Theresa May Steps Down as Tory leader
Theresa May
will officially step down as the leader of the Conservative Party on Friday,
but will remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen.
She
announced her resignation two weeks ago, saying it was a matter of deep regret
that she had been unable to deliver Brexit.
Eleven
Conservative MPs are vying to replace her as party leader and, ultimately,
prime minister.
The winner
of the contest is expected to be announced in the week of 22 July.
Mrs May
remains acting party leader during the leadership election process.
Meanwhile, the
Conservatives fell to third place in the Peterborough by-election, behind
winners Labour and the Brexit Party in second place, in what is traditionally a
Tory-Labour marginal seat.
Mrs May's
time as leader has been dominated by Brexit, with her party divided over the
issue, and the failure to get her deal through Parliament.
The UK was
originally meant to leave the European Union on 29 March but that was then
pushed back to 12 April and eventually 31 October.
When Mrs May
announced her resignation, she said it was time for a new prime minister to try
to deliver Brexit.
The end of
her time as party leader will come in a private exchange of letters with
Charles Walker and Dame Cheryl Gillan, the joint acting chairmen of the 1922
Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.
There will
then be a call for candidates issued at 17:00 BST, with nominations opening on
Monday from 10:00 and closing at 17:00 BST that day.
While Mrs
May is still free to make policy or funding announcements, any pledges would
eventually need to made into law. According to Catherine Haddon, from the
Institute for Government think tank, there's no guarantee MPs would give Mrs
May's announcements the green light - especially with such a small working
majority.
Aside from
policy, Mrs May will continue to represent the UK abroad and she is still free
to make public appointments and make changes to her team of ministers.
She will be
able reward some of those she has worked with - including knighthoods and
appointments to the House of Lords. But the resignation honours list has
been controversial in the past - so it will be interesting to see how many
appointments Mrs May makes.
Leadership
candidates need eight MPs to back them. MPs will then vote for their preferred
candidates in a series of secret ballots held on 13, 18, 19 and 20 June.
The final
two will be put to a vote of members of the wider Conservative Party from 22
June, with the winner expected to be announced about four weeks later.
While the
contest does not officially start until Mrs May steps down, candidates have
already been jostling for position.
How the next
prime minister gets a Brexit deal through Parliament and whether they
would countenance a no-deal exit has been the dominant question of the
campaign so far
Dominic
Raab's suggestion at a hustings on Wednesday that he would be prepared to shut
down Parliament - the process known as prorogation - to ensure the UK leaves
the EU on 31 October has been criticised by his rivals. And Commons Speaker
John Bercow said on Thursday it was "simply not going to happen".
Conservative
leadership contender Michael Gove has said the UK must not be bound by a
"fixed" date if it needs slightly more time to get a deal.
Others, such
as Mr Raab and Boris Johnson, insist the UK must leave on 31 October, whether
it has approved a deal with Brussels or not.
Former trade
minister Lord Digby Jones has called on Mrs May's successor to provide more
"stability" for UK businesses over Brexit.
He told the
BBC's Wake Up to Money programme that they should ensure the UK
leaves the EU on 31 October, "preferably with a deal - but without a deal
rather than not coming out".
Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "I don't know who the new leader is going to
be, but it seems to be a choice between no deal, no deal and no deal, as far as
I can understand it."
FROM .bbc.com/news/uk-politics-
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