Who´s in charge?

Theresa May’s challenges grew fiercer overnight as a former cabinet colleague announced he is running a campaign to oust her, throwing into question the future of Brexit talks.

Grant Shapps, who served as Conservative Party co-chairman during David Cameron’s Downing Street tenure, told Bloomberg’s Tim Ross he has a list of colleagues who want to choose a new leader of the party and prime minister, after May failed to win a majority in June’s national election. The list is growing and includes five former cabinet ministers, as well as Tories from both sides of the Brexit debate, Shapps said.

Shapps is the most senior figure so far to call for May to quit after her disastrous speech Wednesday to close out the Conservative Party Conference. “We think the prime minister should stand aside now voluntarily so there can be a leadership election as soon as possible,” he said in a phone interview. “It is clear that we need to have a reboot and that means it is time to move on.”

Under party rules, it requires 48 Tory lawmakers to write formal letters expressing no confidence in May to trigger a leadership battle. Shapps’s group is said to be as large as 30, but he would not confirm the details. He said he wanted May to stand aside voluntarily so the party could hold an election for a new leader. Senior Tory figures on Thursday said they didn’t believe there were enough rebels yet to push May out if she is determined to stay.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, a Remain-backer who is seen as a possible leadership candidate, used an article in the Daily Telegraph to urge May to stay. The show of loyalty was also the first acknowledgement by a Cabinet minister that May’s future is in doubt.

If May goes, Brexit talks—which are due to resume on Monday—risk being stalled again for months while the Tories wage a damaging public battle that lays bare their deep differences over the EU. Those divisions make it less likely that the party could settle quickly on a consensus candidate.

Even if May stays, her authority will be shot, both at home, and, crucially, in Brussels. Negotiators won’t know who is calling the shots in London and whether the offers May made in her Florence speech will remain on the table. EU leaders will be unwilling to make concessions when they don’t know if their opposite number will be in the job next month.

— by Emma Ross-Thomas

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