LONDON: British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May survived a vote of confidence in her leadership on Wednesday evening.
The vote was called after more than 48 of her MPs wrote to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee calling for a leadership challenge over her Brexit deal, British media reports.
The secret ballot among Tory MPs opened at 6pm at Wednesday and closed at 8pm, with the result announced at 9pm.
200 of the 317 Tory MPs voted for her, while 117 voted against her.
Mrs. May addressed members of the Conservative 1922 Committee at 5pm before the ballot opened.
A banging of desks could be heard from outside committee room 14 in the Palace of Westminster as she addressed the meeting.
Mrs. May reportedly told those present she will step down before the next general election, due in 2022, as she recognised that the party did not want her to lead them into the vote. However, she said there would not be a snap election.
She also said she wanted to come back by January 21st with something on the backstop, a provision to avoid a hard Border in Ireland that is enshrined in her Brexit withdrawal deal, that the DUP would accept.
In a statement outside Number 10 on Wednesday morning, Mrs. May said: “I will contest that vote with everything I’ve got.”
A planned trip to Dublin to meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was cancelled, with Mrs. May instead remaining in London “to make the case for my leadership with my parliamentary colleagues”.
“A change of leadership in the Conservative Party now would put our country’s future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it,” said Mrs. May.
A leadership election would not change the fundamentals of the Brexit negotiation, she said.
“Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we should be standing together.