The Gardian
Theresa May has won the backing of her party to stay on as prime minister – but more than a third of Conservative MPs voted against her, underscoring the uphill battle she faces in getting her Brexit deal through parliament.
Tory MPs rejected a no-confidence motion in the embattled prime minister’s leadership by 200 votes to 117 on Wednesday night, after a swift contest that exposed the bitter split in her party over Brexit.
May emerged from 10 Downing Street after the result to say her party had a “renewed mission”, of “delivering the Brexit that people voted for, bringing the country back together and building a Britain that truly works for everyone”, and to urge MPs from all parties to cooperate to deliver Brexit in the national interest.
But Brexiters hailed the 117 votes cast against her as a clear indication that her Brexit deal is deeply unpopular on her own side of the House of Commons.
A loud cheer erupted among Tory MPs as the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, announced: “The result of the ballot held this evening is that the parliamentary party does have confidence in Theresa May” – and confirmed that she could not now be challenged for another year.
May will fly to Brussels on Thursday to appeal to her fellow EU leaders to offer Britain what she told MPs must be a “legally binding” commitment that the Irish backstop will be temporary.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Tonight’s vote makes no difference to the lives of our people,” urging the prime minister to “bring her dismal deal back to the House of Commons next week so parliament can take back control”.
That call was echoed by the European Research Group (ERG) of pro-Brexit Tory MPs, which had demanded the no-confidence vote. An ERG source said the group could not support her deal, and she should “bring it back to parliament without delay”.
May had appealed to her Conservative colleagues to let her press ahead with Brexit at a packed meeting in a Westminster committee room on Wednesday evening – and pledged to step down before 2022.
Some MPs banged the tables in acclamation, but others pressed her on when she would resign. One trenchant critic, the North East Derbyshire MP, Lee Rowley, told her: “Stamina is not a strategy.”
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, had earlier welcomed the no-confidence vote, saying it would “flush out the extremists”.