Theresa May to hold meeting with top Conservative committee over her departure timetable

Theresa May has agreed to a crunch meeting with a powerful group of Tory MPs who have the authority to change party rules and force her from office.

The Conservative leader will address the executive members of the backbench 1922 committee next Wednesday as pressure grows on her to resign from office.

She will be asked to provide clarity on her intention to quit as Prime Minister, but Downing Street has said she is sticking by her plan to step down only once “phase one” of Brexit, meaning the withdrawal agreement, is completed.

The 1922 executive committee wants May to set out her departure plans if the Brexit deal is not passed by the Commons.

Speaking after a meeting of Conservative backbenchers, top Tory Sir Graham Brady said: “I’m sure that when we meet with her, that will be the question that needs to be resolved to people’s satisfaction.”

Under current party rules, May cannot be challenged for the party leadership until 12 December – exactly a year after she survived a previous no confidence vote.

The 1922 committee discussed changing the rules two weeks ago, and Brady hinted that debate could be reopened if May does not set out a clear timetable next week.

“We will have a further meeting as a committee following that [meeting with May] where it will be open to us to reach further conclusions or not,” he said.

Brady also said he expected the Prime Minister to try once again to get parliamentary backing for her Brexit deal before the European elections take place on 23 May.

May's decision to meet the 1922 executive next week was not warmly received by all Tory backbenchers, with Brexit-backing Nadine Dorries describing it as "yet more can kicking". Fellow Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach, who is opposed to Brexit, accused her fellow executive committee members of "unseemly bullying" of the PM.

May’s future was raised in Prime Minister’s Questions, with Brexit-backing Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns telling her party leader she had “failed to deliver on her promises”.

“Sadly the public no longer trust her to run the Brexit negotiations,” Jenkyns said, adding: “Isn’t it time to step aside and let someone new lead our party, our country and the negotiations?”

May replied: “This is not an issue about me…if it were an issue about me and how I vote we would have already have left the European Union.”

The government and Labour resumed cross-party talks on breaking the Brexit stalemate at 6pm on Wednesday evening.