LONDON—British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Friday that she would quit her post, triggering a contest that will bring a new leader to power who is likely to push for a more decisive Brexit divorce deal with the EU, Reuters reported.
A member of the Conservative party is expected to succeed her.
Fighting back tears, May, in her statement, delivered just after 10 a.m. outside Number 10 Downing Street, May confirmed she will stay on as Prime Minister until a new leader is in place, welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump to London for his state visit early next month. The process to select a new leader will begin the following week.
“I feel as certain today as I did three years ago that in a democracy, if you give people a choice you have a duty to implement what they decide,” she said, setting out why she believed it was imperative for any future leader to succeed where she had failed in taking the U.K. out of the European Union.
Britain’s next prime minister faces the same daunting challenges as May, with a parliament opposed to no-deal and the terms of divorce on offer. European leaders have repeatedly warned they will not renegotiate the deal that May agreed with Brussels in November.
Reacting to May’s resignation, Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the ummbrealla representative group of the Jewish community, said in a statement: “We sincerely thank Theresa May for being a true friend to the Jewish community during her time in office.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews recalls that Theresa May’s government adopted the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism, marked the Balfour Declaration centenary with pride; banned Lebenase terror organization Hezbollah and increased security funding for Jewish institutions and opposed anti-Israel bias at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Dring her term, Britain-Israel bilateral relations have strongly developed in several sectors.
Britain Jews are worried that eventual elections would bring Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour party, into power. Corbyn has been accused of failing to curb antisemitism within his party.
Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who resigned from the party earlier this year, declared : “I cannot remain in a party that I have today come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic.”
Two weeks ago, Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that governs the Gaza Strip, thanked Jeremy Corbyn for his message of solidarity to a pro-Palestinian rally in London, a move that reignited questions over the Labour leader’s links with the group.
“We have received with great respect and appreciation the solidarity message sent by the British Labor Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to the participants in the mass rally that took place in central London,” Hamas said in a statement.
Corbyn did not speak at the event but sent a message to the marchers calling on the British government to condemn the killing of protesters in Gaza and freeze arms sales to Israel.
He also promised that if he becomes Prime Minister he would recognise Palestine as a state. “
Corbyn has also faced criticism for attending a wreath-laying ceremony for Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike, which took place near the graves of those involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes.