Former Tory leader says it would not be right to ‘assist her in this charade any longer’

The former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith has stepped up the pressure on Theresa May by urging her cabinet to resign en masse if the revised EU withdrawal bill is published on Friday.

Downing Street is still insisting May plans to publish the bill despite Andrea Leadsom’s resignation as leader of the House of Commons and speculation that the prime minister will have to set a date for her departure on Friday.

On Wednesday May declined to schedule meetings with several cabinet ministers, including Sajid Javid and David Mundell, who had planned to express their displeasure at her pledge of a Commons vote on a second EU referendum.

Speaking to TalkRadio, Duncan Smith said if May was not prepared to listen to members of her cabinet, it was time for Philip May to intervene. “The only person closest to her is clearly her husband, and I think somebody has to say look, nobody likes this … Politics is a nasty, sometimes brutal, ghastly business. But the reality is that she has no confidence any longer, not just in her party but in the cabinet as well. So the best thing for her and the best thing for everybody else is to break away and say its time to find a new leader.”

Quick guide Tory leadership contenders Show Hide Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



Asked what he would advise the cabinet if the bill was published on Friday as May plans, Duncan Smith said: “If this bill is published tomorrow, I’m afraid you have to walk. And you are not doing the prime minister a kindness if you assist her in this charade any longer.”

On Friday May is due to discuss a timetable for her departure with Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers. The committee’s executive held a secret sealed ballot on Wednesday on whether to rewrite party rules to allow another leadership challenge if she refuses to quit. If May does not give a date for resignation, the sealed ballots will be opened.

Duncan Smith said if May resigned now the party could have a new pro-Brexit leader by July who was prepared to the leave the EU without a deal. “The leadership election could be complete if it was started now before we rose for the summer break, giving a new leader the chance to get their ducks in a row and get over to Europe and say right, this is it, this is dead, this is what you have to do or we’re off on the 31st [of October] without a withdrawal agreement.”

Duncan Smith said May’s speech on Tuesday setting out her 10-point “new deal” was “as close to a disaster as I could possibly imagine”.

He added: “The prime minister has so fixed herself to the idea that she would deliver this bill that it has almost become an obsession. The reality now is that somebody needs to calmly sit down and say look, it’s over for this withdrawal agreement.”

Duncan Smith predicted the party would get a “trouncing” in Thursday’s European elections. He said the party’s “big mistake” had been not choosing a leader who genuinely believed in Brexit.

He blamed Michael Gove, now the environment secretary, for derailing Boris Johnson’s bid to become leader in 2016. Duncan Smith said: “Had the original election in which Michael Gove decided to knife Boris Johnson and the whole thing collapsed from the leaders of the Brexit group – had that not been the case I think we’d be out by now. That has been the tragedy from the word go: that personal ambition was placed ahead of delivering for the British people. That must never happen again.”

He added: “A leading Brexiteer has to lead the party and the country out at the very latest by 31 October, deal or no deal.”