UK ministers back Hammond as PM

Prime Minister May, who is in charge for less than a year, has been badly damaged by her failure to win a parliamentary majority in a June 8 election and is still working to persuade a small northern Irish party to support her Conservatives in government. 

Hammond was sidelined for months by May during the election campaign and had been widely expected to be fired after the vote. But the party’s poor showing has propelled him back into the spotlight. 

Citing some members of May’s top team, or cabinet, the Sunday Times said Hammond should be appointed as a caretaker Prime Minister to see the country through until 2019 when it officially leaves the European Union. 

Brexit minister David Davis should be named as his deputy, the newspaper quoted sources as saying. “I think Philip is the only plausible candidate for a couple of years, with DD (David Davis) running Brexit,” the paper quoted a serving minister as saying. “He is a more credible caretaker than the current Prime Minister. The PM’s brand is so damaged it is painful. The calculation that people are beginning to make is that she is so inadequate we can’t wait two years with her in place.” 

A former cabinet colleague was quoted by the paper as saying that Hammond believed he could do the job. Not all cabinet members were in agreement however, with some backing Davis and others favouring Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. 

A spokesman for May’s Downing Street office declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Houses of Parliament has confirmed that the UK Parliament’s computer system has been hit by a cyberattack. This comes in the wake of the ransomware attack that crippled over 200,000 computers across 150 countries, among which the UK’s National Health Service was a victim.

“We have discovered unauthorised attempts to access accounts of parliamentary networks users and are investigating this ongoing incident, working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre,” the spokesperson said on Saturday, reports CNN. 

“Parliament has robust measures in place to protect all of our accounts and systems, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect and secure our network.” Meanwhile, as a precaution, the Parliament has temporarily restricted remote access to its, which has led to some MPs having trouble accessing their emails remotely.