Theresa May has said she
will quit as Conservative leader on 7 June, paving the way for a contest to
decide a new prime minister.
In an emotional statement,
she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of
"deep regret" that she had been unable to do so.
Being prime minister had
been the "honour of my life", she said.
Mrs May said she would
continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest takes place.
It means she will still be
prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK
at the start of June.
Mrs May announced she would
step down as Tory leader on 7 June and had agreed with the chairman of Tory
backbenchers that a leadership contest should begin the following week.
Boris Johnson, Esther McVey
and Rory Stewart have said they intend to run for the party leadership, while
more than a dozen others are believed to be seriously considering entering the
contest.
The prime minister has
faced a backlash from her MPs against her latest Brexit plan, which included
concessions aimed at attracting cross-party support.
Andrea Leadsom quit as
Commons leader on Wednesday saying she no longer believed the government's
approach would "deliver on the referendum result".
Mrs May met Home Secretary
Sajid Javid and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt at Downing Street on Thursday
where they are understood to have expressed their concerns about her proposed
withdrawal bill.
In her statement on Friday,
she said she had done "everything I can" to convince MPs to support
the withdrawal deal she had negotiated with the European Union but it was now
in the "best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead
that effort".
She added that, in order to
deliver Brexit, her successor would have to build agreement in Parliament.
"Such a consensus can
only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to
compromise," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment