RYANAIR’S MICHAEL O’LEARY has criticised British Prime Minister Theresa May for “swanning around Japan eating cakes and drinking sake”.
Despite being on a visit to the Asian economic powerhouse, May has struggled to shrug off questions about her leadership of the Conservative party and O’Leary has said that he believes her days are numbered.
There have been reports that May was considering stepping down after the UK leaves the EU in 2019 but she denied this in a series of interviews in Japan, insisting that she is staying for the “long term”.
“There is absolutely no basis for those reports whatsoever, I am in this for the long term, because this is a long-term challenge for the United Kingdom, ” May said.
We need to get the Brexit deal right, deliver the right deal for the people of the UK and for everybody within the UK. But we also need to ensure that after we’ve left the European Union, global Britain is out there trading throughout the world, standing tall in the world. And that we deal with some of the remaining injustices at home.
May has been under increasing pressure from within her own party after her decision to hold a snap general election backfired when her party lost seats.
Opinion polls showed the Conservatives popularity sliding during the election campaign and May’s leadership was held up by many as a major cause of this.
It’s led to unrest within her own party and questions about whether she could front another campaign.
Asked about May’s leadership on Sky News this morning, O’Leary said her focus must be on negotiating Brexit and not “swanning around Japan eating cakes and drinking sake”.
The Ryanair CEO also doubted her claim that she will remain “for the long term”.
“She says lots of things, look at the way she handled the last general election, I’m not sure she’ll be allowed into the next election,” O’Leary said.
But listen, I’m not interested in the politics, Mrs May’s future is irrelevant. What’s really relevant to the British people is the state of the economy here and the Brexit talks are going nowhere, they are a bit of a shambles and they need a bit of leadership.
“Clearly David Davis is not delivering and you need the Prime Minister not swanning around Japan for three days but in Brussels, in Frankfurt, in Paris, doing the deal. Just parroting out cliches about doing a great deal for Britain, do it, get on with it.”
O’Leary previously cast doubt on the future of UK Ryanair flights after Brexit and again this morning argued that an aviation deal must be agreed between the UK and the EU.
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