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21st Oct 2018

Theresa May has been told she has just three days to save her job

Theresa May has come under increasingly intense pressure as backbenchers within the Tory party prepare to trigger a no confidence vote

Reuben Pinder

A no confidence vote looms

Theresa May has been told she has three days to save her job as Prime Minister by MPs frustrated by her lack of progress in Brexit negotiations, according to reports.

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab responded to the disgruntled MPs by saying “now is the time to play for the team”.

“We are at the end stage of the negotiation,” he added.

“It is understandable that there are jitters on all sides of this debate.

“We need to hold our nerve. The end is in sight in terms of a good deal, the prize we want.”

But a no confidence vote could still be on the cards. For that to happen, at least 48 MPs must submit to the Conservative Party chairman and it has been claimed that the threshold will soon be reached.

A meeting will be held on Wednesday by the Tory 1922 committee of backbenchers, and the Prime Minister is under a lot of pressure to attend it to avoid aggravating already angered MPs.

Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, told the Mail on Sunday that “this week Theresa May will find that she is drinking in the last chance saloon and the bad news for her is that the bar is already dry.”

Former Brexit secretary David Davis also piled on the pressure on May to attend this meeting and listen to the backbenchers’ grievances.

In the Mail on Sunday, Davis wrote that May had “managed to anger not just Leavers but ardent Remainers as well”.

Labour are also putting pressure on May, as Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer claims the current situation is a “mess of the prime minister’s own making”.

In the Sunday Times, Starmer said: “To say that things have gone very wrong is an understatement.

“Things could – and should – have been different.

“But at no stage has the prime minister ever reached out to parliament or sought to build a national consensus on our future relationship with the EU.”