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UK Prime Minister Theresa May survives leadership challenge, remains prime minister

May won a confidence vote by Conservative Party lawmakers that could have brought her leadership to an abrupt end.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday called by members of her ruling Conservative Party who threatened to oust her from power and derail her Brexit deal to leave the European Union

May's victory increases the likelihood of an orderly British exit from the EU in March next year, although she still needs to get the deal approved by Parliament. May delayed a parliamentary vote on the agreement this week because it was unlikely to pass.

And that reality has not changed after this result.

A no-confidence vote on her leadership was triggered after 48 lawmakers from May's party wrote to an influential parliamentary committee calling for her to step aside amid discontent from lawmakers who said the deal she negotiated with the EU does not go far enough to disentangle Britain's economic and political ties to the 28-nation bloc.

Among the concerns: An unresolved question over the land border between Northern Ireland (part of Britain) and Ireland (part of the EU). Decades of peace between Northern Ireland’s Irish Catholic community and its British Protestant one have been facilitated by the free trade and travel across that border that EU membership allows.

May has been prime minister since shortly after Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016. In Britain, a political party is elected to government, not an individual, meaning if May had lost the vote her party would have chosen a new leader without calling an election.

May said outside her official residence on Downing Street in central London earlier Wednesday that she would "contest that vote with everything that I’ve got." She warned that if she was forced to step down, Brexit could be delayed or even stopped altogether. "I stand ready to finish the job," May vowed. She hinted that whatever the outcome of the vote, she may step down before the next scheduled election in 2022.

There was no obvious choice to replace May if she lost the vote. Among the names favored by British bookmakers were Dominic Raab, who resigned as Britain's top Brexit official last month; Sajid Javid, a former banker serving as interior minister; and Boris Johnson, a tousle-haired, American-born former journalist and ex-secretary of state for foreign affairs under May before he quit over her Brexit stance.

Johnson was the only contender who was well-known to President Donald Trump. Trump has called Johnson, London's former mayor, a "very talented guy" for whom he has "a lot of respect" and who has "what it takes" to be a "great prime minister."

By contrast, May and Trump have had an awkward relationship that strained a historic "special" alliance that stretches back decades. Trump criticized May's Brexit plan, and May publicly disagreed with Trump on a range of geopolitical issues, from his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal to his immigration policies.

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29 next year.

Contributing: Associated press

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