Theresa May has survived a vote of no-confidence in her leadership of the Conservative party, after a ballot of Tory MPs resulted in 200 votes in favour of the PM, with 117 against.
In a day of chaos after the no-confidence motion was launched early Wednesday morning, the prime minister faced down MPs opposing her Brexit deal, and mixed reports of how many votes would be cast against her in the ballot, fuelled by MPs publicly attacking her leadership.
Earlier in the evening, May promised to stand down as Tory leader before a general election in 2022, moments before Conservative MPs went into the vote for her leadership of the party.
Earlier in the day, it seemed as though May had enough public support, as many MPs publicly supported her in TV and radio interviews. Her decision to tell MPs she would stand down before 2022 is also likely to have bolstered support.
The challenge of the ‘meaningful vote’ on May’s Brexit deal still remains, and now that the confidence vote has been won, the prime minister is likely to have a newfound sense of authority, albeit still weakened overall by the opposition to her Brexit deal.
May will meet with EU leaders in the coming days, to try and get reassurances around the Irish border backstop. EU diplomats said on Wednesday that they would wait and see who emerged as Tory leader before considering an extension of article 50, and now it remains to be seen whether that option is taken by Theresa May.
Not long before the results of the vote were announced Irish premier Leo Varadkar and European Commision president Jean-Claude Juncker both insisted that the Withdrawal Agreement “cannot be reopened or contradicted”, after a phone call between the two leaders.
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