Our live coverage of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s no-confidence vote has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how it unfolded or follow CNN International.
Theresa May can rest easy for another 12 months — sort of. The result tonight means that she will not face another rebellion vote from within her own party for another year.
But here’s the thing: That doesn’t mean her government won’t face a confidence vote in the House of Commons. Nor does it mean that she can pass the all-important Withdrawal Agreement.
Tomorrow morning, she heads to Brussels where she will once again be confronted by the dire reality of her situation: This is a leader stuck between a Parliament that will not back her deal and a European Union that will, as things stand, not offer her a better deal.
So it’s a victory, but it comes with caveats.
Speaking at the steps of Downing Street after winning a confidence vote by Conservative lawmakers, Prime Minister Theresa May said she had listened to those who voted against her.
“A significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and I have listened to what they said,” May said.
May won the confidence vote by 200 to 117.
She went to say that she needed “to get on with the job of delivering Brexit.”
She said the government’s mission was to “deliver the Brexit that people voted for, bringing the country back together and building a country that truly works for everyone.”
Here’s more from her statement:
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s win in Wednesday’s confidence vote.
He tweeted:
Austria currently holds the EU Council’s rotating presidency.
Arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg told a British broadcaster Wednesday “of course I accept this result” of the confidence vote in favor of Prime Minister Theresa May.
However, he went on to say that she should resign.
May won the confidence vote by Conservative lawmakers by 200 to 117.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote of no-confidence triggered by members of her own party over her handling of Brexit.
The results were announced by Graham Brady, a member of parliament who chairs the 1922 Committee, which represents Conservative lawmakers in the House of Commons.
The vote was 200 vs. 117.
Voting by secret ballot began at 6 p.m. local time (that’s 1 p.m. ET) after May made her final pitch to lawmakers promising them she wouldn’t fight the next general election in 2022.
A pro-May MP told CNN the Prime Minister “got a real grilling, but overall solid support” as she made her case to MPs.
Wednesday’s no-confidence vote could not have come at a worse time for May, who had been criss-crossing Europe to beg EU leaders for help passing her Brexit deal through UK Parliament.
May was forced to postpone a vote on the deal on Monday when it became clear her bill would face a humiliating defeat.
It buys her time: The Prime Minister’s victory protects her from another leadership challenge from within her own party for 12 months.
But the result will not offer any assurances to the Prime Minister’s supporters that she is able to get her all-important Brexit deal through the UK’s Parliament.
Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, is expected to soon deliver the results of the no-confidence vote. Conservative Party members voted behind closed doors earlier today on Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership ability.
The 1922 Committee represents rank-and-file Conservative Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. The group has the power to unseat the leader of their party.
Letters to the committee is what started this whole voting process: A vote was scheduled after 48 Conservative Members of Parliament — that’s 15% of them — submitted letters to the committee demanding a ballot.
Conservative member of Parliament Robert Halfron just tweeted a photo from inside Committee Room 14, where other members of his party have gathered to hear the results of the vote of no-confidence.
Here’s what it looks like:
It’s just after 3 p.m. ET, which means the no-confidence vote has closed.
The vote — where Conservative Party members vote that they either have faith or do not have faith in party leader and British Prime Minister Theresa May — was done by secret ballot.
If she loses the no-confidence vote she’ll be out as the Conservative leader, and she’ll likely outline when she will stand down as UK Prime Minister.
We’ll update you here as soon as we know the results.
The 317 Conservative members of British Parliament are currently voting on Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership.
One of those MPs, Sarah Wollaston, just tweeted out a photo of the ballot.
There are two choices:
Here’s what it looks like:
Arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that he would not stand for Conservative Party leader if Prime Minister Theresa May loses the confidence vote Wednesday.
Rees-Mogg, who has significant support in the grassroots membership of the Conservative Party, has been a vocal critic of May and has been one of the names touted as a potential successor to May as party leader.
Conservative Party members in British Parliament are voting right now on their faith in Prime Minister Theresa May. Voting — which is done by secret ballot — closes at 3 p.m. ET. We expect to learn the results not too long after that.
If she loses the no-confidence vote she’ll be out as the Conservative leader, and she’ll likely outline when she will stand down as UK Prime Minister.
