-Pressure mounts on PM May to take control
Last week’s Conservative Party conference turned out to be a disaster for the U.K.’s Prime Minister Theresa May. The protester-interrupted, cough-plagued conference was far behind expectations. May, suffering from a cold and clearly under the weather, looked as if she was incapable of keeping her own conference under control. A prankster waving a fake P45 who was subsequently dragged from the auditorium interrupted her humdrum speech, scare of information on the future of Brexit negotiations. The prankster was well-known comedian Simon Brodkin, who in 2015 showered the then Fifa President Sepp Blatter with banknotes. When he was handing the P45 paper to May, he told her that, “Boris [Johnson] told me to do so.”
The rift between May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been ongoing for quite a long time, and senior Conservative MP’s have been calling May to sack him and show her leadership within the party. However, May is likely not to want Johnson off the Brexit train yet or be the sole person taking entire responsibility for a possible Brexit crash on the way. Even though May in her capacity as prime minister is leading the Brexit strategy, prior to the election that brought her to power, she was not in favor of the U.K. leaving the EU. With Johnson being one of the biggest supporters of the leave campaign, May clearly wants the biggest Brexit supporters to be in the cabinet taking shared responsibility for its failure or success.
According to the Independent newspaper, Johnson will “just say no” if May tries to sack him. The paper says the foreign secretary will apparently refuse any attempts by the Prime Minister to demote him, and indicated that he could be moved into another Cabinet role in a reshuffle. Over the next couple of weeks, the future of Johnson promises to dominate the agenda while businesses are still waiting for a concrete step towards securing access to the EU’s markets.
Furthermore, the outlook from most economic data does not look very encouraging. New car registrations last month numbered 426,170, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The figure was down 9.3 percent from September last year. This was the first time in six years that the key September market had fallen. September car sales data is generally considered one of the key indicators of annual performance. 'September is always a barometer of the health of the U.K. new car market, so this decline will cause considerable concern,' said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. Consumer confidence data will also be important to reflect any changes in economic outlook while businesses are still concerned about the ongoing uncertainty in the Brexit process.