May wins first round battle for UK’s top political job
Theresa May, British Home Secretary
(CNS): The current Conservative party favourite to succeed David Cameron as party leader and by default the UK’s prime minister has won the first round in the political battle. Home Secretary Theresa May got 165 votes, with her nearest contender, Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom, coming in second with 66 votes. The first casualty of the voting rounds that will see the candidates eliminated by the parliamentary party until only two remain was Liam Fox, who polled just 16 votes.
Michael Gove, who was one of the architects of the EU referendum ‘Leave’ campaign, was third with 48 votes and Stephen Crabb had just 34 MPs behind him. Crabb has since pulled out of the race and is now backing May.
Voting by the parliamentary members will continue until there are just two candidates left. In each round the candidate with the least votes is knocked out of the race. The Tory leader will then be elected by the wider Conservative party membership from the two candidates still in the race. The winner will be named on 9 September.
The battle for 10 Downing Street, just a year after the Conservatives had secured a majority at the 2015 election, was triggered by Cameron’s decision to resign from the top political job following the unexpected referendum result, which saw the UK vote to leave the EU.
Cameron had led the ‘Remain’ campaign and made it clear on the morning the result came in that he would not be the man to take Britain out of Europe.
May, who also campaigned for the UK to stay in the Union, has said she is prepared to deliver Brexit but is campaigning on the grounds that exiting the EU is not the only job of the next prime minister. The home secretary is one of the most experienced ministers, who has very strong support from the wider party.
Speaking to the British press in the wake of the first round Tuesday, she said there was a lot to do to unite the party and the country following the referendum result, as well as to deliver the best possible deal for the country in the forthcoming talks with the EU.
“I am the only candidate capable of delivering these three things as prime minister, and tonight it is clear that I am also the only one capable of drawing support from the whole of the Conservative Party,” May said.
Although pundits had suggested that May and Micheal Gove would be the likely candidates to go forward to the membership, his actions over what many regard as his political treachery towards the one time favourite to take Cameron’s job, Boris Johnson, along with his lack of either charisma or popularity, has seen Leadsom gather more of the ‘Leave’ camp’s parliamentary vote.
Unless Gove opts to bow out, the next round of voting is scheduled for Thursday.
Category: UK, World News
Well the men screwed it up…let it be a woman…the last one turned the UK into a power house from being the sick man of Europe…maybe this one can call another referendum or a general election now that the lying cheating Brexit scum have admitted their lies and all deserted their posts as they woke up and realized that leading the UK out of Europe will not be in the UK’s best interests after all
Here is Brexit in a nutshell (divorced from your nebulous rantings).
The majority of voters for Brexit were the mature types: those who have seen the UK before the EU and after.
Based on their experience, they could see that the direction the country was going was unacceptable.
Their biggest complaint was not economic, but more immigration related.
Many of you expats are economic migrants over here and you make a lot of noise, but the fact of the matter is that this is NOT YOUR country.
Well, Mr/Mrs Poster, allow the Brits the same liberty in their own country.
Failing that, I have a guest house in Syria that I can recommend for you.
People, please stop posting stupidity.
Sounds a little bit like our situation.
Put more accurately:
The majority of Brexit voters were racist OAPs, Southern Little Englanders who are also anti-foreigner and angry lower class Northerners who bought into the lies that somehow their life situation was caused by foreigners and hence the EU.
Based on their prejudice they voted Leave despite the overwhelming evidence that doing so would cause severe long term harm to the UK economy and thereby the people of Britain in higher debt, poorer public services and higher taxes. They muttered in unison “What do these experts know, I have a degree from the University of Life” (the more educated the voter the more likely they were to vote Remain).
Their out voters’ biggest complaint was that foreigners existed and they could see them on their high street. They deeply wanted to kick all the foreigners out which is a shame because all the political parties are saying no-one is going to be kicked out.
Their other real complaint was that Britain was not a great as it was when they were young or more accurate when their parents were young. They see Brexit as a powerhouse time machine to “make Britain great again” and “have their country back” (subtext (from foreigners)). In two weeks so far these idiots have managed to move the UK from the world’s fifth largest economy to the world’s seventh largest economy. God knows how much lower the UK will plunge.
Moron, we 18 million scum don’t want another referendum or election, so stay away if you don’t like it you elitist coward.
Yes, the vote was tipped over 50% by lies in the campaign and protest votes, so they don’t want a second vote because that might reflect the will of the people now the truth of Brexit is becoming clear.