Theresa May will still be prime minister when Donald Trump visits in June, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
The US president is due to visit the UK for three days from June 3.
“Theresa May will be prime minister to welcome him and rightly so,” Hunt said on Thursday morning.
Hunt, a likely leadership contender, has asked to meet May today amid expectations she could announce a timetable for her resignation as soon as tomorrow.
When asked what he would discuss with the PM Hunt said: “All discussions between foreign secretary and the prime minister should remain confidential and I’m not going to change that this morning.”
May’s fate as PM looks set to be sealed on Friday when she meets the Tory grandee who speaks for Conservative backbenchers.
As the leadership crisis intensifies, the Prime Minister will hold discussions with Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, with clamour growing for her to quit.
Demands from Tory MPs for May to resign are continuing to surge following cabinet turmoil over her Brexit strategy.
Pressure is mounting on May after Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom stormed out of government in protest at the PM’s EU withdrawal plan.
May’s meeting with the 1922 chairman looks pivotal to how her premiership ends.
She has previously agreed to set out the timetable for the contest to replace her after a crunch vote on her Brexit deal, widely expected on June 7.
That deadline appears to have been brought forward with the announcement she will meet Sir Graham the day after the EU vote in which polls suggest the Tories will be hammered by Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
The 1922 executive had been expected to consider a rule change to allow another attempt to force May out.
Following the failed bid to oust her in 2018, under existing rules May would be safe from another confidence motion until December.
Reports suggest the committee’s executive took a secret ballot on bringing a confidence vote forward, and could release the results if May fails to set a firm exit date on Friday.
(Infographic supplied by Statista)