May survives confidence vote over Brexit deal

LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday survived a confidence vote by her own members of parliament, but lost the support of one-third of her colleagues, signalling the battle she still faces to get her Brexit deal through Parliament.

May won the backing of 200 Conservative lawmakers, but 117 voted to oust her, and only after she conceded she would step down before the 2022 election.

“I’m pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight’s ballot,” she said outside her Downing Street office after the result was announced.

“A significant number of colleagues did cast votes against me and I’ve listened to what they’ve said.”

She said she wanted to “get on with the job of delivering Brexit”, and to see “politicians on all sides coming together”.

The result, announced after a secret ballot, was met with huge cheers from May’s supporters gathered in Parliament, while the pound rose on the news.

But leading Brexit rebel Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of at least 48 Tory MPs who triggered the vote by writing a letter of no confidence in May, said it was a “terrible result”.

Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage tweeted that May “limps on to her next failure, the deal won’t pass and the real crisis is close”.

The confidence vote followed her decision on Monday to postpone a planned vote in the House of Commons on the text, because she feared a crushing defeat.

She has promised to hold that vote by Jan 21 — when she may yet still lose, plunging the Brexit process into fresh crisis.