory eurosceptics.
Senior ministers set out their concerns in “frank” talks with the beleaguered PM as Downing Street delayed publication of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) which sets out her Brexit plan in law.
The scale of cabinet anger at the legislation – which led to Andrea Leadsom’s resignation on Wednesday night – was made clear by two of May’s most senior ministers.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt reportedly told the prime minister to ditch the WAB completely, saying it was clear it would not pass.
It was a “step too far” to ask Tory MPs to vote for it under those circumstances, he told the Prime Minister.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid had a “frank discussion” with the prime minister about the plan, making it clear he does not believe the government should be “paving the way” for a second referendum.
The WAB had been due to be published on Friday but that has been delayed in a sign of the chaos at the top of the Government.
MPs were told that the government now intends to publish the Bill in the week beginning June 3.
Downing Street had previously insisted the WAB would go before MPs for a vote that week, but it was not announced when the government set out the forthcoming Commons agenda.
In a sign that May’s departure may come within weeks, rather than days, the foreign secretary said he expected her to still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump visits the UK on June 3.
In response to a question following a speech at the National Cyber Security Centre, he said: “Theresa May will be prime minister to welcome him and rightly so.”