UK PM Theresa May to contest no confidence vote 'with everything I've got'

Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May will face a vote of no-confidence on Wednesday triggered by her own party lawmakers over her handling of the controversial Brexit deal, as she vowed to fight the latest challenge to her leadership with "everything I have got".

May is set to face a vote of no-confidence in her leadership after the required 48 MPs from her Conservative Party filed letters with the influential 1922 Committee, which represents rank-and-file Conservative MPs in the House of Commons.

"I will contest that vote with everything I have got," May said in a statement at Downing Street, warning that the leadership challenge will delay or even cancel Brexit.

"I stand ready to finish the job," the 62-year-old prime minister said.

May, who has been prime minister since shortly after the UK voted to leave the 28-member European Union in June, 2016, has faced criticism in her party for the Brexit plan she has negotiated.

The vote will take place in the form of a secret ballot on Wednesday evening. May will need to convince a majority of MPs (158 out of 315 Conservative MPs) to be able to win the vote and then her leadership cannot be challenged for a year.

However, if she loses, the party will have to elect a new leader who will then go on to become the next British Prime Minister.

The challenge to her leadership has been brought by Conservative MPs who think May has watered down the Brexit voters were promised in the landmark referendum held in 2016.

May had seen off an attempt by this group of Brexiteers to get rid of her last month.

The latest leadership challenge comes as she was desperately trying to rescue her Brexit deal as she tried to convince European Union (EU) leaders to offer some concessions to convince Britain's MPs to vote for it on Tuesday, a day after she postponed a crucial parliamentary vote scheduled for this week over the Withdrawal Agreement struck with the EU.

She was due to travel to Dublin on Wednesday but will now remain in London to contest the no-confidence vote.

In her statement delivered early on Wednesday, May said: "A leadership election would not change the fundamentals of the negotiation or the Parliamentary arithmetic.

"Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we should be standing together to serve our country. None of that would be in the national interest."
"I have devoted myself unsparingly to these tasks ever since I became prime minister and I stand ready to finish the job."