Theresa May to resign as party leader, make way for new British prime minister
Source: Washington Post
LONDON -- Theresa May announced Friday that she will resign as her party's leader by June 7 and make way for a new British prime minister.
May became the leader of Britain after the June 2016 referendum when the country voted to leave the European Union. Brexit was her No. 1 job, and she failed to deliver it.
She now joins a series of Conservative prime ministers who have fallen over the question of Britain's relationship with Europe. David Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, Britain's only other female prime minister, were all ousted in part because they could not get their party, let alone the country, to agree on how closely tied Britain and the continent should be.
May negotiated a Brexit withdrawal deal with the E.U., only to see it rejected three times by the House of Commons, with many of her own Conservatives refusing to support her. Earlier this week, she was still vowing to push on and offered a tweaked version of her Brexit plan. It was rejected so swiftly and resoundingly by so many lawmakers, including members of her cabinet, that it became clear she would be ushered out soon.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/theresa-may-to-resign-as-party-leader-make-way-for-new-british-prime-minister/2019/05/24/26e4cf56-7ca8-11e9-b1f3-b233fe5811ef_story.html
Guardian article -
Heather Stewart
Fri 24 May 2019 10.06 BST
Last modified on Fri 24 May 2019 10.10 BST
Theresa May has bowed to intense pressure from her own party and named 7 June as the day she will step aside as Conservative leader, drawing her turbulent three-year premiership to a close.
She made the announcement after a meeting with Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee - which was prepared to trigger a second no-confidence vote in her leadership if she refused to resign.
May's fate was sealed after a 10-point "new Brexit deal", announced in a speech on Tuesday, infuriated Tory backbenchers and many of her own cabinet - while falling flat with the Labour MPs it was meant to persuade.
The leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, resigned on Wednesday, rather than present the Brexit bill to parliament. A string of other cabinet ministers had also expressed concerns, including Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling and David Mundell. In particular, they rejected May's promise to give MPs a vote on a second referendum as the Brexit bill passed through parliament, and implement the result - which they felt came too close to endorsing the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/24/theresa-may-steps-down-resigns-tory-leader-conservative-brexit
= new reply since forum marked as read
(from April 2017)
It has never been hard to make the case for Boris Johnson as Tory leader. He’s a proven winner who was twice elected mayor of London, a Labour city. He supplied energy and optimism to the Vote Leave campaign – qualities that the Tories need rather badly now. In an era when exasperated voters seek mould-breaking politicians, he is the best candidate to present the Conservatives as force for change. In fact, he might be the only candidate able to do so.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/05/23/boris-johnson-could-number-10-summer-doesnt-mess-next-weeks/
