LONDON: Senior British Conservatives rallied to the support of embattled Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, after a lawmaker said he had a list of 30 colleagues who want her to resign.
Grant Shapps, a former party chairman, said “a growing number of people feel it’s time to make a change” after a poor election result and a disastrous conference speech by May earlier this week.
The number of rebels falls short of the 48 lawmakers needed to trigger a formal leadership challenge under party rules, but the plot further rattles May’s shaky grip on power.
May became prime minister through a Conservative leadership contest when David Cameron resigned in the wake of Britain’s June 2016 vote to leave the EU. Since then she has struggled to unite a government that is divided over how the country should leave the EU and what relationship it wants with the bloc after Brexit.
May was further weakened when she called a snap election for June that saw the Conservatives reduced to a minority government. A speech on Wednesday designed to reinvigorate the party descended into disaster as May was interrupted by a prankster and almost silenced by a sore throat, before letters began dropping off the slogan behind her.
In recent weeks Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has gone public with his own plans for Brexit, a move widely seen as a challenge to May.
Shapps told Sky News that May is “a very decent woman” but without a new leader “we may be in a holding pattern which may be an ever-descending one.”
But senior Cabinet colleagues declared support for May, saying she must stay in office to steer the country through Brexit, due in 2019.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent Brexit campaigner, said Friday that May had “shown tremendous grace and grit in the course of this week.”
“I think Theresa’s doing a great job,” he told Sky News.
Other Conservatives took to Twitter to back their leader. Lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi tweeted that he had been “inundated with message(s) of support” for May and Shapps had “misjudged the mood of the party.”
Legislator James Cleverley posted on Twitter that Shapps “is doing himself, the party, and (most importantly) the country no favors at all. Just stop.”
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Allies back May after leader admits plot to oust her
Allies back May after leader admits plot to oust her
Woman, boy drown off Greece after migrant boat sinks
ATHENS: A boat carrying over 50 migrants sank off the Greek coast, killing a woman and a boy and leaving three others missing, the coast guard said Sunday.
“Fifty migrants have been rescued and are being cared for by the authorities,” after the accident off the island of Ikria in the northern Aegean Sea, a spokeswoman said.
“A rescue operation with a coast guard vessel is underway, and a team of rescuers and divers is expected later today,” she said.
Strong winds were hampering rescue efforts, according to public broadcaster ERT.
Ikaria lies close to Turkiye’s western coast, a frequent setoff point for migrants trying to enter the European Union.
Many migrants also take the much longer route from Libya to Crete in southern Greece.
The perilous crossings are often fatal. In early December, 17 people were found dead after their boat sank off Crete and 15 others were reported missing. Only two people survived.
According to the UN refugee agency 107 people died or went missing in 2025 off the Greek coast. The International Organization for Migration says about 33,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
“Fifty migrants have been rescued and are being cared for by the authorities,” after the accident off the island of Ikria in the northern Aegean Sea, a spokeswoman said.
“A rescue operation with a coast guard vessel is underway, and a team of rescuers and divers is expected later today,” she said.
Strong winds were hampering rescue efforts, according to public broadcaster ERT.
Ikaria lies close to Turkiye’s western coast, a frequent setoff point for migrants trying to enter the European Union.
Many migrants also take the much longer route from Libya to Crete in southern Greece.
The perilous crossings are often fatal. In early December, 17 people were found dead after their boat sank off Crete and 15 others were reported missing. Only two people survived.
According to the UN refugee agency 107 people died or went missing in 2025 off the Greek coast. The International Organization for Migration says about 33,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.
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