THERESA May tries to nail down a finish — as a growing grassroots rebellion looms with Tories furious at her handling of Brexit.
The PM and husband Philip helped marshal a run in her constituency.
Mrs May gave directions and water, and posed for pics with 10k runners in Maidenhead, Berks.
But next week she will face a no-confidence vote from a local Conservative association for the first time.
At the same time, constituency chairmen around the country are signing a petition calling for an emergency meeting so that members nationwide could call on her to quit.
And now activists are refusing to campaign for the party at the European elections, in an unprecedented move that could cost vital votes.
Tories in Derbyshire are the first to make the decision public and have told party chairman Brandon Lewis, but other members up and down the country are said to have chosen not to help with canvassing or leaflets.
Cllr Barry Lewis, leader of Derbyshire County Council, wrote on Good Friday: “This was not an easy decision to take, and goes against every natural instinct we have as Conservatives to support our hardworking MEPs and candidates, but we were promised, following the largest public mandate ever received, that we would be out by the 29th March.
“The Prime Minister said we would be out by that date countless times (108 times I believe), as did many others in government, and yet here we are racing towards the end of April and facing an increased prospect of participating in a European Election in May that should not be happening.”
Next Wednesday, Clywd South Conservative Association will become the first local group to hold a no-confidence vote in Mrs May.
It is a symbolic move but party members – angry at the Prime Minister’s failure to lead the UK out of the EU last month and her decision to invite Jeremy Corbyn for talks on how to break the deadlock – hope it will increase the pressure on her to quit soon.
Chairman Gareth Baines told The Sun: “I’m not the hardest of Brexiteers but it’s a personal thing, not being able to trust anything she says.”
And the chairman of East London Area Conservatives, Dinah Glover, is trying to get 65 constituency chairmen to call for an extraordinary general meeting of the National Conservative Convention so a national no-confidence vote could be held for members.
She said: “We very much see it as trying to save the party and the country. Every day that Mrs May stays in power, more damage is being done.”
She hopes that a change of leader would help stem the flow of Tory supporters to Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party, as there is “huge anger” at Mrs May’s handling of the negotiations.
