British Prime Minister Theresa May wins no-confidence vote

NEW DELHI: Theresa May won the secret ballot by 200 to 117 after Tory MPs voted from 6 pm to 8 pm local time on Wednesday.

The vote had been triggered after at least 48 Tory MPs had submitted letters of no confidence in her leadership following her decision to cancel Tuesday’s crunch vote in the House of Commons on the UK’s EU withdrawal agreement, which was seen as the final straw for many rebel MPs.

Ahead of the vote in a final pitch to her party she had pledged to stand down as Conservative leader before the next general election scheduled in 2022 and warned that removing her as prime minister would delay or cancel Brexit, saying she would fight for her job “with everything I’ve got.”

The chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady MP, announced the results at 9pm local time in committee room 14 to loud cheers and applause from her party.

Many Conservative MPs said they were relieved as the vote had been a distraction from the important business of delivering Brexit.

India born Alok Sharma MP, minister for employment, tweeted: “Very pleased @theresa_may has won the #voteofnoconfidence. Now back to the negotiating table to get those assurances on the #Backstop.”

Residents in May’s constituency of Maidenhead, where she commands huge support, were also delighted.

Richard Kellaway, chairman of Maidenhead Conservative Association , in an exclusive interview with TOI, said: “In the past couple of weeks the tone has changed and a lot of people are coming out in support of her. The general opinion locally is that it was unnecessary to put her through this just at the time of Brexit. I think she has come out pretty well, this is a decent result for Theresa and this should give her quite a lot of strength to get on with the job of Brexit. Most of the European leaders don't have anything like the mandate she has just got. This should give her the strength to crack a deal with them. The last no confidence vote in the House of Commons was against Jeremy Corbyn who had 80 per cent against him. He is still there because the constitution of their party is different." He said it was good May cancelled Tuesday's vote as it "would not have got through" and would have been a "kamikaze" approach. He said if she now pulled off a good Brexit deal, this would greatly strengthen her.

Minutes after the results were declared outside Downing Street May said: “This has been a long and challenging day, but at the end of it I’m pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight’s ballot. Whilst I’m grateful for their support, a significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and I’ve listened to what they said. Following this ballot we now need to get on with the job of delivering Brexit for the British people and delivering a better future for this country.”

May will travel to the European Council in Brussels on Thursday to meet European leaders and seek legal and political assurances to assuage the concerns her MPs have about the Northern Irish backstop in her Brexit deal.

However those Brexiteer rebels who led the movement to try and get her ousted were not happy.

Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, who is one of the 48 MPs who submitted a letter stating he had no confidence in her leadership, called for her to resign saying “this is a huge vote against her. Downing Street was briefing it was going to be 70 votes against her.”

No further leadership challenge will be allowed for at least 12 months, meaning the chances of Rees-Mogg or high-profile Brexiter Boris Johnson MP becoming prime minister have got much slimmer.