Theresa May faces a showdown with newly elected Conservative MPs today as the British prime minister tries to shore up her position following claims by former chancellor George Osborne that she is “a dead woman walking”.
One Tory MP said Mrs May would have to give “the performance of her life” if she was to reassure a traumatised party that she can carry on leading the country and deliver Brexit, in spite of throwing away her majority after a disastrous election campaign.
But yesterday there were signs that the Conservative civil war on Europe was about to resume while Mrs May was still trying to negotiate a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party to give her a majority in the House of Commons.