Characterized by critics and political observers as an ignominous end of her three years as leader of the Tory Party and captain of the right-wing ship trying to steer the country toward Brexit, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May announced her official resignation on Friday morning as she finally admitted defeat.
Though she said in a speech outside 10 Downing Street that she had “done everything” she could “to convince MPs to back” her Brexit deal, “Sadly, I have not been able to do so.”
May said she will serve until June 7 and then step aside.
Unmoved by the remarks, and noting her disastrous record as prime minister, The New Statesman‘s Stephen Bush commented that May “bowed out with the rampant shamelessness that has typified her public statements, and leaves one hell of a mess behind her.”
As CNN reports:
May was forced into making Friday’s announcement after losing the support of her Cabinet, many of whom were fed up with the ongoing turmoil over Brexit.
The last straw for Cabinet ministers appears to have been the latest version of May’s Brexit plan, which she unveiled on Tuesday. In an attempt to win over opposition lawmakers, May offered the House of Commons the chance to vote on a second referendum—a concession that was bitterly opposed by some senior members of her government.
Her fate was sealed by the leadership of the 1922 Committee—which represents the interests of rank-and-file lawmakers in May’s Conservative Party—who threatened to change party rules to allow a vote of no-confidence. May survived an earlier confidence vote in December last year, and under current rules was immune to challenge for another year.
One minister, who spoke with The Daily Beast’s Jamie Ross, characterized her troubled three-year run as prime minister and ultimate failures this way: “She fucked up, then she fucked off.”
According to Ross:
May will leave no lasting legacy. The sole purpose of her leadership was to win domestic support for a deal with the European Union that would allow Britain to leave the bloc in a relatively painless manner. The deal was resoundingly rejected three times and her only answer was to try to get lawmakers to vote on it yet again, with minor tweaks. Her most important supporters, finally sick of living in Groundhog Day, decided enough was enough.
In response to May’s resignation, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn—who earlier this week said in Parliament that May’s time “was over” as he called for a new general election—issued a statement on Friday saying, “Theresa May is right to resign. She’s now accepted what the country’s known for months: she can’t govern, and nor can her divided and disintegrating party.“