Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation in an emotional address on Friday, ending a dramatic three-year tenure of near-constant crisis over Brexit…
Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation in an emotional address on Friday, ending a dramatic three-year tenure of near-constant crisis over Brexit and increasing the likelihood of Britain crashing out of the EU later this year.
May, who took charge in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum, was forced to make way following a Conservative mutiny over her ill-fated strategy to end Britain’s near five-decade membership of the European Union.
«It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit,» May, her voice breaking and close to tears, said outside her Downing Street office.
«It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honours the result of the referendum.»
The 62-year-old leader said she would step down as head of the Conservative Party on June 7.
She will remain as prime minister in a caretaker role until a replacement is elected by the party before July 20.
The leader of the party, which won the most votes in the last election, automatically becomes prime minister.
— Humiliating spectacle —
She will be among the country’s shortest-serving post-WWII prime ministers, remembered for presiding over one of the most chaotic periods in its modern political history.
May was pushed into the humiliating spectacle of a hastily arranged resignation announcement following a meeting with the Conservative Party’s committee chief in charge of leadership elections.
She had previously vowed to step aside once her unpopular EU divorce deal had passed parliament, and this week launched a short-lived bid for lawmakers to approve it in early June.
May will leave office without any significant achievements — other than her bungled handling of Brexit, say analysts
Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS, AFP
MPs have rejected the agreement she struck with EU leaders three times, brutally weakening May on each occasion.
