May’s exit sparks start of leadership BATTLE as Farage warns ‘This is only the start!’

Mrs May spent her last day as Tory leader at her Maidenhead constituency before penning a letter to 1922 Committee sealing her departure, which she emotionally announced a fortnight ago outside Downing Street. Mrs May will not be banished into the political shadows straightaway, but will continue on as Prime Minister until her successor is announced on the week commencing July 22. A day after the UK went to vote in the European Elections a deeply emotional Mrs May announced she would be resigning and stated it had been an honour to “serve the country I love”. The Prime Minister insisted it was with “deep regret” that she had failed during her premiership to deliver Brexit.

The chalice of delivering on the 2016 EU referendum is now in the hands of one of 11 declared contenders, which includes Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt and Andrea Leadsom.

The legacy of Mrs May’s time as Tory leader has been highlighted for all to see, following the result of Thursday’s Peterborough by-election.

A surprise Labour hold despite its dithering stance on Brexit, prompted a backlash from many Tory hopefuls who fear the worst for the party.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned there would be “no future” for the Conservatives unless Brexit is resolved.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove, another leading contender, said “we’ve got to come back together as a party and work together to get Brexit done”.

Whilst Esther McVey, who has promised as leader she would “embrace” a no-deal Brexit, said: “The result in Peterborough is the shape of things to come if we don’t deliver a clean Brexit on October 31.

“Our persistent thwarting of the referendum result shows that a Brexit Party vote will let Jeremy Corbyn into No 10 by the back door.”

Mrs May’s failure to deliver on Brexit three-times caused her to finally fall on her sword and fuelled the rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.

Mr Farage played down the surprise defeat in Peterborough, labelling it a “phenomenal result” to finish in second-place, after being just under 700 votes away from electing the Brexit Party’s first MP.

On Friday, Mr Farage wrote a letter to the Prime Minister demanding to be “immediately” involved with the Brexit negotiating team in Brussels.

Brexit Party leader said: “We’ve got 55 days now of total impasse, while the Government spends all its time working out who the next prime minister is.

“We’ve only got less than five months until we’re due to leave. We would love to start helping now.

“This is us saying to you: we’re not a protest party, we actually want responsibility, we want to get involved.”

The Brexiteer also states his grassroots political movement, following an incredible EU election result has “blown apart the old political certainties”, and is ready to unveil its first 100 general election candidates at its first Party Conference on June 30.

Support for the Brexit Party has also now surpassed 110,000 members and Mr Farage has warned his political rivals “this is only the start”.

He wrote in The Telegraph: “In the mere eight weeks of our existence, we have blown apart the old political certainties.

“We swept to victory in the European elections, easily winning more votes than the Tory and Labour parties put together.

“Even more remarkable is the latest YouGov poll of general election voting intentions, which shows the Brexit Party on 26 per cent nationally – an extraordinary six per cent ahead of the rest. And this is only the start.”

He added: “This is the new politics, with decision-making powers taken out of the hands of a few party delegates or self-serving National Executive Committees, and directly entrusted to our supporters.

“When we say that the Brexit Party is a movement for democracy, we mean it. And our direct democracy begins at home.”