PM May resigns, won't lead Britain out of EU
Theresa May has ended her failed three-year quest to lead Britain out of the European Union, announcing that she will step down as Conservative Party leader June 7 and triggering a contest to choose a new prime minister who will try to complete Brexit.
May says Friday in a speech outside 10 Downing St. in London, that "I have done my best" before acknowledging that it was not good enough. She struggled to contain her emotions and her voice broke as she expressed "enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love."
Then she turned and strode through the famous black door of No. 10.
May will stay on as a caretaker prime minister until the new leader is chosen, a process the Conservatives aim to complete by late July. The new party leader will become prime minister without the need for a general election.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is "feeling badly" for British Prime Minister Theresa May who announced Friday that she would resign.
May held an emotional news conference in London hours earlier and said she would step aside June 7 after being unable to secure a Brexit deal.
The president, leaving the White House for Japan, told reporters that "I like her very much."
Trump will meet with May in the U.K. early next month. He is heading to Europe for a state dinner in England as well as D-Day anniversary ceremonies.
The president caused a stir last summer when, in advance of a trip to London, he gave an interview to the tabloid The Sun criticizing May's Brexit divorce plan from the European Union.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called on U.K. authorities to respect the verdict of the Brexit referendum and make the U.K. leave the European Union.
Le Pen, the leader of the anti-migrant, populist National Rally party, said Friday in a news conference in Henin-Beaumont, in northern France, that British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to quit "because she tried to bypass the will expressed by the British in the Brexit referendum."
She said that French politicians and media must not "teach morality lessons" to the British people who decided to leave the EU.
Polls suggest that Le Pen's party will be among France's top two vote-getters in the European parliament elections that are being held in the bloc until Sunday, along with French President Emmanuel Macron's party.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis says he hopes that Britain will hold another referendum on leaving the European Union after Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation.
Commenting on May's step, Babis says "I still hope that (Britain) will hold a snap election and at the end they will have one more referendum. That the (British) people finally understand that the misinformation that that they received (about Brexit) is not true and Britain will stay in the European Union."
Babis says he thinks that would "the best for all."
He has called Britain one of the best allies of his country in the bloc because "it's a big state that counterbalances the dominance of Germany and France."
