LONDON (AP) British Conservative lawmakers forced a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Theresa May today, throwing U.K. politics deeper into crisis and Brexit further into doubt.
May vowed to fight for the leadership of her party and the country with everything Ive got after opponents who have been circling for weeks finally got the numbers they needed to spark a vote among Conservative Party lawmakers later in the day.
The leadership challenge marks a violent eruption of the Conservative Partys decades-long divide over Europe.
The threat to May has been building as pro-Brexit lawmakers within the Conservative Party grew increasingly frustrated with the prime ministers conduct of Brexit and the divorce deal she has agreed with the European Union.
The challenge throws Britains already rocky path out of the EU, which it is due to leave in March, into further chaos. It comes days after May postponed a vote to approve the divorce deal to avoid all-but-certain defeat.
Many supporters of Brexit say Mays deal, a compromise that retains close economic ties with the EU, fails to deliver on the clean break with the bloc that they want.
Former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson accused May of acting like a supplicant in dealings with the EU.
Shes not the person to see Brexit through, he said.
But in a defiant statement outside 10 Downing St., May said a change of leadership in the Conservative Party now will put our countrys future at risk.
She said ousting her and holding a leadership vote a process that could take weeks could result in Brexit being delayed or even stopped.
May, who spent Tuesday touring EU capitals to appeal for changes to sweeten the divorce deal for reluctant U.K. lawmakers, has until Jan. 21 to hold a vote on her deal in Parliament, a timetable that could be scuttled if she is replaced.
Opposition lawmakers expressed astonishment and outrage at the Conservative civil war erupting in the middle of the fraught Brexit process.
This government is a farce, the Tory party is in chaos, the prime minister is a disgrace, Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford said during a pugnacious Prime Ministers Questions session in the House of Commons.
The pound, which has fallen in recent days as a Brexit deal was cast into doubt, took the news in stride, rising 0.8 percent to $1.2595.
But business figures expressed alarm at the prospect of even more political uncertainty.
At one of the most pivotal moments for the U.K. economy in decades, it is unacceptable that Westminster politicians have chosen to focus on themselves, rather than on the needs of the country, said Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce.
