Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday resisted demands
from within her party to give a clear timetable for stepping down, with her
spokesman insisting she would stay until Britain’s exit from the EU is
finalised.
“She is here to deliver Brexit in phase one and then she
will leave to make way for new leadership for phase two,” the Downing Street
spokesman said.
The Conservative leader is under increasing pressure from
MPs and activists unhappy over her handling of Brexit, which was meant to have
taken place on March 29 but has been delayed twice.
In March, May promised that after taking Britain out of the
European Union, she would let another leader negotiate future bilateral ties
with the bloc.
With Brexit now delayed to October 31, however, her critics the fear she might stay in office for many more months and are pressing for clarity
on her departure.
She is immune from a leadership contest until December after
surviving one last year.
Anger has flared up after dismal local election results last week and senior lawmaker Graham Brady met May on Tuesday to relay his
colleagues’ concerns.
Brady, the chairman of the so-called 1922 committee of Tory
MPs, said she agreed to address its executive members next week on the question
of her future.
He also said she hoped to hold another vote on her EU
divorce deal before European elections take place in Britain on May 23, by
bringing forward a bill to implement the text.
The prime minister agreed on a Brexit deal with the EU last
November, but MPs had rejected it three times.
Earlier, Brexit-backing Conservative Andrea Jenkyns
confronted May in the House of Commons, saying “the public no longer trust her
to run Brexit negotiations.”
May replied: “This is not an issue about me and it’s not an
issue about her. If it were an issue about me and the way I vote, we would
already have left the EU.”
The government has for several weeks been in talks with the
main opposition Labour party to find a compromise deal, but there is no sign of
progress yet.
A Labour spokesman said the party hoped to establish “in the
next few days” whether a deal was possible.
If their talks fail, May has pledged to allow the parliament
to decide on a new strategy in a series of votes.
The EU agreed to delay Brexit to allow British politicians
to try to agree on a way to leave that minimises the impact of the split.
May on Tuesday reluctantly accepted that Britain will take
part in European elections, almost three years after voting to leave the EU.
But she still hopes a divorce deal can be agreed to allow
Brexit by June 30, which would mean British MEPs would never have to take their
seats.
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