THERESA May has warned her Cabinet colleagues that none of them is “unsackable” as she made clear her frustration at the recent spate of leaks from No 10.
In a radio interview, the Prime Minister said her current line-up of ministers was safe for the time being but she made clear that persistent leakers would be shown the Downing Street door.
“There’s no such thing as an unsackable minister,” she told LBC’s Iain Dale. “But at the moment the team is together and we are getting on with the job of delivering what we believe the British people want us to do.”
Mrs May argued that the malign leaks against her Chancellor, Philip Hammond, were not as a result of her weakened authority and suggested that such disclosures from the heart of government were nothing new.
“I have to say, if you look back over the years, this is not the first time this has happened. It shouldn’t happen. It’s not for ourselves; we’ve got a job to do delivering for the public,” she explained.
The PM was said to have read the Riot Act to ministers at this week’s Cabinet and told them at a later reception that further disloyalty risked putting Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
She added: “It’s a very simple approach in this country that things said at those Cabinet meetings should not be reported publicly in that way and people should accept collective responsibility because when those decisions are taken they are Government decisions.”
Earlier, members of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee gave their leader their support if she felt the need to fire any minister who was found to have leaked details of private Cabinet discussions.
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