Theresa May to resign, make way for new prime minister, after Brexit failures

Theresa May announced Friday that she will resign as her party’s leader on June 7 and make way for a new British prime minister later this summer.

May became the leader of Britain after the country voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Brexit was her No. 1 job, and she failed to deliver it.

Speaking in front of the official residence at 10 Downing Street, May said she had “done my best” but was unable to sway members of Parliament to back her Brexit vision. She told Britons that compromise was not a dirty word.

“I believe it was right to persevere even when the odds against success seemed high,” she said. “It is and will always remain a matter of deep regret for me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit.”

Near the end of her brief remarks, May noted that she was Britain’s second female prime minister and promised there would be more women in the highest office. Then her voice became shaky and tears almost came as she said she was departing with “no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”

May now joins a series of Conservative prime ministers who have fallen over the question of Britain’s relationship with Europe. David Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s only other female prime minister, were all ousted in part because they could not get their party, let alone the country, to agree on how closely tied Britain and the continent should be.

May spent two years negotiating, in secret, a Brexit withdrawal deal with the E.U., only to see it rejected three times by the House of Commons, with many of her own Conservatives refusing to support her. Earlier this week, she was still vowing to push on and offered a tweaked version of her Brexit plan. It was rejected so swiftly and resoundingly by so many lawmakers, including members of her cabinet, that it became clear she would be ushered out soon.