UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she would resign as Conservative Party leader on June 7 but that she would stay in office as prime minister until a new leader was chosen, in a statement from outside Downing Street on Friday.
Speaking to the nation outside her office, May noted that “if you give people a choice you have a duty to implement what they decide. I have done my best to do that.”
She stressed, “I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal. Sadly, I have not been able to do so. I tried three times. I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high.”
“It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret for me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit. It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honours the result of the referendum. To succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I did not. Such a consensus will only be reached if those on both sides of the debate are willing to compromise,” said May.
On Tuesday, May announced a new version of her Brexit deal which had been rejected three times in the House of Commons. The new plans included proposals for a vote on a second referendum that proved extremely unpopular within the Conservative Party with several ministers coming out against them, while the Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom resigned in protest. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is currently the frontrunner to succeed May, other likely candidates include former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
May took office in July 2016 after then prime minister David Cameron resigned following the unexpected result of the Brexit referendum. May subsequently committed her government to carrying out Brexit and called a snap election in March 2017 that saw her lose her parliamentary majority, that forced her to rely on the votes of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
The prime minister had earlier committed to stepping down if parliament finally passed her Brexit deal but she still failed to achieve a majority at the third attempt in March.