Theresa May took a swipe at Tory rivals threatening to unseat her as party leader as she warned the next seven days would be “critical” to achieving a successful Brexit.
The Prime Minister warned that a change of leadership would not make it easier to get a deal past parliament or the EU, after furious Brexiteer backbenchers started moves to remove her.
She told Sky’s Ridge On Sunday that as far as she knew the 48-letter threshold for letters of no confidence needed to start a leadership battle had yet to be reached.
In a message to those plotting her downfall, including members of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic MPs, she said she had not considered quitting.
She added: “A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier and it isn’t going to change the parliamentary arithmetic.
“What it will do is bring in a degree of uncertainty. That is uncertainty for people and their jobs.
“What it will do is mean that it is a risk that we delay the negotiations and that is a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated.”
Dominic Raab, who resigned last week as Brexit secretary (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Mrs May’s interview came after former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, whose resignation last week was a key point in one of her most brutal weeks as Prime Minister, suggested she had failed to stand up to a bullying European Union.
There were also continuing reports of a plan by senior Cabinet ministers who remain in Government to try to alter the withdrawal agreement at the 11th hour.
Asked if she had considered stepping down she said: “No I haven’t.
“Of course it has been a tough week, actually these negotiations have been tough right from the start, but they were always going to get even more difficult right toward the end when we are coming to that conclusion.”
She added that the next seven days “are going to be critical”, and said she would be travelling back to Brussels to talk with key figures including Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president ahead of an emergency European Council summit on November 25.
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