How we got here: The vote was triggered after at least 48 Conservative Members of Parliament — that’s 15% of them — submitted letters demanding a vote.
What happens now: May needs a majority of Conservative members to stay in power. The magic number is 159. If she gets that many votes, she won’t face another challenge for a year.
Here’s a handy flowchart of how this process works:
Ahead of tonight’s crucial confidence vote, British Prime Minister Theresa May has told Conservative MPs she will “not fight” the next general election in 2022, a lawmaker in the meeting told CNN.?
May was making a final pitch to MPs to salvage her premiership in a behind-closed-doors meeting, before they started voting in a secret ballot which began at 6 p.m. (1 p.m. ET).
The Prime Minister “got a real grilling, but overall solid support” as she made her case, a separate pro-May lawmaker told CNN. The MP also confirmed that May promised she would not run again in the next general election.
The UK is scheduled to go to the polls next in 2022, but a snap election could still be called before then.
While chaos swirls in Westminster, British people have been reacting with concern, anger and a healthy dose of apathy to the latest developments in the Conservative Party.
Residents in Prime Minister Theresa May’s constituency of Maidenhead have been giving CNN their views on the political drama.
“I thought Thatcher was bad enough but this one is worse,” Valeria Williams said. “At least Thatcher when she made a decision, she stayed with it, but this one, she changes her mind every day.”
Dinesh Patel was more forgiving. “I think it’s hard, it’s a difficult time for us right now. Hopefully the whole Parliament will support her to go through it,” he said.
And he warned that a general election or second referendum may not ease divisions. “I think it’s a whole hassle to go through the election again. People may change their opinion because now everybody has better information about Brexit but potentially there’s also an option where we may have the same 50-50,” he said.
A more brutal take came from Tony, who declined to give his surname.
“Couldn’t care less,” he said of the outcome of the vote tonight, calling May and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn “idiots.”
“Best possible is that they all jump in the Thames and that’s the last we see of them all, but that’s unlikely to happen,” he added.
Watch their interviews below:
If Theresa May loses tonight’s vote, she’ll be out – and the jostling to replace her will begin.
But should that starting gun be fired, who will be leading the pack to take the keys to Downing Street?
Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary and arch-critic of May’s Brexit plan, declined to rule out standing against May as recently as Sunday. But while he’s popular with grassroots Conservatives, it’s unclear whether he’d have the support required among fellow MPs.
Current Home Secretary Sajid Javid has become a strong pro-Brexit voice on Theresa May’s frontbench, and has been rising through the party’s ranks since he became an MP in 2010. But he voted to remain in the 2016 referendum, which could hurt him with leave-supporting Conservatives frustrated by May’s negotiations with the EU.
Hardcore Brexiter and former Brexit Secretary David Davis could be tempted to run for the Conservative leadership for a second time, having been unsuccessful in 2005. Davis is seen by Brexiters as a potential “caretaker” who could either renegotiate a more palatable deal for the pro-Brexit wing of the party or guide the country through a hard Brexit scenario.
Other names to keep an eye on include Michael Gove, who denied leadership intentions just this morning but has also run for the top job before, and Amber Rudd, the former Home Secretary who recently returned to May’s cabinet after resigning in the wake of a scandal over the deportation of Windrush Generation immigrants.
Jacob Rees-Mogg will be near the top of many hard Brexiters’ wish lists. The staunch conservative is head of the European Research Group (ERG), which for decades has been singularly focused on withdrawing the UK from the EU. And Dominic Raab, who resigned as Brexit Secretary last month in protest at May’s deal, could consider a run – though he’d likely be hurt by comments he made while in the post, when he admitted that he “hadn’t quite understood” how much the UK relied on the Dover-Calais crossing for trade.
The post-game planning in the Conservative Party has already begun, it seems.?
Conservative MPs loyal to May?are?saying a win is unequivocally a win and trying to force her to deviate from her Brexit plan – or even resign –?after the vote would be more indulgence. Party rules state that if May survives tonight’s vote, then she cannot be challenged again for 12 months.
So that’s that??Not quite.
MPs who have been critical of her leadership?are talking up the idea that without a?resounding?majority among even?her own MPs, the PM must acknowledge that she cannot get her Brexit deal through Parliament. At that point, it’s change policy or face the possibility of bringing down her own government.?
