May finally makes it her government

THERESA May has finally been confirmed as British Prime Minister, three weeks after the election, after winning a vote on the Queen’s Speech.

Mrs May narrowly avoided a last-minute disaster when she did a U-turn over abortion regulations that threatened to bring down her government.

Thanks to support from the Democratic Unionist Party, she won the backing of a majority of MPs on the program of policies read out by the Queen last week.

It followed three torrid weeks as the PM battled to hold off an immediate leadership challenge.

In the House, 322 MPs voted in favour of her agenda, with 309 voting against. The vote on the Queen’s Speech is considered a vote of confidence on the government as a whole – meaning the PM would have had to quit if she lost.

It was only on Monday that Mrs May struck a deal with the DUP to be sure of commanding the support of a majority in the Commons.

She came close to disaster on Thursday when a Labour MP proposed an amendment to the Queen’s Speech, calling for women from Northern Ireland to get free abortions if they travelled to England.

If it had passed, it might have prevented the DUP from supporting the Queen’s Speech because of the party’s staunch anti-abortion stance.

But the government rolled over, saying it would fund abortions for Northern Irish women anyway.