PM says she knows Tory MPs will not let her fight election, as leadership ballot begins

Theresa May has told Conservative MPs she knows they will not let her lead them into another general election in 2022, though “in my heart” she would have liked to.

The prime minister was addressing a packed meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, shortly before colleagues began voting in a no-confidence ballot that would determine whether she could remain in her post.

MPs present said the prime minister made clear she would have liked to fight the next general election – to make up for the Conservatives’ poor performance in 2017 – but signalled that she would step down before 2022.

However, when pressed by colleagues, MPs said she carefully avoided offering a specific date at which she would resign. “She recognises a lot of people are not comfortable with her leading us into a future general election,” said James Cleverly, the May loyalist and Conservative party deputy chair, who emerged early from the meeting and spoke to reporters.

By promising to step down before the Conservatives next face the country, the prime minister was hoping to peel off MPs who fear she would be an electoral liability.

Some MPs who had previously expressed doubts about May’s Brexit deal said after the meeting they would support her.

George Freeman, a former May adviser who had urged her to promise to step down next year, said he would vote for her, as did the Harlow MP, Robert Halfon, who said the prime minister had promised to make social justice her first priority. “The country faces great uncertainty. Now is not the time to make it worse,” Halfon tweeted.

The chief whip, Julian Smith, emerged from the meeting with May to the sound of loyal MPs banging on tables and walls, and said it had been “very positive”.

However, the chair of the European Research Group of Brexiter backbenchers, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has been calling for May to face a vote of no confidence for several weeks, claimed the prime minister had “hedged her bets” in the meeting.

“She said that in her heart she would like to fight the 2022 election, but that she recognised the party did not want her to, and therefore it was not her intention to,” he said. “But the word ‘intention’ is a classic politician’s word, because intentions can change.”

One cabinet minister emerged to say support for May in the committee room was “rock solid”, though when asked what margin she needed to win by on Wednesday evening, he said: “One.”

A former cabinet minister said some backers of the no-confidence vote appeared “queasy”, adding: “They know they’ve put something out there and it’s going to be shot down.”

MPs also said May told them she was seeking legally binding changes to the Irish backstop, and hoped to win the DUP’s support for her deal, after speaking to Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds on Wednesday afternoon.

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“The bottom line, certainly in the short term, is about delivering Brexit, about making sure we can get a good working relationship with the DUP, get this over the line,” Cleverly said.

But after infuriating many in her own party, as well as Labour, by pulling the meaningful vote on Monday, May declined to say when it would now be held.

Earlier, a spokesman for May had dropped a heavy hint that she would signal an intention not to fight another general election, saying: “She does not believe that this vote, today, is about who leads the Conservative party into the next election – it is about whether it is sensible to change the leader at this point in the Brexit negotiations.”

May cancelled a planned visit to Dublin on Wednesday afternoon, after emerging from Downing Street in the morning to say she would fight “with everything I’ve got” to win the vote.

If she wins, even by a single vote, Conservative party rules say she cannot face another no-confidence vote for 12 months. If she loses, she must resign, and cannot stand in a subsequent leadership contest.