British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday won a confidence vote in her leadership of the Tory Party by 200 to 117. May needed a simple majority (at least 158 out of 315 Conservative MPs) to win the confidence vote.
According to a report, winning the vote means her leadership cannot be challenged for another year. The Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, announced the vote yesterday. This was after 48 Conservative MPs submitted letters of no-confidence in May’s leadership to the chairman of a prominent group of Conservative backbench MPs called the ‘1922 Committee.’
Under party rules, if 48 Conservative MPs (15 per cent) submit letters of no-confidence in the party leader to the chair of the 1922 Committee, a confidence vote must be held. Brady said the threshold was met Tuesday evening and that he wanted the vote to be held soon after. May had said yesterday morning that she would fight the vote with everything she had got.
She also said that British voters wanted to see the government get on with Brexit, just as the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) looks increasingly chaotic and uncertain. Winning yesterday for May was essentially a brief reprieve and she has an uphill battle to convince not only her own party MPs but those among the opposition, to back the Brexit deal she has struck with Europe.
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
