PM May Reeling Over Grenfell Tower, No DUP Deal And Looming Queen's Speech

PM May Reeling Over Grenfell Tower, No DUP Deal And Looming Queen's Speech

Theresa May is facing continued pressure over her leadership as she prepares for the Queen's Speech on Wednesday, without a deal secured to prop up her minority government.

Senior Cabinet figures have refused to say how long they expect the Prime Minister to remain in No 10 amid claims that successors are being lined up in readiness for a swift leadership campaign.

Aides to Boris Johnson have dismissed claims that the Foreign Secretary has been discussing a leadership bid with Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon as "completely false" after they were spotted drinking in a pub in Kent on Saturday evening.

"He regularly sees Michael when he is staying at Chevening as Michael is the MP for Sevenoaks and lives five minutes from Chevening," Mr Johnson's spokesman said.

"They had a catch-up over a pint, as they have done on many occasions."

Mrs May is reeling after intense criticism of the way she has handled the Grenfell Tower disaster.

As well as continuing to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy, the Prime Minister is also facing continued negotiations with the DUP over securing the party's support on key votes, although the premier has said she is confident of getting the Queen's Speech through the Commons.

On Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond criticised the way the disastrous general election campaign had been run and sidestepped questions over how long the PM would remain in power, saying: "Theresa is leading the Government and I think the Government needs to get on with its job."

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom insisted she did not "look into the future" when asked about Mrs May's tenure.

Labour has overtaken the Tories in popularity following the shock election result, while four in 10 people think Mrs May should resign, a new poll suggests.

Research by Survation for Good Morning Britain (GMB) gave Jeremy Corbyn's party a three-point lead over the Conservatives, as 44% of respondents backed Labour, 41% opted for the Tories, 6% for the Lib Dems and 2% for Ukip.

A similar Survation poll conducted over May 5-6 found that 47% of respondents would vote Conservative compared with 30% for Labour.

Some 48% of people think Mrs May should remain Prime Minister while 45% want her to resign amid intense scrutiny of her leadership following the Tories' poor election result and the Grenfell Tower fire.

However with Brexit negotiations due to begin this week, Mrs May was the party leader that most people trusted to negotiate the best deal (52%) while 39% backed Mr Corbyn.

More than half of voters (51%) said they would now vote to remain in the EU, while 49% would vote to leave the bloc, the poll found.

Voters said they would prefer a soft Brexit (55%) compared to a hard Brexit (35%), and more than half (57%) were opposed to a second referendum at the end of the negotiations.

The poll also found that 60% would prefer a coalition to negotiate a Brexit deal, compared with 35% who favoured the current Conservative-led government to lead talks.

:: Survation questioned 1,005 adults between June 16-17.

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