Theresa May will address the nation TODAY after disastrous Euro election to pledge Britain will have a new PM by summer

Allies said that – barring a last-minute change of heart – Theresa May (pictured left with her husband Philip May at a polling station in her Maidenhead constituency) will announce plans this morning to step aside as Conservative Party leader next month.
Mrs May will begin the day with a meeting with the Tories’ backbench shop steward Sir Graham Brady to discuss the exact timetable for her departure. She is then expected to address the nation from Downing Street to explain why she is leaving ‘the job I love’ before she has realised her ambition of leading Britain out of the European Union Mrs May is expected to try to delay the start of the Tory leadership race until the week beginning June 10, to allow her to host Donald Trump’s state visit without the indignity of her MPs voting on her successor at the same time.
But she will stay on as Prime Minister while the Tory leadership contest takes place, allowing a smooth transition to a new leader before the summer recess. Allies said she was due to discuss the final details of her departure with her husband Philip last night, before publicly making her intentions clear tomorrow.
Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt and Andrea Leadsom are the favourites to be the new leader.
Allies said she was due to discuss the final details of her departure with her husband Philip last night, before publicly making making her intentions clear today.
This morning’s dramatic move, which plunges the future of Brexit into further doubt, comes as:
- An exclusive Mail poll showed that Boris Johnson has raced into a big early lead in the battle to succeed Mrs May, and that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party was on course for a landslide victory in yesterday’s European Parliament elections;
- Mr Farage warned MPs that his fledgling party was ready to fight ‘a general election that would cost them all their jobs’ if they failed to deliver on the 2016 EU referendum result;
- Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who rejected Mrs May’s compromise offer on Brexit, told supporters to ‘get ready for a general election’;
- Former defence secretary Gavin Williamson and rising Tory star Johnny Mercer both announced they would be backing Mr Johnson’s campaign for the Tory crown;
- Mrs May spent the afternoon campaigning in her Maidenhead constituency for the European elections she never wanted to take place;
- Downing Street dismissed reports that the political turbulence could lead to the cancellation of Mr Trump’s visit.
Mrs May’s decision to announce her plans to step aside came after senior Cabinet ministers warned her they were on the brink of withdrawing their support over her decision to open the door to a second Brexit referendum in a last-ditch bid to get her deal approved by MPs.

Boris Johnson leaves his London home on the day of the European Elections. The former foreign secretary, 54, who quit last July, is the favourite to be the new leader

Jeremy Hunt arrives for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street, on Tuesday. He is one of the favourites to be Conservative leader

Britain’s former Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom leaving her home after handing in her resignation on Wednesday

A Survation poll for the Daily Mail shows Mr Farage’s Brexit Party well ahead in the European elections on 31 per cent, trailed by Labour on 23, the Conservatives on 14 and the Lib Dems on 12
Credit Daily Mail