Members of the 1922 Committee of the Conservative Party have rejected calls to amend the rules so that the party can have a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister, Theresa May.
Current party rules only allow for a challenge once every 12 months and a vote of confidence was held in December 2018, which the Prime Minister comfortably won, meaning that another challenge cannot take place until December 2019.
Meeting for a second day, the 1922 Committee was reportedly concerned about changing the regulations for a specific purpose and had further anxieties about revealing more splits in the party ahead of next week’s local council elections, which take place on 2 May.
The committee did, however, call for May to prepare the party for her departure by setting out more clearly when she would step down.
One Brexiteer Member of Parliament, Andrea Jenkyn, said that there was a lot of grassroots pressure for a change in the rules and she added that the best thing for May to do would be to resign.
