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UK PM May to be told to quit by top Conservative: Report

This article is more than 12 months old

Top member of PM May's party will tell her to step down soon or be deposed

LONDON: A top member of Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party will tell her in the coming week that she must step down by the end of June or her lawmakers will try again to depose her, The Sunday Times reported, without citing sources.

Mrs May survived a vote of no confidence in December and although party rules mean lawmakers cannot challenge her again until a year has passed, lawmaker Graham Brady will tell her the rules will be changed unless she quits, the newspaper said.

Mr Brady, who chairs the Conservative Party's influential 1922 Committee of backbench lawmakers, will tell her that 70 per cent of her Members of Parliament want her to resign over her handling of Brexit, the report said.

Britain was originally due to leave the European Union on March 29, but that deadline was pushed back to April 12 and then again to Oct 31 as Mrs May failed to break an impasse in Parliament on the terms of Brexit.

In a related development, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said there is a still a concern that Britain may leave the EU without a deal to smooth the way.

Mr Juncker made the comments in an interview with German newspaper Funke Mediengruppe, a week after EU leaders gave Britain six months more to exit the EU.

"Nobody knows how Brexit will end. This is creating great uncertainty. There is still a fear that there will be a hard Brexit without any withdrawal treaty arrangements," Mr Juncker said, citing the long-term negative impact on Europe's economy.

"I hope that the British will make use of this time and not waste it again. We cannot keep on putting off the withdrawal date indefinitely. The best solution would be for the British to adopt the Withdrawal Agreement during the extra time that has been agreed," he said. - REUTERS

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