Speculation is a wonderful thing.?
The number of Conservative MPs Theresa May needs to win tonight has just gone up by one – she now needs 159 votes to stay on as leader.
That’s because two Conservative MPs who had previously had the whip removed have been reinstated to the party, allowing them to vote in the no confidence motion.
Andrew Griffiths, who was suspended from the party in the summer, confirmed to local newspaper the Derby Telegraph that he would support May after having the whip restored. And Charlie Elphicke, suspended last year, has also been welcomed back into the party. He has not confirmed which way he will vote tonight.
Theresa May could be entering the final hours of her premiership – but the markets aren’t too worried.
The pound strengthened 1.4% against the US dollar on Wednesday after Prime Minister Theresa May picked up support from key members of her party ahead of the no confidence vote.
Stock markets also moved higher in Britain. The benchmark FTSE 100 added 1% and the FTSE 250, which is made up of companies that are more domestically focused, gained 1.7%.
But even if May survives the vote, investors are braced for continued uncertainty.
“The only thing that’s certain is that uncertainty will be prolonged into the New Year,” Kit Juckes, a strategist at Societe Generale, wrote on Tuesday.
European Union leaders have said they are intensifying planning for a no-deal Brexit in the wake of the Conservative Party’s leadership challenge and uncertainty over when the UK parliament will vote on Theresa May’s agreed deal.
Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, acknowledged the “seriousness” of the no-confidence vote in a letter to EU leaders.
He said May will be able to update the other 27 EU leaders on the situation before 6 p.m. (1 p.m. ET), when Tusk gives a press conference at the council’s summit in Brussels.
But he added: “As time is running out, we will also discuss the state of preparations for a no-deal scenario.”
That was underlined by chief EU negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, who said on Twitter that the bloc will ”intensify our no-deal planning.” He also joined Germany’s Angela Merkel in repeating that the agreement currently on the table – which May pulled the parliamentary vote over yesterday – cannot be renegotiated.?
A pair of prominent Conservative MPs have hit out at their colleagues for triggering Wednesday’s vote of no confidence in Theresa May’s leadership.
“It’s disgraceful,” backbencher Heidi Allen told reporters, according to the Press Association. “It’s completely inward-looking. It displays that this is all about their egos and their desire for power,” she added.
Anna Soubry, one of May’s loudest critics from the Remain wing of her own party, also hit out at the contest. “Today I am ashamed to call myself a Conservative given the irresponsible actions of a small group of Conservative MPs who have called a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister,” she said.
But Soubry’s remarks won’t be entirely reassuring to May. The MP also took to Twitter to call for the PM to change course and trigger a second referendum.?
Environment Secretary Michael Gove, tipped as a frontrunner for the Conservative Party leadership should Theresa May lose tonight, has predicted a comfortable victory for the Prime Minister.
“I think the Prime Minister will win tonight and she will win handsomely,” Gove said, according to Britain’s Press Association. “I regret that a leadership contest has been triggered, but I respect my colleagues.”
Gove cast the vote as a battle to ensure Brexit goes ahead, telling reporters: “The one thing I would ask every Conservative MP to do is to ponder before they cast their vote this evening: If we don’t support the Prime Minister, then we risk derailing or diluting Brexit.”
“If we do support the Prime Minister we can honor the mandate that the British people have given us,” he added.
Gove himself launched a futile bid for leadership of the Conservative Party in 2016, which May eventually won. But he denied he still has leadership ambitions of his own.
No Prime Minister has faced as many threats to her leadership as Theresa May –- and it’s getting more and more difficult to distinguish one crisis in British politics from the next.
But tonight’s vote of no confidence is a new kind of challenge. If May loses, she’ll join Margaret Thatcher as the only prime minister to be removed from office by a ballot of her own MPs.
Thatcher’s premiership was plunged into a three-week crisis after she was challenged by her former Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, with the Conservative Party losing public support and similarly split over the issue of Europe. ?
“I fight on, I fight to win,” Thatcher famously declared with a defiance echoed in May’s speech outside Downing Street this morning. But with her authority severely crippled after she failed to win the support of a majority of MPs in the initial ballot, Thatcher resigned to allow a three-way leadership contest to take place.
