UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces resignation amid Brexit chaos

Theresa May delivering her resignation speech on Friday

Theresa May has announced that she will step down as Conventional leader on 7 June and arrangements will be underway to choose the new Prime Minister

May said in an emotional statement that she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of “deep regret” that she had been unable to do so.

“I have done my best to implement the result of the referendum,” she said outside her residence at 10 Downing street.

“I have done everything I can to convince to convince MPs to back my deal. It is a matter of deep regret that I have not delivered Brexit. My successor must find consensus in parliament,” May added.

Mrs. May said that being Prime Minister has been the “honor of my life” adding that she would continue to serve in this position while a Conservative leadership contest takes place.

However, May will still be Prime Minister at the time US President Donald Trump will make his visit to the United Kingdom at the beginning of June.

Mrs. May announced that she will be stepping down as Tory leader on 7 June after discussing with the chairman of Tory backbenchers and agreed to start a leadership contest a week after her resignation.

So far three candidates including Boris Johnson, Esther McVey and Roy Stewart have declared their intension to run for the party leadership with more than a dozen others reportedly considering to join the race.

There has been a strong backlash that the Prime Minister faced recently with the MPs going against her latest Brexit plan which included concessions that aimed at attracting cross-party support.

On Wednesday, former Common leader Andrea Leadsom quit her position after stating that she no longer believed the government approach would “deliver on the referendum result”.

In the statement she released on Friday, Mrs May said that she done ‘everything I can” to convince MPs to support the withdraw deal she had negotiated with the European Union but she said that now it remains in the “best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort”.

May stretched the need for her successor to build agreement with parliament in order to deliver Brexit.

“Such consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise,” she said.

Mrs may became visibly emotional and her voice shook as she said the final words of her speech saying: “I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold.

“The second female Prime Minister, but certainly not the last,”

“I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have hard opportunity to serve the country I love.”

Reactions to May’s resignation

Following Theresa May’s announcement that she will step down as Prime Minister, various reactions start flowing in in response to her departure.

Several Conservative MPs praised and thanked Mrs. May following her decision to step down and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said she was a “true public servant”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labor leader said that May had been “right to resign” and added that the Conservative Party was now “disintegrating”.

Chief whip Julian Smith praised Mrs May commitment to the country saying “The values, integrity & commitment of Theresa May to the United Kingdom have been outstanding”.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wished Mrs May well adding that “The prospect of an even more hardline Brexiteer now becoming PM and threatening a no-deal exit is deeply concerning. Added to the experience of the past three years, this makes it all more important that Scotland is given the choice of becoming an independent country,” she added.

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