Theresa May resigns: Boris Johnson threatens no-deal Brexit as prominent Conservatives announce bids to replace PM
MPs pay tribute to ‘dignified’ prime minister as leadership race intensifies
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May announced her resignation in an emotional speech on Friday, in which she said she would stand down as Conservative party leader on 7 June.
Ms May said she had “done my best” in a speech from Downing Street, before the Tory party announced a new prime minister would be in No.10 by 31 July.
Watched by husband Philip, Ms May’s voice cracked as she said it had been “the honour of my life” to serve as PM and she felt “enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love”.
In an apparent warning to the Conservative Party not to pursue a no-deal Brexit after she goes, Ms May said her successor will need to pursue compromise to find a way of delivering the result of the 2016 referendum and taking the UK out of the EU in a way that protects jobs, security and the Union.
But Tory leadership contenders are now ramping up their efforts to replace her, ahead of the official start of the contest.
Boris Johnson emerged as the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Ms May, as Jeremy Hunt and Sir Graham Brady announced they would stand.
Mr Johnson said the prime minister had been “patient and stoical” in her failed attempt to solve the Brexit crisis.
“The job of our next leader in the UK, he or she, is to get out of the EU properly and put Brexit to bed,” Mr Johnson said.
“We will leave the EU on 31 October, deal or no deal,” the former foreign secretary said, adding a second referendum on EU membership would be a “very bad idea”.
Conservative MPs also paid tribute to the dignified manner in which Theresa May announced her departure.
“Delivering Brexit was always going to be a huge task,” said Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
“But one she met every day with courage and resolve...a true public servant.”
Additional reporting by agencies
If you would like to see how the day’s news from Westminster unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:
Donald Trump has said he feels bad for Theresa May, after the prime minister announced that she would be stepping down.
The US president said Theresa May was a good woman who had worked very hard and that he would see her when visiting the UK in June, during remarks to reporters at the White House.
Boris Johnson, widely considered the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, has raised more than £800,000 in the last year alone.
Our political correspondent Benjamin Kentish suggests that the politician's fundraising efforts suggest he has been planning his leadership campaign for some time.
The government is being urged to hold an inquiry over fears that "thousands" of EU citizens were prevented from voting on Thursday's European elections.
Campaign group the3million, which represents EU citizens in the UK, said it had received several hundred messages from people claiming they had been blocked from voting due to administrative errors by British councils.
Meanwhile, a number of British voters reported problems voting from EU member states, due to delays in receiving postal votes from UK councils.
Theresa May entered parliament in 1997, rising to become Conservative Party chair, then Home Secretary and eventually prime minister.
Our political correspondent Ben Kentish takes a look back at the prime minister's time in politics in his latest piece: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-resigns-conservative-prime-minister-brexit-timeline-career-a8928821.html
Theresa May quoted Nicholas Winton, a man who saved hundreds of refugee children from the Nazis, in her resignation speech this morning.
The prime minister, who was repeatedly criticised over her policies on immigration during her tenure as home secretary, said Mr Winton had taught her that life "depends on compromise."
But her choice of quote has attracted anger from immigration lawyers and Labour peer Alf Dubs.
"Nicky Winton did not compromise. He was resolute in his determination to save refugee children like me," Lord Dubs wrote on Twitter.
"I hope that before she steps down @theresa_may will honour Nicky's memory by welcoming more unaccompanied refugee children from France, Italy and Greece."
Unite, the leading trade union, has called for a general election, following Theresa May's resignation speech this morning.
“Theresa May’s announcement today underscores what a mess the Conservative party is and that this party is actually now incapable of governing," Len McCluskey, Unite's general secretary said.
“This farce has to end.
"The challenges before our country are too great and the need to restore fairness to our society too urgent, they are ill-served by this pantomime.
"A general election now is the only honourable and sensible way forward.”
A significant number of EU citizens have alleged they were prevented from voting in Thursday's European Parliament elections.
"The disenfranchisement of such a large demographic through administrative errors – however unintentional – is a product of a chaotic political environment, prompted by the government's inability to get a handle on Brexit," argues our columnist Bella Frimpong.
Michael Heseltine has said a no-deal Brexit would "seriously threaten the break-up of the UK".
"I think the House of Commons would do what it has to do to stop [a no-deal]," the Conservative peer said during an interview with the BBC.
Lord Heseltine said it was "inconceivable that any responsible politician" would pursue a no-deal exit.
He also warned Tory leadership candidates against trying to "out-Farage [Nigel} Farage" by moving the Conservative party further to the political right.
"Compared to her predecessors, [Theresa May] had the least impact and influence as leader of the United Kingdom on the wider field of international relations," argues Kim Sengupta, The Independent's diplomatic editor.
"Ms May’s government was consumed by the convulsions of Brexit. And, ironically it was that issue, one that was supposed to launch an unfettered leap to “Global Britain” which resulted instead in a retreat of British foreign policy, rendering this nation’s view less and less important on issues of global importance," he writes.
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