Five years later, the winner of that contest – John Major – himself called a leadership contest, to stare down the critics within his party. May will be hoping her vote mirrors his; Major won comfortably, and went on to lead the Conservative Party into the 1997 general election.
Before today, the only vote to take place under the Conservative Party’s current rules happened in 2003, when Iain Duncan Smith lost a confidence ballot triggered by his own MPs and was forced to step down. Needless to say, that’s a result May will be desperate to avoid.?
As Conservative Party members of parliament declare how they’ll be voting tonight, Prime Minister Theresa May’s staff – and plenty of onlookers – will be frantically counting the numbers on each side.
The key threshold is 158 – that’s an outright majority of the 315 Conservative MPs in the House of Commons. If May gets to that number, she would be free to remain as Conservative leader, and she’ll be safe from another challenge for a year.
Anything less and May will have to resign, meaning the Conservative Party will have a new leader – and Britain a new Prime Minister.
Another thing to watch out for, though, is the margin of victory. If May scrapes by, there could well be calls for her to step aside anyway. If she wins comfortably, her authority at the helm of the Conservative Party could look more secure than it has for some time.
*Warning, warning, this is not a prediction*?
Ever since her snap election disaster in 2017,?Theresa May has had a lot of worst weeks.?
It’s hard to remember a Prime Minister being told so often?that their premiership was on life support.
But every time she faces the firing squad,?she has come out fighting – and has managed to hang on.?
Her performance during Prime Minister’s Questions today was vintage resilient?May, as was her statement outside Downing Street.?
This is absolutely not a prediction that May will survive tonight. It’s just always worth pointing out that when her back is against the wall, May seldom blinks – and those attacking her have more often than not come off worse.?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel again ruled out further discussions on the Brexit divorce deal between the United Kingdom and European Union despite May saying otherwise in UK Parliament a few moments ago.
“The EU will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement endorsed by British Prime Minister Theresa May,” Merkel reiterated on Wednesday in an address to German Parliament.?
“We have no intention of renegotiating the agreement.”??
Merkel also warned: “We still believe in an orderly exit from the EU by the UK.?We are working hard to facilitate an orderly Brexit. But we are also preparing in the event it becomes disorderly.”
May met the German leader in Berlin on Tuesday as she embarked on a desperate mission to win concessions from European leaders to make the the deal more palatable to the UK Parliament.?German lawmakers briefed by Merkel after the meeting said there was no question of reopening the legal text.
European Council President Donald Tusk has said his “intention is that we will listen to the UK Prime Minister’s assessment, and later, we will meet at 27 to discuss the matter and adopt relevant conclusions.”?
Tusk, in his letter on the eve of the heads of government summit in Brussels, continued by saying that “as time is running out, we will also discuss the state of preparations for a no-deal scenario.”
Ahead of Wednesday evening’s vote of no-confidence over Theresa May’s premiership of the Conservative Party, here’s a handy breakdown of how a leadership battle could unfold:
The Scottish National Party’s leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, certainly didn’t mince his words when addressing the chamber. Blackford said Theresa May had promised strong and stable and a vote on the Brexit deal – both of which she failed to honor. He asked if May had any intention of bringing forward the so-called “meaningful vote” on her negotiated Brexit deal with the European Union to next week.
May said talks with EU leaders were ongoing and that the date of the deferred vote would be announced in due course.
Blackford then unleashed a blistering response:
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn called again for the British Prime Minister to rule out a Brexit without a deal, which she has “failed to do.”
May fired back: “Well, we all know one group of people that don’t want to find a constructive solution – it’s the Labour Party front bench. And that’s what we see on the other side of the chamber – no plan, no clue, no Brexit.”
Corbyn swiftly replied that “the time for dithering and delay is over.”
Only a fool would bet on the outcome of tonight’s vote, but it’s fair to say it’s far more complicated than a win-lose for Theresa May.?
In the UK, politics is more than anything about numbers.?
Numbers are what the Prime Minister – and anyone that might follow – needs to get their Brexit vision through Parliament. At the moment, it’s clear that May doesn’t have these numbers – hence pulling the vote on Monday.?
In order for May to feel secure this time tomorrow, she will need to win tonight’s vote by a comfortable margin. Should she fail to convincingly see off her own rebels, the obligation to back her in Parliament will seem less pressing for those who have remained loyal to date.?
