British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she is stepping down in an address given outside her soon-to-be former residence at No. 10 Downing Street. She will leave her post on 7 June.
Announcing her decision, May said that she had “done my best” to deliver Brexit and regretted that she failed to do so.
On Thursday, Theresa May abandoned plans to get MPs to vote on her Brexit Bill on the country’s withdrawal from the European Union, which would have been her fourth attempt at trying to get her deal through Parliament.
But what will happen with Brexit and who will take her spot? Lawk Ghafuri, a London-based political analyst who specialises in international business and economy, believes May’s resignation won’t make Brexit easier.
“I think her resignation is complicating the process even more. There will be an even bigger mess. I think now her resignation will not change anything”, Ghafuri stressed. “The one who comes after her or anyone who deals with Brexit, or those responsible for the Brexit will find themselves in a very uncomfortable position; because Theresa May has done enough to make the Parliament agree on her deal, and I think her deal was not quite enough or quite good for the people of the United Kingdom. But again, it’s hard to get out of the European Union with a good deal, especially when the leaders of the European Union are stating that there is no more negotiating regarding another deal”.
May’s resignation follows House of Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom quitting her job just days earlier; she was the runner-up in the Tories leadership contest back in 2016 and Ghafuri has noted that at the moment, it’s quite hard to predict who will replace Theresa May:
“A lot of people are talking about Boris Johnson; and I think if Boris Johnson becomes prime minister, that will make the UK public and people more disappointed because Boris Johnson has been quite clear about his views regarding Brexit and even a no-deal Brexit. And a no-deal will be a huge loss for the UK’s economy and the business sector. To predict who comes after Theresa May is hard, but Boris Johnson is on the votes, I think there’re a lot of options that the Conservative Party is considering; and I think whoever comes cannot solve this Brexit mess”, the political analyst explained.
Theresa May was the UK’s second female prime minister and held the post for three years after Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU. After multiple attempts, she failed to get support for her unpopular Brexit deal; but despite deep divisions in her own Conservative Party, she proved to be quite resilient and survived a no-confidence vote on her leadership in December 2018.