Theresa May offers to step down if her Brexit deal is passed

The PM did not name a date for her departure from 10 Downing Street, but her announcement sets the stage for a Conservative leadership election within the coming weeks or months.

Her offer to resign after her Withdrawal Agreement is passed came in response to calls from a number of her backbenchers for her to promise to go in return for their help in pushing the deal through Parliament.

And it appeared the dramatic initiative may be paying dividends, as a close ally of Boris Johnson indicated that the Brexit figurehead may be preparing to swing behind the deal.

Conor Burns said in a tweet: ‘Boris Johnson absolutely right telling MPs that palpable risk of losing Brexit altogether with the chance of change in the next phase means we have little choice but to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement.’

However, an expected statement from the Democratic Unionist Party failed to materialise, raising questions over whether the Northern Irish party is ready to drop its opposition.

An ERG source at the meeting said ‘there is no way enough votes are coming out of that room to put the Withdrawal Agreement through’.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker told the meeting he was in a ‘ferocious rage’ after the ‘pantomime’ of Mrs May’s announcement and indicated he ‘may yet resign the whip than be part of this’, a source said.

May spoke to the influential Tory 1922 Committee shortly before MPs were due to take part in ‘indicative votes’ on a range of Brexit options in the House of Commons.

She said she ‘will not stand in the way’ of the party having new leadership, telling the 1922 Committee: ‘I am prepared to leave this job earlier than I intended in order to do what is right for our country and our party.’

One MP who witnessed the address, George Freeman, said that the PM had ‘tears not far from her eyes’ as she admitted: ‘I have made many mistakes. I am only human. I beg you, colleagues, vote for the Withdrawal Agreement and I will go.’

Freeman, a former policy aide to the PM who had called for her to name a date for her departure, told the BBC: ‘There was silence in the room and it was incredibly sad.’

Downing Street has signalled that the PM is keeping open the possibility of tabling her Withdrawal Agreement for a third ‘meaningful vote’ on Thursday or Friday, but would do so only if she felt there was a credible chance of it securing a majority.

The deal must be passed by the end of the week if the UK is to benefit from the EU’s offer of an automatic delay to Brexit to May 22.

But Commons Speaker John Bercow infuriated ministers after reminding them of his ruling that there needed to be significant change to the deal if it was to be brought back to the Commons for a third time, after twice being defeated by wide margins.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘Theresa May’s pledge to Tory MPs to stand down if they vote for her deal shows once and for all that her chaotic Brexit negotiations have been about party management, not principles or the public interest.

‘A change of government can’t be a Tory stitch-up, the people must decide.’

Best for Britain boss Eloise Todd said: ‘There’s no way Labour MPs can leave future Brexit negotiations at the mercy of a Tory leadership psychodrama.

‘Those considering voting for her botched deal should see this and think again. They would be handing a blank cheque to people intent on scrapping rights and protections for workers, and sending this country down a path of social and economic inequality.

‘This is further proof that any deal, be it the government’s or another, needs to be put to the people to have the final say. The public did not vote for this backroom dealing.’