A bad defeat among her own MPs could see the opposition Labour Party smell blood and trigger a motion of no confidence in the government –?and who knows where that leads…
It’s kicking off quickly this lunchtime in the UK House of Commons. The opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn immediately launches a scathing attack on May and her last-minute whistle-stop tour to Europe after abruptly canceling Tuesday’s crucial vote on her Brexit deal.
Entering the chamber to cheers, Theresa May is now addressing Parliament during her weekly obligation of Prime Minister’s Questions.
May ruled out a general election in her first remarks:
UK Foreign Secretary?Jeremy Hunt is pleading with members of the Conservative Party to back British Prime Minister Theresa May in Wednesday’s vote over her leadership.
Hunt’s pleas come as MPs continue to weigh the pros and cons of May’s premiership. Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West, expressed his frustration over the swirling questions of which way party members will vote in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning.
British PM Theresa May will face opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn for the first since the leadership challenge was announced at Prime Minister’s Questions at noon (7 a.m. ET).
Here’s a rundown of Wednesday’s schedule:
Tonight’s vote on Theresa May’s fate is the result of a “toddler’s tantrum” by rebellious Conservative MPs, a fellow Conservative backbencher has said.
“This is bad behavior from some of our colleagues,” Simon Hoare told CNN’s Max Foster. “It’s not on and it’s got to stop.”
“Some of my colleagues, they’ve either been at the eggnog or they’re getting a little bit overexcited during the Christmas period,” he adds.
?“I think she will win and win very comfortably today,” Hoare predicts. He adds that there would be the “most delicious irony” if May won with a 52-48% margin, which would mirror the result in the EU referendum in 2016. “With those majorities, we all have to accept results, don’t we?” he says.
Cliches exist for a reason, and this morning in London, it?feels as though we are living through the calm before the storm.?
At the moments of highest drama, Westminster has a habit of going quiet. It’s hard to know how tonight’s vote will go and today is going to be fast-moving.?
No MP I have spoken to will confidently say how they predict the vote among their own tonight will go.?
While this might not seem immediately useful, it does reveal the extent to which the parliamentary members of the UK’s governing Conservative Party simply?do not trust one another.
There are at least five factions within the party – many on the same side of the Brexit debate – that are inexplicably distrustful of one another. Whatever happens tonight, it is unlikely that the fate of the Prime Minister will heal these wounds.?
Usually markets don’t like uncertainty so with the no-confidence vote against British Prime Minister Theresa May looming, you’d think that fear would be reflected in markets on Wednesday morning.
“It went down a little bit when this announcement was made,” CNN’s Samuel Burke reported. “But now we’re looking at it and you’ll see that one pound is worth a dollar twenty five – that’s actually up a little bit.
Burke said currency traders have indicated that given only 15 % of Conservative MPs have called for this vote, they don’t see a leadership change coming.
“They are thinking that Theresa May is going to win and that could give her one year of leadership … markets like consistency, this is somebody that they know,” Burke said.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May could face a secret mutiny from her own cabinet in Wednesday night’s vote, a Conservative rebel has told CNN’s Max Foster.
“We’ve heard Cabinet ministers coming out today to support Theresa May, but it’s a secret ballot – and I know for a fact that not all of them will vote for her,” Laurence Robertson said. “There will be a lot more people voting against than were prepared to put in letters (of no confidence),” he predicted.
Robertson was one of the earliest Conservative MPs to send in a letter of no-confidence, doing so back in the summer after May announced her so-called Chequers plan for leaving the European Union.
“I came to the conclusion then that Theresa May was taking us in the wrong direction,” he said. Today’s vote “has come about because I’m afraid Theresa May has gone against the things she’s said.”
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron has joined the chorus of support for Theresa May, suggesting that Conservative MPs should back her because she offers continuity and stability to the Brexit process at this juncture.
Cameron served as the country’s prime minister between 2010 and 2016. In April, he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he didn’t regret calling a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union – but wishes the result had gone the other way.
“I made a promise to the British people – I kept that promise,” he said.
Cameron’s fateful decision to call the referendum led to his political downfall and left his successor, Theresa May, with a diplomatic tangle that has continued to plague her government.?
