Theresa May Wins First Round of U.K. Conservative Leadership Contest

[brooklynite]

Source: Bloomberg

Home Secretary Theresa May won a convincing victory in the first round of the U.K. Conservative Party leadership election.

May won with 165 of 329 of votes cast by Conservative lawmakers. Andrea Leadsom came second with 66 votes, while Liam Fox finished last and was eliminated, Bloomberg News reports.

May, Leadsom, Justice Secretary Michael Gove (48 votes) and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb (34 votes) will contest another round of voting on Thursday as they bid to succeed David Cameron as party leader and prime minister.

Developing...

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-05/theresa-may-wins-first-round-of-u-k-conservative-leadership-contest

[ananda]

1. Another one of those lesser of evils, I think.

ugghh

[Helen Borg]

2. Theresa May is bad news.

[OnDoutside]

3. There is no good news with the Tories.

[Odin2005]

4. All of the Tory candidates are bad news, I think.

As are all the Centrist Blairites in the Labour Party trying to unseat Corbyn.

[OnDoutside]

8. Alan Johnson is the standout from both sides.

[Blue_Tires]

5. Like any of those other clown are better options?

[Blue_Tires]

6. Funny how all these clown pushed for the Brexit

and nobody wants to be around to deal with the aftermath...

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Both Fox, who had to drop out, and Crabb, in 4th, have said they support May

Just over an hour after the result was declared, Crabb said he was offering May his “wholehearted support”, arguing that her ability to secure the backing of 165 MPs showed that she was the only candidate who had any hope of unifying the party and country.

The work and pensions secretary, who secured 34 votes, said the leadership contest should proceed as planned unless others voluntarily backed out, but he said it was important that the race was as short as possible. “I think, given the seriousness of the situation, the quicker we have a new and strong prime minister in place, the better,” he said.

Fox, the former defence secretary, who was automatically knocked out of the contest after coming fifth, said he did not regret standing and would now “stress the need for experience”, as he threw himself behind May despite the fact that they were on opposite sides of the EU referendum debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/05/theresa-may-conservative-leadership-contest-andrea-leadsom-michael-gove-first-round-vote

So if the MPs who did vote for those 2 largely agree with them, it's very hard for Gove to get enough votes to overtake Leadsom for 2nd place, which is what he needs to get in teh vote by the party members.

[goldent]

9. She may well become the 2nd female PM.

Interestingly enough, both Conservatives.