LONDON: Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed ministers to her shaky government on Sunday, as some Conservative colleagues rallied to support her and others said her days were numbered after last week’s disastrous election.
May is seeking a deal with a Northern Irish party to prop up the Conservative minority administration, and lawmakers said the rebuff from voters meant the government will have to abandon planned policies and re-think its strategy for European Union exit talks.
May’s weakened position in the party ruled out big changes. All the most senior ministers including Treasury chief Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Home Secretary Amber Rudd kept their jobs and there were few changes in the cabinet line-up.
Damian Green, a lawmaker in the pro-EU wing of the party, was promoted to first secretary of state effectively deputy prime minister.
Boris Johnson backing May
As rumours swirled about plots to oust May, Johnson denied he was planning a leadership challenge. He tweeted that an article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper headlined “Boris set to launch bid to be PM as May clings on” was “tripe”. In a WhatsApp message to Conservative lawmakers, Johnson said: “Folks we need to calm down and get behind the prime minister.”
Former Treasury chief George Osborne who was fired by May last year called May a “dead woman walking”, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was ready to contest another election at any time.
Many senior Conservatives say May should stay, for now, to provide stability. But few believe she can hang on for more than a few months. “I think her position is, in the long term, untenable,” Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry told Sky News.
May called the election called in a bid to strengthen her mandate ahead of EU exit talks. Instead, she has left Britain’s position in disarray, days before the divorce negotiations are due to start on June 19.
Voters failed to give a ringing endorsement to May’s plan for Brexit, which involves leaving the EU’s single market and imposing restrictions on immigration while trying to negotiate free trade deal with the bloc.
Some say her failure means the government must now take a more flexible approach to the divorce, potentially softening the exit terms.
To stay in power, the Conservatives are seeking support from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.
The two sides are looking to form a “confidence and supply” arrangement. That means the DUP would back the government on confidence motions and budget votes, but it’s not a coalition government or a broader pact. DUP leader Arlene Foster said “we have made good progress but the discussions continue.”
The alliance makes some modernising Conservatives uneasy. The DUP is a socially conservative group that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage and had links to Protestant paramilitary groups during Ireland’s sectarian “Troubles”.
Irish peace at risk
A deal between the government and the DUP could also unsettle the precarious balance between Northern Ireland’s British loyalist and Irish nationalist parties, whose power-sharing administration in Belfast collapsed earlier this year.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny tweeted on Sunday that he had spoken with May “and indicated my concern that nothing should happen to put [the Good Friday Agreement] at risk”. The 1998 Good Friday agreement set up power sharing in Northern Ireland, largely ending years of sectarian violence.
Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2017
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