It is official! Theresa May has announced that she will be resigning as Prime Minister of the UK on the 7th June 2019, almost 3 years to date after Britain voted to leave the EU. After her proposed Brexit deals were rejected on multiple occasions, along with the constant reporting of fellow MPs being dissatisfied with her approach, it was inevitable that May would choose to stand down. Earlier this year, May stated that she would step down after she had executed Brexit, and hence the decision to resign prematurely may come as a shock. As part of her resignation speech, May touched on her loyalty to all the British people and her negotiation of Britain's exit and describes her actions as trying her best even thought she was unable to deliver. May also stated that she will shortly leave the job, that has been the honour of her life to hold, "the second female Prime Minister but certainly not the last". She was later confronted with criticism by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party who argues that May was "right" to resign and going forward "whoever becomes the new Conservative Leader must let the people decide our country's future, through an immediate general election."
Although this will be democratic, with all the Brexit chaos, we cannot be sure that this will actually happen, especially with the Brexit extension approaching. The Conservative party has announced that Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart and Ester McVey (to name a few) have all announced that they would be participating in the leadership contest to replace May. Even SkyBet, has classified Boris Johnson as having a 4/5 chance of becoming Prime Minister, Dominic Raab 5/1 and Michael Gove with 11/1. Additionally, the chances of having a General Election is noted as 7/4 by the end of 2019 and 2/1 by the end of 2020.
Needless to say, we are witnessing one of the most controversial processes in British history, and anxiously analysing the disintegration of society as we currently understand it to be, this does not mean our situation will be worse, but it will be different.
To conclude, as news has just broken it is difficult to predict what will happen exactly, but what we can say is that we will be watching closely and hope the transition will be as smooth as possible, to ensure what was promised in the Spring Statement!
Akoni helps businesses make the most of their cash. Register free for access to market-leading interest rate accounts, cash planning tools and tips at panel.akonihub.com and follow us on Twitter