Theresa May faces resignation date showdown as Tory rebels threaten to force her out

Theresa May faces a resignation date showdown after she was served a deadline of 24 hours to clarify when she will leave office amid a Tory rebel plot to oust her.

Members of the 1922 Committee will today meet with the Prime Minister and urge her to set out a timetable for her departure from Number 10.

Ahead of the talks, the committee’s treasurer said it would be “preferable” if Mrs May moved to quit rather than face being forced out by a rebellion of MPs and activists.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “It would be infinitely preferable if she set a date rather than us force her out.

"It's better that she does it than we have a vote of confidence.

"What I would like to see is her set out a timetable to trigger a leadership contest."

After the talks with the PM, the 1922 Committee executive will hold a private meeting where changes to Tory leadership contest rules could be discussed, according to sources.

At present, Mrs May cannot be challenged again as leader until December.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: "I would like to see the 22 give her a timetable to stand down.

"And, if she does not accept that timetable, tell her we will have another vote of confidence after the European elections."

Prominent Brexiteer Mark Francois said that a predicted poor Tory showing in next week's European Parliament elections would heap pressure on Mrs May to go

He said: "As the polls increasingly suggest, we are going to have an extremely difficult night in the European elections.

"And, because they are announced on a council by council basis, every MP will be able to reverse engineer the result in their own constituency.

"At that point, I believe, my colleagues will finally wake up and smell the coffee if they have not, indeed, done so already."

The meeting with the Tory grandees comes after Mrs May announced the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) will be brought to the Commons in early June.

The legislation writes the Brexit agreement into law and represents a fresh attempt to secure Parliament's support for a deal which has already been rejected three times by MPs, including the heaviest defeat ever suffered by a Government.

The Prime Minister said: "What this Bill does is delivers on Brexit.

"When MPs come to look at this Bill, when they come to vote on this legislation, I'm sure that they will be thinking of the duty that we have to ensure that we deliver on the vote of the British people."

Amid speculation that Labour could abstain on the WAB vote, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told ITV's Peston: "We are going to oppose it."

And Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss said she would prefer a no-deal exit from the EU to revoking Brexit.

Ms Truss told BBC2's Newsnight: "If we face a straight choice between revoking Brexit and no dealing, we have to no deal.

"It's a matter of trust.

"The people expect us to have already left the EU.

"And if we haven't done that by October 31 I fear there will be real consequences and not just for our politics, but also, for for our economy."

Reporting by PA