Theresa May hints she won’t fight next election as Conservative leader

Theresa May will tell her warring MPs that today’s vote in her leadership is about Brexit, not about who will lead the Conservatives into the next general election.

The Prime Minister will address a meeting of MPs at 5pm this afternoon, just an hour before a vote of no confidence in her leadership begins.

May needs to win the support of 158 of her MPs – just over half – in order to defeat the no confidence motion, which was triggered when 48 Tories demanded a ballot.

The result will be announced at 9pm.

Speaking after Prime Minister’s Questions, a Downing Street source said May would tell MPs to focus on the damage that would be caused to the Brexit negotiations if there was a change in Prime Minister. 

“She doesn’t believe that this vote today is about leading the party into the next election,” said the source.

Under Conservative party rules, if May wins the confidence vote her position could not be challenged for a year.

The source played down suggestions the PM, who has been Conservative leader since July 2016, would set a specific date for her departure.

After the disastrous 2017 general election, which saw May lose her parliamentary majority, she told MPs she would stay on as leader as long as the party wanted her to.

In a trip to Japan later in the year she insisted she would lead the Tories into the next election.

It seems she has now shifted back to her immediate post-election position of being open to stepping down before the next national vote.