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
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)(snip)
5m ago
10:08
She says that it will always remain a source of great regret that she could not deliver Brexit. She quotes Nicholas Winton that compromise is not a dirty word.
6m ago
10:06
She says she has done her best to deliver Brexit. I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal sadly I have not been able to do so.
She will resign as leader of the Conservative party on Friday 7 June. The process to select a new leader will begin in the following week.
(snip)
emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)rpannier
(24,329 posts)from the woman who refused to discuss anything with Labour until her own party rejected her bill a few times and tried to oust her from PM
May is collecting her three nails and two pieces of wood
CottonBear
(21,596 posts)
8m ago 05:15
And there you have it. May will resign as leader of the Conservative party on 7 June and the process to select a new leader will start the following week. So, she will be the prime minister that welcomes Donald Trump on 3 June. Ill post some key quotes from her speech shortly.
Updated at 5.21am EDT
Denzil_DC
(7,241 posts)(from April 2017)
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)6m ago
10:53
Corbyn welcomes May's resignation and calls for general election
(snip)
The Conservative Party has utterly failed the country over Brexit and is unable to improve peoples lives or deal with their most pressing needs.
Parliament is deadlocked and the Conservatives offer no solutions to the other major challenges facing our country.
The last thing the country needs is weeks of more Conservative infighting followed by yet another unelected Prime Minister.
Whoever becomes the new Conservative Leader must let the people decide our countrys future, through an immediate General Election.
(snip)
Grokenstein
(5,723 posts)Can't wait to see which Brexit-rabid s#!%weasel they pick to replace her.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)Expect people paid in rubles to pull all sorts of dirty tricks to make someone like farage a PM. Laugh now, cry later, ala 2016.
watoos
(7,142 posts)without firing a shot. Steve Bannon is one of the ring leaders. I guess May wasn't far enough to the right.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)will not be so fortunate. The Orange Ass will cling onto the presidency (and all the freebies it provides) until the last breath. Britain will see him, and his family in all their grifting glory soon. Maybe if they visit the palace, they will be amazed to discover that gold paint does not make a place "classy". The tRumps THINK they are America's royal family. I was hoping the trip would be cancelled after tRump's hissy fit. He is liable to shoot off his anus mouth while there. The Brits already despise him. Now they will get to see the rest of the despicable family up close. Lots of demonstrations planned, to "welcome" him.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)he is one happy motherf*cker
melm00se
(4,992 posts)has taken place:
Honestly, who will step up and take the job? To me, this is a no-win situation for her successor.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)do not want the country to leave the EU.
We want to remain and work to improve it.
Ford_Prefect
(7,897 posts)in the calculations of those who own power. They only count the votes of those who enable their vile machinations. Their hubris will no doubt be their undoing along with ours.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,316 posts)part of their party base happy. I think that is now a depressingly likely outcome - it needs an unprecedented revolt by some Tories, working with pretty much the whole opposition, to force a 2nd referendum, or do something that will persuade the EU to reopen negotiations (eg a new general election). But even if the new leader does make a genuine good-faith effort to get a managed exit deal passed, they'll have the same problem May had - hardliners who know they can stop things passing using just the Tories and DUP.
3Hotdogs
(12,378 posts)ananda
(28,860 posts)Brexit still is and will continue to be a giant clusterfuck, thanks to Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage. These rightwing white supremacist crazys have really fucked up our world, and Russia has been behind it all along.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Baclava
(12,047 posts)It has never been hard to make the case for Boris Johnson as Tory leader. Hes 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/
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Takket
(21,568 posts)May fails to destroy UK economy quickly enough for RWNJs, forced out of office
Gumboot
(531 posts)No one is more apt to be the buffoonish, entitled, totally out of his depth, public face of the Tory Party.
Jeremy Corbyn must be a very contented man tonight.
Bring on that general election, ASAP.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)It's a two-stage process. The first sees votes among Conservative MPs designed to whittle the contenders down to just two front-runners. The second stage sees the party's grassroots members choose between them in a postal ballot.
In other words, it is members of the public - those who pay £25 a year to join the Conservative Party - who get the final say on who the next prime minister is.
There will not be a general election because the party is already in power.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48395211