May to face confidence vote today
LAWMAKERS in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party triggered a confidence vote in her leadership yesterday after Britain’s planned divorce from the European Union was plunged into chaos, a vote she has vowed to contest.
With less than four months left until the United Kingdom is due to exit on March 29, the country was tipping towards crisis, opening up the prospect of a disorderly nodeal divorce or a reversal of Brexit through a referendum.
Graham Brady, the chairman of the party’s 1922 committee, said yesterday the threshold of 15% of the parliamentary Conservative Party seeking a confidence vote had been reached.
He said he had told May last night by telephone. She had been ‘‘businesslike’’ and ‘‘was very keen that matters be resolved as quickly as was reasonably possible’’, he said, according to the BBC.
A ballot would be held this morning (NZ time) at the House of Commons and an announcement made as soon as possible, he said.
In a statement in Downing Street, May said: ‘‘I will contest that vote with everything I have got.’’
She said a new prime minister would have to scrap or extend Article 50, the mechanism taking Britain out of the EU on March 29, ‘‘delaying or even stopping Brexit’’.
May said changing the leader of the Conservative Government would ‘‘put our country’s future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it’’. Her position is being challenged after the delivery of 48 letters calling for a contest.
May has faced intense criticism in her party for the Brexit plan she has negotiated.
She needs to get a majority in the secret ballot to win it. If so, she cannot be challenged for at least another year, the BBC reported last night.
However, if her win is narrow, she could decide to stand down. If she does not win, there would be a Conservative leadership contest in which she could not stand.
Whoever is then chosen to lead the party would be expected to be prime minister.
If May is ousted, she would be expected to stay on as a caretaker prime minister until a new leader is selected.
Justice Secretary David Gauke told BBC Radio 4’s programme he did not expect a new leader to be in place until late January or February, meaning they would have to ask the EU for more time to negotiate Brexit. — AAP