HERE’S what happens next following the announcement that Theresa May will face a no confidence vote from her own MPs:
- The 315 Conservative MPs will vote tonight at Westminster in a secret ballot either to support the no confidence motion in the Prime Minister or reject it
- The result is due around 8pm
- If a majority (158) vote no confidence, then Mrs May is ousted as the Conservative leader and cannot continue as Prime Minister
- If the vote fails to get a majority, she can stay and cannot be challenged as leader for at least one year
- However, if she wins by a narrow margin, she may feel she has lost the support of her party and could resign, meaning there will be a leadership contest
- If she loses the vote tonight, it automatically triggers a leadership contest and Mrs May cannot stand in the contest
- The Tories will then hold a contest and nominations will be invited to stand and an MP must be nominated by two others
- The contest takes the form of knockout rounds if there are more than two contenders
- The MP with the lowest number of votes gets eliminated in each round until there are only two left standing
- Then the Tory Party membership takes over in the final round of voting in a head-to-head
- The winner becomes the new Conservative leader and, as they are the biggest party, would be invited to form a government and become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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