Theresa May has announced she is to stand down as Prime Minister on 7 June after months of mounting pressure to deliver Brexit that failed.
The Prime Minister said it had been ‘the honour of my life’ to serve ‘the country that I love’.
In an emotional speech, May said she had ‘done her best’ to deliver the result of the EU referendum.
“It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit,” she said.
May will remain in post until a successor is chosen.
May delivered her speech this morning shortly after meeting the chairman of Tory backbenchers at 9 am. The timing means a new Tory leader – and therefore Prime Minister – should be in place by the end of July.
Her announcement comes the day after European elections, in which the Tories are expected to perform disastrously.
The final straw of her doomed premiership came when a last-gasp effort to win support for her Withdrawal Agreement Bill backfired spectacularly and it became obvious her Brexit deal was dead in the water.
Brexiteers within her own party were enraged by the concession of the offer of a potential second referendum and customs union arrangement announced on Tuesday.
She also lost the support of many senior Cabinet members who made it clear her time was up.
Labour and the DUP also said they would not support the deal.
Andrea Leadsom dealt another blow when she quit as Commons leader on Wednesday evening saying she had lost confidence Mrs May would “deliver on the referendum result”.
Boris Johnson is the current favourite to replace May.