Theresa May vows to fight no confidence vote, warning leadership contest risks Brexit
Theresa May has vowed to fight today’s no confidence vote “with everything I’ve got”, as she warned that a change of leadership would delay or even cancel Brexit.
Addressing media outside Downing Street this morning after Sir Graham Brady of the 1922 Committee confirmed the 48-letter threshold for a no confidence vote has been reached, May claimed that this is the worst possible time for a leadership challenge.
"A change of leadership in the Conservative Party now would put our country's future at risk," she said.
"The new leader wouldn't have time to renegotiate," she added, "so one of their first acts would have be extending or rescinding Article 50".
"I will contest that vote with everything I've got," she added.
A leadership contest is triggered if 15 per cent of Conservative MPs write to the chair of the 1922 Committee.
May must win votes from 158 Tory MPs to survive, and could not face another leadership challenge for 12 months if so.
She warned today: "A leadership election would not change the fundamentals of the negotiation or the parliamentary arithmetic.
"Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we should be standing together to serve our country. None of that would be in the national interest. The only people whose interests that would serve would be [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell."
"I have devoted myself unsparingly to these tasks ever since I became Prime Minister and I stand ready to finish the job," she added.
May cancelled her planned trip to Dublin today to contest the vote, which will take place between 6pm and 8pm this evening.
It follows May's decision to delay parliament's opportunity to vote on her hugely unpopular Brexit deal earlier this week, instead vowing that a vote would take place by 21 January.
She claimed a new leader wouldn't have time to hit the 21 January deadline, and fulfill the Tory government's promise to deliver Brexit by 29 March, meaning the move would be delayed or even cancelled.
The Prime Minister has canvassed EU leaders this week to try to change the Brexit deal, but has been told it is not up for renegotiation.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday: "I remain convinced that the Brexit deal we have is the best – and only – deal possible. There is no room for renegotiation, but further clarifications are possible.”
Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, also ruled out further changes, adding: "As time is running out, we will also discuss our preparedness for a no-deal scenario."