Brexit: Conservative lawmakers trigger no confidence vote in UK PM Theresa May’s leadership

A leadership challenge is triggered if 48 Conservative lawmakers write letters asking for one to the chairman of the party’s so-called 1922 committee

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Lawmakers in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party triggered a vote of no confidence in her leadership on Wednesday as Britain’s planned divorce from the European Union was plunged into chaos. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:00pm, 12 Dec 2018Updated: 10:28pm, 12 Dec 2018

British MPs launched a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Theresa May over her Brexit plan on Wednesday but she vowed to fight off the leadership challenge, warning that changing course could derail the whole process.

Facing her biggest political crisis since assuming office a month after Britons voted in June 2016 to leave the EU, May said a leadership change would “put our country’s future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it”.

“Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more divisions,” May said in a statement delivered outside her Downing Street office, adding: “I stand ready to finish the job.”

A party confidence vote in her leadership is scheduled for between 6pm and 8pm on Wednesday (2am-4am Hong Kong time Thursday) in the House of Commons after dozens of Conservative MPs submitted letters to call for one. That followed her decision to delay a vote on Brexit which she admitted she was certain to lose.

A leadership challenge is triggered if 48 Conservative lawmakers write letters asking for one to the chairman of the party’s 1922 committee.

May could be toppled if 158 of her 315 lawmakers vote against her.

Theresa May, UK prime minister, departing from her news conference following a special meeting of the European Council on the Brexit withdrawal agreement in Brussels. Photo: Bloomberg

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