Theresa May wins leadership ballot but admits MPs don't want her to fight the next election
Theresa May has survived an attempt to oust her from the British prime ministership winning a secret ballot of her MPs 200 to 117.
The result is higher than May's allies would have liked but secures her position for 12 months under Tory party leadership rules. It is one vote higher than the votes she received in the second round of the leadership contest she eventually won unchallenged in 2016.
But she has suggested that she will not lead the Tories into the next election, conceding to a meeting of her backbench MPs that she realised they did not want her to lead another campaign following her disastrous case in 2017.
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 backbench committee announced the result at 9pm local time.
The result throws the future of her Brexit deal into further uncertainty and increased the likelihood of either a No Deal Brexit or a general election.
The attempted leadership spill was brought on by a rump of Eurosceptic MPs led by the influential backbencher and chair of the European Research Group Jacob-Rees Mogg.
Mogg had failed four weeks ago to gather the 48 letters required to trigger a vote of confidence in the leader.
But May's decision to delay the vote on her beleaguered Brexit deal in the House of Commons provided a catalyst for more MPs to lodge their letters.
Late Tuesday, Sir Graham Brady informed the prime minister by telephone that the 15 per cent threshold had been reached requiring a ballot. Early on Wednesday morning London time, he announced there would be a two-hour vote at six o'clock that evening.
Outside Number 10, May said a leadership change would throw Brexit into chaos as any new leader would either have to delay or rescind Article 50 - the legal clause that sets Britain's departure from the EU for March 29, 2019.
The entire cabinet publicly supported May, including key Brexiteers Liam Fox and Michael Gove.