Transport secretary Chris Grayling told Radio 4’s Today programme that his party were confident in securing a “sensible” deal with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, and replacing the Prime Minister was “not on the agenda”.
“I don’t think a change of prime minister should be on the agenda, we’ve got to go into the Brexit talks, deliver a good outcome, that’s what she’s committed to and that’s what we want to see happen,” he said.
Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority in the snap election, and now needs the support of the controversial party when trying to pass new laws.
“The talks are still going on, but the one thing I am absolutely certain of is that the DUP don’t want to see another election and Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street,” said Grayling. “I’m sure we will have a sensible arrangement and they will vote with the government.
“I’m not pessimistic about this, the talks are going on, they are going well, we’ve got some days before we get to a vote on the Queen’s speech. The vote happens many days later.”
Grayling is not the only one to deny the replacement of the Prime Minister. Boris Johnson and David Davis have both said they fully support May.
‘We’re dealing with major issues around security, around Brexit. We were by far the largest party. We need to get on with the job,” said Grayling, after accepting that the election had a “disappointing result”.
“Labour is strutting about like it won the election, we have the shadow chancellor [John McDonnell] calling people to go on to the streets to overthrow the results of a democratic election, which is an extraordinary place to be.”
On the Brexit negotiations, Grayling said: “We’ve agreed to talk about the right of EU citizens, which we’ve said all along is a priority for us, right at the start. We’re also talking about the issue of the Irish border, that’s a real priority.
“We are dealing with things right at the top of the list, we want to give certainty to those EU citizens in the UK, we want to deal with the Irish question. We want an arrangement to allow us to tie up the mechanics of leaving the EU, we want to have a sensible trading partnership and we want to give businesses certainty that there isn’t going to be a cliff-edge.”