Theresa May survives confidence vote and remains as Prime Minister

THERESA MAY has survived a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party.

200 Tory MPs voted to back the Prime Minister, while 117 voted against.

"The parliamentary party does have confidence in Theresa May"

Chairman of 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady says PM wins #ConfidenceVote, with 200 out of 317 Conservative MPs supporting her leadership of the partyhttps://t.co/9Vw2gOQoDc pic.twitter.com/7Delcb1vO1

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) December 12, 2018

Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, announced the result to the applause of gathered MPs following the secret ballot this evening.

While the PM remains in power, the large number of her party voting against does little to strengthen her position.

Mrs May will, however, not have to face another vote of no confidence from her party for at least a year under the party’s rules.

Proud to have voted in support of the PM, thank you to the many people who have contacted my office today to urge me to do just that pic.twitter.com/pF5ChA4xHh

— Margot James (@margot_james_mp) December 12, 2018

Before the vote, Mrs May told Conservative MPs at the 1922 Committee meeting that she will not lead the party into the next general election, Cabinet minister Amber Rudd has said.

Voting closed in the confidence ballot at 8pm, with the result announced just after 9pm.

Three black ballot boxes were taken from committee room 14 into neighbouring committee room 15 for counting, past a waiting crowd of journalists.