May must set date for departure ‘or MPs will do it for her’, former Tory leader warns PM after local elections hammering

Iain Duncan Smith has urged Theresa May to immediately set a date for her departure from Downing Street, or MPs "must do it for her".

The former Conservative leader’s comments come as the party reels from losing more than 1,300 council seats in Thursday’s local elections.

“We have to make a change... the message was loud and clear that, since 29 March, people have decided they are absolutely furious with the political class,” Mr Duncan Smith told LBC.

The Tories lost overall control of 45 councils on Thursday, representing the worst performance by a governing party in the local elections since 1995.

Mr Duncan Smith described the results as “devastating” and said the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers should meet again to discuss Ms May’s leadership.

“The committee has to sit again now, urgently, and decide that either the prime minister sets the immediate date for departure or, I’m afraid, they must do it for her,” he said.

The prime minister has responded to the results by urging MPs to support cross-party Brexit talks and find a way to ”break the deadlock” and get a Brexit deal through parliament.

“I negotiated with the EU what I believe is a very good deal for the UK – a deal which allows us to genuinely take back control of our money and our laws,” Ms May wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

“The free movement of people will end – giving us control of our own borders for the first time in decades.

“However, I could not persuade enough of my colleagues to vote for the withdrawal agreement and, regrettably, I have to accept there is no sign of that position changing.

“I understand many of my colleagues find this decision uncomfortable. Frankly, it is not what I wanted, either.

“But we have to find a way to break the deadlock – and I believe the results of the local elections give fresh urgency to this.”

It is unclear how Ms May could be removed from Downing Street if she does not offer her resignation.

The prime minister survived a no-confidence vote held last December, meaning her MPs are unable to mount such a challenge for another 12 months.

A further threat of an imminent challenge to her position was lifted last month when the 1922 Committee’s executive rejected calls to change party rules and allow a second no-confidence vote to be held in June.

Justice secretary David Gauke said the local election results would have been better for the Conservatives if the government had passed its Brexit deal.

“What we need to be doing is addressing the big issue in front of us, which is Brexit,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“We would have had a much better set of election results had we managed to get the prime minister’s meaningful vote through earlier this year and we left the European Union on March 29.

“I think we can look at those local election results as a punishment for both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party for failing to find a way through that situation.”

His comments were echoed by other prominent Conservatives, despite the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats gaining more than 700 council seats.

“The electorate... right across the country want us to get on with Brexit and move on to all the other things they care about,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio 4.

“I share that frustration.”

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable declared the results for his party the best “in the 40 years of our existence”.

Mr Cable said the Liberal Democrats’ opposition to Brexit would help them in the upcoming European elections.

“We are clearly a major force, we are clearly the leading Remain party and we expect to do well on the basis of that,” he told BBC Breakfast.

Additional reporting by agencies