Prime Minister Theresa May of
the United Kingdom on Friday announced her intention to resign.
May will quit as head of the
governing Conservative Party on June 7, so she will still be in office when
President Donald Trump pays a state visit June 3-5.
When she steps down, that will
trigger the process of selecting her successor, who should be in place in July.
The field of potential
successors is crowded, but the two front-runners are generally thought to be
Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, and Dominic Raab, the former
Brexit secretary, both of whom resigned over May’s handling of Brexit.
The Wall Street Journal reminded its readers that Johnson and Raab were not the only ministers to quit May’s Cabinet. “A fifth of all British ministers who have quit government since 1979 have done so during Mrs. May’s relatively brief tenure,” the paper noted.
In fact, the rebellions in
both May’s Cabinet and her party during her tenure have been unprecedented.
The reason for May’s fall is
simple.
She was given responsibility for negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union, and she made a mess of it by arriving at an agreement that virtually no one in Britain likes. Her efforts to pass the agreement ended up trying to cut a deal with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party and deeply despised by Conservative voters.
May was already floundering
before she took that fatal step, but the effort to reach out to Corbyn and pass
her deal over the heads of her own party triggered a catastrophic collapse
in her support, which was felt in recent local elections.
It’s widely expected that the
Conservatives will take a hammering in the ongoing European elections,
potentially finishing as low as sixth. In her own party, 63% rate her as either
a bad or a terrible prime minister.
In a quieter time, May could
have been a good prime minister, but these are not quieter times. Her departure
will come as a relief to much of her party.
It is the only way to ensure
Brexit happens, and the best way to give the Conservative Party a chance to win
the general election that her successor is likely to call in June 2020.
It also gives Britain its only chance to regain its freedom to make its own trade policy, which is an essential step if Britain and the United States are to negotiate a free-trade area. That’s a step The Heritage Foundation has advocated for years, and it’s there for the taking once Britain exits the EU.
The post Prime Minister Theresa May to Resign appeared first on The Daily Signal.
The original story can be found here.
Be First to Comment