May vows to stay on amid call to respectfully stand down
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER SAYS SHE IS STILL WORKING WITH NORTHERN IRISH DUP
British Prime Minister Theresa May was fighting for survival yesterday after a draft divorce deal with the European Union provoked the resignations of senior ministers and open mutiny in her party.
More than two years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave the EU as planned on March 29, 2019.
May, who won the top job in the turmoil that followed the 2016 referendum, has sought to negotiate a Brexit deal that ensures that the United Kingdom leaves in the smoothest way possible.
But Brexit minister Dominic Raab resigned on Thursday over her deal, sending the pound tumbling. Mutinous lawmakers in her own party openly sought to challenge her leadership and bluntly told her that the Brexit deal would not pass parliament.
Outcome uncertain
May was asked by a caller on an LBC radio phone-in yesterday to “respectfully stand down”. She did not immediately address that part of the caller’s question.
“I haven’t appointed a new Brexit Secretary yet but of course I will be doing that over the course of the next day or so,” May said when asked if she had offered it to Michael Gove, the most prominent Brexit-supporting minister in her government.
Gove gave no comment when asked outside his house whether he would support May.
Sterling, which has seesawed on Brexit news since the referendum, was broadly flat at $1.2783 (Dh6.0263) yesterday.
Amid the deepest political turmoil since the Suez canal crisis, when in 1956 Britain was forced by the United States to withdraw its troops from Egypt, the ultimate outcome remains uncertain.
Scenarios include May’s deal ultimately winning approval; May losing her job; Britain leaving the bloc with no agreement; or even another referendum.
To leave the EU on the terms of her deal, May would need to get the backing of about 320 of parliament’s 650 lawmakers.
Some lawmakers in May’s Conservative Party have said they have submitted letters of no confidence. When 48 letters are submitted to the party’s socalled 1922 committee, she will face a leadership challenge.
Politicians, officials and diplomats in London openly questioned how long May had left as speculation swirled around London that a leadership challenge could come soon.
By seeking to preserve the closest possible ties with the EU, May has upset her party’s many advocates of a clean break, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the DUP had demanded May be replaced as prime minister. “They’ve raised some questions with us, they’ve raised some concerns with us and yes we are looking at those. We are still working with the DUP,” May said.
The EU and Britain need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the United Kingdom, home to the biggest international financial centre.
British aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce said it was continuing with its contingency plans. The plans include “buffer stocks so that we have all the logistical capacity that we need to carry on running our business,” said chief executive Warren East.
Supporters of Brexit supporters say while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the long term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive and also enable deeper EU integration without such a powerful reluctant member.
I haven’t appointed a new Brexit Secretary yet but of course I will be doing that over the course of the next day or so... [DUP] raised some questions with us, they’ve raised some concerns with us and yes we are looking at those.”
Theresa May | British PM