Theresa May Will Resign as British Prime Minister After Failing to Deliver Brexit
Theresa May will resign as leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party on June 7, she announced on the steps of 10 Downing Street on Friday morning. She will remain Prime Minister until a new leader is chosen by her party, in a contest which will begin the following week and conclude some time in the summer.
She will have served as British Prime Minister for three years.
May was forced out by her own cabinet and wider party, who lost faith in her ability to deliver Brexit. The final straw came Wednesday, when May’s fourth attempt to put her Brexit deal to a vote was scuppered by her closest allies, who said they could not support her latest compromise that included a concession to let lawmakers vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum.
“It is in the best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead,” May told cameras. “It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit,” she said. “It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honours the result of the referendum. To succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not.”
May became British Prime Minister in July 2016, after her predecessor David Cameron stepped down in the wake of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum.
The former Home Secretary (Interior Minister), May had supported the ‘remain’ campaign in the referendum, but pivoted to a ‘leave’ platform as Prime Minister, promising to do all she could to make Brexit an opportunity for the country.
Perhaps the moment that defined her premiership came in April 2017, when she called a general election in a bid to increase her majority in Parliament in order to smooth the passage of Brexit legislation.
However May’s gambit, based on high polling data at the time, failed to pay off. In the June election, the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn staged a surprise resurgence, resulting in May’s Conservatives actually losing seats.
May’s majority after that was wafer thin — which further handicapped her ability to lead her divided party, irreconcilably riven over the issue of E.U. membership.
It was that divide that brought May’s premiership to an end. That brings to four the number of Conservative prime ministers whose political careers have ended because of Europe: Cameron, John Major before him and Margaret Thatcher before him.
May was only the second woman Prime Minister Britain has ever had, after Thatcher.
“I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold,” May said, visibly emotional as her speech drew to a close. “The second female prime minister, but certainly not the last. I do so with no will ill, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”
The race to succeed May as Prime Minister will now begin.
