Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday apologised to Tory MPs for the party’s election performance, telling them “I got us into this mess I’ll get us out of it.”
Ms May was greeted with table banging and a brief cheer at the closed-door meeting of the party MPs. Ms May reportedly told her MPs she will be their leader for as long as they want her to. One senior backbencher told the BBC that Ms May had appeared “contrite and genuine but not on her knees”.
The session had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, but was brought forward a day so that Ms May could explain the status of her efforts to ally with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party before any deal is finalised.
The meeting comes amid reports that the British government will delay by “a few days” the presentation of its programme in parliament following its setback in the general election last week.
The pageantry-filled ceremony, officially the State Opening of Parliament but more commonly known as the Queen’s Speech, is an outline of the government’s policy proposal read by Queen Elizabeth II. It had been set for June 19.
Strange ways of the British
- The State Opening involves the queen reading out the government’s policy plans from a calfskin parchment in an annual tradition dating back to the Middle Ages.
- The monarch is clad in white and usually arrives in a gilded carriage.
- In a bizarre custom, an MP is “held hostage” at Buckingham until she returns safely.
