BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote on her leadership of the Conservative party.
This evening’s vote, triggered after at least Tory MPs 48 wrote letters to the 1922 Committee, saw 200 votes in favour of Mrs May, while 117 voted against.
However despite the victory, Jacob Rees Mogg, who pushed for the no confidence vote, has called for May to resign.
After the result, Mrs May said she would now concentrate on delivering a Brexit that will ‘protect the union’, amid calls for the controversial Irish backstop to be scraped.
Resignation call
While not exactly a ringing endorsement, the result was well short of the 159 votes against needed for Mrs May to lose.
The 200 votes for is one more than she received in the leadership ballot that saw her replace David Cameron.
However Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC News that Mrs May should still stand down.
Speaking to Andrew Neil, he said: “Of course I accept this result, but the Prime Minister must realise that under all constitutional norms she ought to go and see the Queen urgently and resign.”
I accept the confidence vote result but Theresa May should still meet the Queen and resign, says leading Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg
Latest updates: https://t.co/eU9qe2rnbG pic.twitter.com/RyhydqNFmm
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) 12 December 2018
Mr Rees-Mogg cited Mrs May’s failure to ‘get her business through the House of Commons’, namely postponing Tuesday’s vote on her Brexit deal.
Mrs May had earlier committed to stepping down as Conservative leader before the 2022 General Election, an announcement that may have won over some of the doubters before tonight’s vote.
She added that she wanted to oversee a successful Brexit before leaving, but despite tonight’s result, she still faces a challenge to convince parliament to vote for her Brexit deal.
She will awake tomorrow with many of the same problems as before the confidence vote, with Tory MP Andrew Bridgen saying the issues have merely been ‘kicked down the road’.
Backstop assurances
May said following the victory that she would now get on with the job of delivering the Brexit people voted for, one that would ‘protect the union’.
“For my part I have heard what the House of Commons has said on the Northern Ireland backstop,” she added.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May says she will "get on with the job of delivering #Brexit" after surviving a #ConfidenceVote by members of her Conservative partyhttps://t.co/9Vw2gOQoDc pic.twitter.com/Ke6cTamPsc
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) 12 December 2018
“When I go to the European Council tomorrow, I will be seeking legal and political assurances that will assuage the concerns that Members of Parliament have on that issue.”
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