May to resign after failing....

British Prime Minister Theresa May to resign after failing to deliver Brexit deal

By CHRISTINA BOYLE

Beleaguered British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Friday that she will resign as her party’s leader on June 7, clearing the path for a new prime minister after lawmakers repeatedly rejected terms she negotiated for the country’s departure from the European Union.

In a brief but emotional appearance outside the prime minister’s official residence that was carried on nationwide television, May — who had been under intense pressure to quit — said she would be leaving a job that it has been "the honor of my life to hold."

In a voice that trembled and finally broke, the 62-year-old leader declared that she would leave office “with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”

The prime minister’s departure announcement came the day after Britons voted in European parliamentary elections. Results were not due until Sunday when voting is completed across the 28-nation bloc, but May's Conservatives faced a likely trouncing at the hands of a new Brexit party whose sole aim is to finalize Britain’s divorce from the EU.

Britons narrowly voted nearly three years ago to leave the EU, and May tried and failed repeatedly to negotiate terms with the Europeans that Parliament would accept.

Beset by discord and division but wanting to avoid a no-deal departure, Britain blew past the original March 29 deadline for its EU exit, which is now set for the end of October.

Only the second woman ever to serve as prime minister, May — Oxford-educated but from a relatively humble social background as the daughter of an Anglican vicar — spent much of her career navigating a British political scene that was in large measure clubby and posh, insular and male-dominated.

Rising from local councilor to ambitious parliamentarian, by 2010 she had attained the Cabinet rank of home secretary, responsible for affairs of immigration and citizenship. Britain’s changing demographics would eventually become a driving force behind the Brexit referendum, which May’s predecessor as prime minister, David Cameron, initiated almost casually, in what would prove a disastrous attempt to shore up his own political support.

During the divisive Brexit campaign, May was in the “remain” camp — those who wanted to stay in the EU — but her support was tepid enough that it was not seen as disqualifying when her Conservative party vowed to bring the voter-mandated split with Europe to fruition. She emerged as a compromise candidate to become prime minister after last-minute stumbles by other, more strident proponents of Brexit — including the flamboyantly theatrical former London mayor Boris Johnson, who went on to become May’s foreign minister and now hopes to replace her.

May said she would stay on in a caretaker capacity until her successor is chosen, probably later this summer. The announced timetable means that May will still be in office when President Trump arrives June 3 for a visit.

Despite the traditional “special relationship” between the United States and Briton, May’s relationship with Trump was a rocky one. Even before his own election, Trump was a Brexit enthusiast, claiming to have predicted the referendum outcome. In office, he has denigrated the EU and suggested that Britain will be better off on its own.

The prime minister’s departure will trigger a fierce party leadership contest in which any Conservative lawmaker can run. The early front-runner is Johnson, but there are an array of potential contenders, including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

May’s tenure, which began less than a month after the June 2016 referendum in which Britons voted to leave the EU, has been entirely consumed by fruitless efforts to please all sides in the acrimonious Brexit debate.

Supporters of splitting with the EU said it would restore sovereignty over Britain’s borders and give it control over its own economic destiny. But “remainers” were devastated by the prospect of Britons giving up the right to live and work anywhere in the bloc.

Tributes to May poured in — including from some political figures who had pilloried her in recent days as her resignation came to be seen as inevitable. Most centered on praise of her grit and tenacity, while sidestepping criticism of her inability to strike a Brexit deal.

“A very dignified speech,” wrote fellow Conservative politicians Andrea Leadsom, who resigned from May’s Cabinet earlier this week, saying she had no confidence in the government’s Brexit strategy. “She did her utmost, and I wish her all the very best.”