The embattled Prime Minister is being thrown a few lifelines from loyal cabinet members and backbenchers this morning, as MPs announce their intention to support her in tonight’s vote.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid, tipped as one of the frontrunners to succeed May as the next Conservative leader, has said the vote is “self-indulgent and wrong.”
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was also quick to get behind the Prime Minister, saying her role is the “most difficult job imaginable.”
And Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary and Brexiteer who has been supportive of May’s deal with the EU, confirmed he won’t be turning his back on the Prime Minister tonight.
It’s worth remembering, though, that tonight’s vote will be a secret ballot – so we won’t know for sure how individual MPs vote.
May’s last-minute decision to pull the crucial vote on her Brexit deal made the no confidence vote all but inevitable, according to a Conservative rebel MP.
“Pulling the vote was undermining the whole fabric of public trust,” Bill Cash told CNN’s Max Foster.
Cash was one of the first Tories to send in a letter of no confidence last month, after May announced her deal with the European Union. That initial attempt to force a confidence vote failed, but more MPs have backed the call since May’s U-turn yesterday.
“The reality is that many, many hundreds of MPs were going in to debate. We were going to have a vote on that,” Cash says. “That sort of thing demonstrates the degree of uncertainty that she has created in the way she’s gone about all of this.”
But Cash refused to make a prediction on the outcome of tonight’s vote. “I just don’t know - the short answer is that it would be very foolish on either side” to speculate, he says.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s remarks confirming she would contest the leadership challenge triggered on Wednesday.
Conservative MP?Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, has called for the PM to step down in a tweet shortly after the vote of no-confidence was triggered.
A month ago, Rees-Mogg publicly revealed he sent one of the 48 letters expressing concern over May’s leadership.
Wednesday’s scheduled Cabinet meeting has been cancelled, Downing Street has announced amid a leadership challenge to UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, told CNN the announcement on the outcome of Wednesday’s vote of no-confidence in British PM Theresa May could come as early as an hour after the vote.
“We’ll count as soon as we possibly can after (vote ends at 8 p.m.) and we will make an announcement within an hour – so I hope before 9 o’clock,” he told CNN’s Max Foster.
Brady said he had spoken to the embattled leader upon her return from whistle-stop visits to Berlin and Brussels yesterday during which she expressed a desire to resolve any leadership issues resolved quickly.
Should May lose the vote, he also suggested a replacement could be found quickly.
“I ran the process in 2016,” he says. “It took no more than 10 days – it might even be possible to conduct a process of that sort more quickly.” But he adds: “If there are two candidates, and that is the expectation – there will be a postal ballot and that inevitably takes longer.”
He also explained the announcement was made early Wednesday to avoid unsettling the markets.
“We thought that when we were making a serious announcement that has important consequences, we thought that we ought to make the announcement before the markets open,” he said.
Several potential challengers to Theresa May pledged Wednesday morning to back her in the leadership contest coming later Wednesday, including Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt.?
Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has so far been conspicuously – and unusually – silent.
Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee – a group that represents the interests of Conservative lawmakers – told Theresa May last night that he had received enough letters from Conservative Party MPs to force her to face a leadership vote, he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme Wednesday morning.
He refused to say how many letters he had received.
He phoned her to deliver the news, he said. He refused to say how she had reacted, other than to say that she was eager for the process to be completed as quickly as possible. Brady specified that he wanted the announcement of the challenge made before markets opened.?
She will address Conservative lawmakers at 5:00 p.m. GMT (noon ET)?in a committee room at Parliament, followed by voting between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. GMT (1 p.m. and 3 p.m.).
May needs a simple majority of Conservative MPs to survive the vote. There are 315 Conservative MPs, so a majority is 158.
Brady refused to be drawn on what May should do if she survives the vote, but only narrowly.
If she wins, she cannot be challenged for a year, under party rules.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed she will fight on despite facing a vote of no confidence from her own Members of Parliament on Wednesday.?
A defiant May took to the podium outside Downing House and said:
May added that now was not the time for a leadership battle, adding that one would “put our country’s future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it.”
“The new leader wouldn’t have time to renegotiate a withdrawal agreement and get the legislation through parliament by the 29th of March, so one of their first acts would have to be extending or rescinding Article 50, delaying or even stopping Brexit when people want us to get on with it,” she said.