By Ben Kerrigan-
British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face a vote of no-confidence from members of her own Conservative party on Wednesday. It calls for an emergency action to address the problem irritating Mps. Either her or her soon to be successor will have to solve this problem.
Her leadership hangs in the balance over the issue of the Irish boarder linked with a Brexit deal several Mps are unhappy about. Only a few hours earlier, May had spoken of a “shared determination” among EU leaders to solve the Irish border problem preventing MPs from backing her deal.She was speaking after meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The problematic backstop relates to a temporary customs arrangement designed to prevent the need for checkpoints at the Irish border if a long-term solution that avoids them cannot be agreed – because it imposes different regulations in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s ‘1922 Committee’- a group of influential backbench members of parliament (MPs)-confirmed that the threshold of support needed to trigger a no confidence vote in the prime minister had been reached.
The call for the emergency vote was sparked after 15 percent of the Conservative parliamentary party submitted letters to Brady in recent weeks.Under party rules, if 48 Conservative MPs submit letters to the chair of the 1922 Committee stating they no longer support her, a confidence vote is held.
A ballot will now be held between 1800 to 2000 on December 12, the 1922 Committee said in a press release. Theresa May has expressed defiance in her response to the vote.
“I will contest that vote with everything I’ve got,” Theresa May said on the steps of Downing Street on Wednesday.
She said the entire Brexit process would be put at risk if a change of leadership took place. “The British people want us to get on with it (Brexit) and they want us to focus on the other matters that matter to them too.”
The Chairman of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady told reporters outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday that he had spoken with the prime minister Tuesday evening after the confidence vote threshold was met. “It is beneficial to resolve this matter as quickly and as smoothly as possible,” he said. One of the MPs that submitted a letter of no-confidence is prominent and influential Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg. Although he was a one-time ally of Theresa May, he told CNBC on Tuesday that now it is May’s “duty” to resign.