Role up role up Stephen Barclay
Stephen Barclay is the new Brexit secretary.
No, me either.
He was a mid ranking minister at the department of health and former whip, who voted Leave in 2016, but now fills the boots of Dominic Raab.
However, the role is now reduced to simply managing the domestic side of the Brexit process. The negotiations will now be handled by No 10 which, some will argue, was happening anyway.
Dominic Raab submitted his letter of resignation to Theresa May on Thursday, triggering a flow of other departures from the government.
Now, a mutiny begins against the Prime Minister. 22 MPs are understood to have sent letters of no confidence to the 1922 Committee, the body responsible for triggering a leadership contest. Jacob Rees-Mogg is probably the most prominent of them all.
Should a confidence vote be called, all serving MPs for the Conservative Party will be able to cast a vote either for or against May.
If she wins the ballot then she will remain in charge of the party and the country and another contest cannot be triggered for the next 12 months.
If May loses the vote, then the chairman, Graham Brady, will invite nominations for the role. Candidates for leadership must be nominated by two Conservative MPs. In this instance, May would be barred from participating as a candidate.
MPs will vote on a list of candidates in secret. The vote repeats in quick succession – every Tuesday and Thursday. Each time the politician with the lowest number of votes is removed until just two candidates remain.
From there, people who have been members of the Conservative Party for more than three months receive a postal vote to choose a leader out of the two.
We await Mr Barclay’s imminent resignation.
