If Theresa May Steps Aside This Week ...

[ichkeria]

... as seems quite likely at the moment, who would you like to see/who do you think would be
the best bet as caretaker PM?

[ichkeria]

Danny because otherwise it would be chaos. If the PM no longer has the support of the cabinet then the games up.
All she could do would be to try to persuade them to change their minds.
Pull a Dominic Cummings, who as legend has it was summoned to a meeting of the Leave Campaign board to be told he was being sacked.
The meeting ended, effectively, with the board resigning and Cummings staying. You really have to admire that!

[dannyk13]

Ich, with the intransigence she has shown over her 'deal' I don't think that she is going anywhere.

[jno]

I'm inclined to agree with Danny: they had their chance to unseat her and it didn't work; so she's safe till December if she wants to be. If I were her I'd probably do as Major did, step down tomorrow then stand for re-election - and see who was actually prepared to contest the job. There's a risk that she'd lose, but an even higher risk to anyone actually taking on the poisoned chalice.

[ichkeria]

I think if the Tory party kicked off a leadership election at this stage it would just about top the lot!
She may well not depart: but if she doesn’t will be because she has either managed to get the deal through Parliament or she’s managed to persuade the cabinet to pursue a No Deal strategy.

[dannyk13]

Ich, How can they have a leadership election? May cannot face a no confidence vote until a year has passed since her last one.

[ichkeria]

It was jno who suggested it not me. I was politely ridiculing the idea

[ichkeria]

But in any case jno was suggesting a leadership election following her resignation. Like John Major in 1995.
That however would be pretty unlikely in this week of all weeks.

[Gromit]

May won’t go volutarily.
And they can’t remove her.
And no one wants the job at this time.
And no one else is up to the job.

She will be around a few weeks longer.

[jno]

she can't face another confidence motion till December, I think, but that doesn't stop her stepping down voluntarily. Her name is already mud, so she has nothing to lose, but challengers have plenty. I'd do it...

[ichkeria]

The situation is completely different to December. We don’t have “a few weeks” for her to stick around. She WILL stick around if enough people are confident that she can sort things out but she no longer has the luxury of being able to say “back me or sack me” in the belief that no one would take it on. I’m sure no one else does want to but the difference is now someone may simply have to.

[Gromit]

Ich,
The timing is even worse now than December, when it was far too late then anyway.
It wouldn’t really achieve anything.

[david small]

JRM.

[jno]

ah, but who is the someone? May took it on (I assume) because she thought it was doable, only to find that it brought politics into chaos and her own reputation into disgrace. Who wants to pick up that mantle any time this year? Well, perhaps there's someone whose cupidity is exceeded by their stupidity; I'd love to see them try.

(I have of course no particular interest in ensuring the survival of the Tory party; May might feel differently.)

[ichkeria]

We aren’t talking about the same thing even gromit. Things have moved on from the Tories changing their leader to drafting in a new head of the cabinet who can command sufficient confidence not just within government but in parliament. May indeed not happen but we are a lot closer to her departing the scene than ever.
She has only ever countenanced three options: her deal, no deal or no Brexit. I’m pretty sure she is only really using the latter two to scare leavers and remainers alike.
So if her deal dies that only really leaves her with those options. And I can’t see parliament tolerating either. Certainly not the No Deal one.
So the only other thing is that she limps on while parliament discusses other Brexit options and I don’t think she could do that. Her credibility would be shot.
Of course it might genuinely be the case that no other minister would want to take over but I don’t believe the govt is that breathtakingly spineless

[ichkeria]

Jno any new PM could agree to so the job for a short while. There’s the chance for someone to be a hero ;-)

[jno]

her credibility is already shot, ichkeria, and has been for months. And yet she's still there. Her party colleagues have already tried and failed to remove her. Corbyn seems intent on not looking as though Labour could win an election. My suggestion of a Major-style resignation was seriocomic, aimed at causing chaos in her party; but I do believe the job is hers as long as she wants it, and as long as nobody has put forward a coherent alternative Brexit that might get backing in the House.

[ichkeria]

We’re running out of time tho.

[ichkeria]

And why would she even want to stay if what she has worked for has failed?

[fender62]

geoffrey cox seems very well spoken, not sure if he could be pm ?

[jno]

obstinacy? (Coupled with inconstancy.) Her rivals have been circling, stilettos in hand, for months; why would she give them the satisfaction of surrendering to them?

And my other question remains: how many of them really want the job now, as opposed to this time next year? Thatcher had plenty of men like Whitelaw and Carrington who might have seen taking over as a caretaker as the honourable thing to do (though the job currently requires a Guy Gibson rather than a caretaker), but is there anyone like that in the party at the moment?

Boris...?