Theresa May fails to deny she is about to 'ride off into the sunset' ahead of Tory showdown meeting

Prime minister fuels suggestions that she will set out a timetable for her departure at a 5pm meeting with her party

Theresa May has failed to deny she is about to “ride off into the sunset”, ahead of a showdown meeting with Tory MPs who want her to quit Downing Street.

During prime minister’s questions, she was asked if she felt any “sense of responsibility” for potentially handing over the reins to “an extreme right-wing Brexiteer”.

In a brief reply, Ms May did nothing to dampen suggestions that she will set out a timetable for her departure at a 5pm meeting with all Conservative MPs – and used the past tense about her Brexit struggles.

“It’s my sense of responsibility and duty that has meant I have kept working to ensure we deliver on the result of the British people,” she told MPs.

The comment, to the SNP’s Westminster leader, came after the prime minister hinted the third ‘meaningful vote’ on her unpopular deal would be staged “this week”.

No 10 still wants it to take place within days, despite the staunch opposition of the Democratic Unionist Party which – as it stands – makes a third thumping defeat all-but inevitable.

In the Commons, no Conservative raised Ms May’s future, ahead of her coming under pressure to say when she will resign at the meeting of the backbench 1922 committee.

But the SNP’s Ian Blackford said: “It is increasingly clear that the cost this prime minister will pay, to force her disastrous deal through, is the price of her departure.

“Yet again, another Tory prime minister is willing to ride off into the sunset and saddle us with a crisis in the UK – and an extreme right Brexiteer in Downing Street.

“Does the prime minister feel no sense of responsibility for what she is about to do?”

Later, Ms May’s spokesman, asked if her reply meant her resignation is imminent, replied: “The prime minister is totally focused on the job at hand and will remain so.”

During question time, one anti-EU Tory, Andrew Bridgen, told the prime minister his constituents would never trust her again if the UK failed to leave the EU on 29 March – even though that is no longer possible, following the extension agreed.

“At the last minute, she begs our EU masters for an extension to Article 50, delaying our departure,” he said.

In response, Ms May said Mr Bridgen and other MPs could still guarantee delivering on Brexit “if, this week, he and others in this House support the deal”.

No 10 hopes the meaningful vote can take place on Thursday or Friday, after key Brexiteers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson hinted they could jump on board.

However, the DUP is not shifting and has insisted it will not unless there is an escape route from the Irish backstop, opening up regulatory changes between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

“The DUP wants to leave the EU in an orderly fashion but this deal will endanger the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK. It is not a price that we as Unionists are willing to pay,” MEP Diane Dodds told the European Parliament.