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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Kate Lyons

'End of the road': what the papers say as pressure builds on Theresa May

Front pages of the UK Papers on Thursday 23 May
Front pages of the UK Papers on Thursday 23 May.

The knives are out for Theresa May on today’s front pages.

Several papers feature a picture of Theresa May in the back of her car “gazing tearfully” out of the window as the Mirror puts it.

That paper suggests May’s drive back to No 10 last night was “a scene reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s departure” and to make sure readers draw a connection between the two events, has printed a thumbnail of its front page from that day in 1990 (headline: “Tears in the back seat”), and has given today’s paper the subtle headline: “Tears in the back seat 2”.

The Sun features the same picture, calling the PM “Tearesa”. The paper describes her as “bleary-eyed”, “isolated and holed up in No 10” and says she is “set to go after Brexit fiasco”.

The Guardian features a photograph of a happier looking May. “Barricaded inside No 10, May clings on to power,” is the headline, with the paper saying “Theresa May faces the stark choice of quitting or being turfed out of Downing Street by her own party.”

The Express, which calls the prime minister “beleaguered and bleary-eyed”, asks plaintively: “How much more can she take?” and says a “final showdown” is imminent.

The Telegraph sums up the situation: “May besieged in No 10 as Leadsom resigns and her Cabinet revolts”. The paper says a “fragile, finished Theresa May”, whom the paper refers to as the “pitiful PM who glued herself to Downing Street”, was “bunkered down in Downing Street”. In a brutal piece of commentary on the front page, the paper calls her a “squatter in No. 10”, comparing her to a “raging, tortured Gordon Brown” after the 2010 election.

The paper is really putting the boot in, saying “Mrs May’s lack of dignity is extraordinary to behold.” And that “if ‘power’ morally corrupts, ‘legacy’ mentally corrodes. And the woman who has aspired after this job since she was a girl is maddened by the scale of her failures.”

The Times has an interpretation of events that is more charitable to the prime minister, with the headline “May prepares to quit after cabinet mutiny”. In their telling, the cause of the chaos is Tory MPs, whom a defiant May has accused of “indecision”, with the paper highlighting the fact that Leadsom is the “36th minister to resign” under May.

The FT’s splash is: “May’s premiership enters final days as cabinet revolts over Brexit”. The paper reports that Conservative MPs “expect Theresa May to resign or be forced out of office within days” saying Andrea Leadsom’s resignation was a fresh blow to “May’s fragile leadership”.

The i describes it as a “cabinet coup” and runs Iain Duncan Smith’s comment, that May has “got the sofa up against the door”.

The Mail calls this the “end of the road” for May, whom they say is “expected to reveal details of her departure tomorrow”. The paper calls Wednesday a “calamitous day as knives go in and Leadsom quits”.

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