UK Edition
Many Tory MPs 'hate' Theresa May, senior DUP figure claims
Theresa May is hated by many of her own MPs, a senior DUP figure has claimed as he insisted the Tories “cannot afford” a leadership election.
Sammy Wilson, the party’s Brexit spokesman and one of the 10 Northern Irish MPs propping up the Prime Minister’s minority government, said a lot of Mrs May’s Conservative colleagues “want to undermine her” and are “doing their best to trip her up”.
He suggested Mrs May was under pressure from rivals who want to oust her and Remain-backing MPs who want to reverse Brexit while also having to deal with the strain of negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.
The DUP MP for East Antrim praised Mrs May for being “very resilient” in the face of such pressure as he warned against an internal Tory battle to replace her.
Mr Wilson’s comments, made in an interview with Politico, came after the Telegraph revealed that work on a new deal for the DUP to support the minority Tory Government after June 2019 is due to get underway in the spring.
Mr Wilson said of Mrs May’s position: “Given the pressure she is working under, not just the pressure of the negotiations but more importantly the pressure she must have within her own party — where you know a lot of them hate her because of the election result, a lot of them want to undermine her because they want to be leader, a lot of them are doing their best to trip her up because they actually want to reverse the policy she is seeing through … I think she is very resilient having to face all that.”
The DUP struck a £1billion deal to support the Conservatives in Parliament after Mrs May threw away her party’s majority at a snap general election earlier this year.
The importance of the DUP to the Tories was underlined by the attendance of two Cabinet ministers at the party’s conference in Belfast at the weekend.
Damian Green, the de facto deputy Prime Minister, and Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, met with DUP leaders as the Tories seek to strengthen links between the two allies.
Both parties appear to be hunkering down for a long term alliance and Mr Wilson warned against any action which could lead to further instability within the Tory Party.
“The one thing I do think is the Conservative Party cannot afford to have another problem to deal with in the form of a leadership crisis,” he said.
“Even the Anna Soubrys of this world would tolerate Theresa May, provided she doesn’t make a big blunder in their eyes.
“They would not have the same tolerance for Boris Johnson.”