Theresa May should quit before the next general election, say half of all TORY voters

Half of all Conservatives want Tory prime minister Theresa May to quit before the next general election.

An Evening Standard poll reveals that just four in ten of party voters want her to to fight the next national vote, which has to take place by 2022, but could happen much sooner.

In total, 52 per cent of Tories and 59 per cent of the voting public want her to step down before the next election.

The findings, from an Ipsos MORI poll, have been published on the eve of a potentially fractious Conservative Party conference.

The Tories will meet for their annual get-together in Birmingham, with the party deeply split on what to do over the vexed issue of Brexit.

It also found that 16 per cent of Tories want her to quit ‘as soon as possible’. Even worse for the embattled PM is that the number rises to 29 per cent among the general population.

Even if she does get through the political minefield which is Brexit, a third of all Tories want her to quit after the UK’s divorce with Brussels.

However, 39 per cent of Conservative voters want her to remain in office after the next election.

Although the latest polls put the Tories ahead by some six points from Labour, Mrs May is unlikely to call an election following the disastrous decision to call a snap poll in June 2017, which saw the Tories lose their Commons’ majority.

Labour called for a general election at its conference last week.

The new poll has also been published on the same day as potential rival leader Boris Johnson, who quit from Mrs May’s Cabinet over Brexit, launched his own manifesto for what to do about Europe.

He branded her Chequers plan to leave Europe as a ‘Chequers plan a ‘moral and intellectual humiliation’ – and has already been backed by fellow Brexiteer, Jacob Rees-Mogg