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Theresa May's leadership will be put to a vote at the behest of the Conservative Party which obtained the 48 letter submissions to allow the procedure to go forward.
On Wednesday, the Conservative Party’s 1922 Chairman announced that 15 percent of its members supported a no-confidence vote for Prime Minister Theresa May.
REUTERS:
Brexit: May Says Vote By Jan. 21, EU Says No Renegotiation
May responded to Conservatives saying she will "contest that vote with everything I got," alleging that changing the leadership at a very sensitive moment was detrimental to the "national interest," and that the move would only benefit Jeremy Corbyn and one Conservative leader.
Earlier on, Owen Paterson, a former cabinet minister, and senior Tory publicly backed the move to give May a no-confidence vote. The lawmaker sent a letter to the 1922 Committee of backbenchers in which he stated he no longer supported the prime minister.
The Conservative party’s rules require a number of 48 MPs (or 15 percent of the Party) to submit letters in favor of the decision to force a no-confidence vote.
“If we can’t go forward with her deal ... then I’m afraid the only way to change the policy is to change the prime minister and I really think it’s her duty to go,” Brexit-supporting Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker said.
Lawmakers within May’s party have been critical of her handling of the Brexit issue to the point of endorsing her resignation.
May embarked on official visits with European leaders to garner support for her administration after delaying the vote on the UK parliament over her Brexit plan, Tuesday. The Prime Minister (PM) hoped that this would help soften opposition back at home. Specifically, she wanted support on the issue of not committing the UK to any permanent arrangement concerning the Irish “backstop.”
The PM justified the decision to delay the vote on what she alleges to be a division over the Irish backstop, a position which favors keeping an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland if the UK leaves the EU without reaching a holistic deal on this issue.
Theresa May came into power as the UK’s PM following the resignation of David Cameron, after the vote to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum, in 2016.
May served as home secretary between 2010 and 2016. She was elected MP of Maidenhead running on a “One-Nation Conservative” platform, in 1997. The PM holds a B.A. in Geography from Hugh’s College at Oxford University. May spent 20 years working in the financial sector prior to becoming engaged in politics.
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