UK PM May hit by leadership challenge over Brexit deal
AFP / Oli SCARFFTheresa May vowed to contest the leadership challenge against her over Brexit in a statement in Downing Street
British Prime Minister Theresa May was hit by a no-confidence motion from her own party on Wednesday over the unpopular Brexit deal she struck with EU leaders last month.
The move plunged her deeper into her biggest crisis since she took office after Britons voted in June 2016 to leave the European Union.
May vowed to fight the challenge inside her own Conservative Party "with everything I've got".
"Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more divisions," May said in a statement delivered outside her Downing Street office.
"I stand ready to finish the job."
A party confidence vote in her leadership is scheduled for Wednesday evening after dozens of Conservative MPs submitted letters calling for one.
That followed her decision to delay a vote on Brexit that she admitted she was certain to lose.
If May is defeated in Wednesday's party ballot, a leadership election will be held over the coming weeks.
If a new party chief is elected, he or she automatically becomes Britain's new prime minister.
AFP / Oli SCARFFThe fate of May's draft EU withdrawal agreement and her very government are in the balance
The fate of both May's unpopular draft withdrawal agreement and her government are now in the balance with the clocking ticking down to Britain's March 29 departure from the European Union after 46 years.
May cancelled a cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday that had been due to focus on preparations in case Britain leaves the world's largest single market without any official deal on future trade arrangements.
The pound fell on the first rumours of an imminent leadership challenge on Tuesday evening. It regained the losses once the news became official and May went on national TV to announce she would fight for her job.
- Cabinet support -
The confidence vote was triggered after months of plotting by Brexit-supporting Conservative MPs to collect the minimum 48 letters from MPs necessary to trigger a vote.
The last batch of letters came in after the prime minister, facing a heavy defeat, delayed a parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday on her draft withdrawal agreement with Brussels, sparking fury among MPs across party lines.
If May survives Wednesday's motion, no second one can be brought by her party for another year.
AFP / Ben STANSALLBritain's interior minister Sajid Javid rallied to May's support - he has been mentioned as a possible replacement for her as prime minister
A clutch of top members of her cabinet quickly rallied to her support.
"The last thing our country needs right now is a Conservative Party leadership election," Home Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted.
Javid himself has been mentioned as a possible replacement for May.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has also disagreed with May over her Brexit strategy, wrote on Twitter: "I am backing @theresa_may tonight."
But MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of Britain's most prominent opponents of the EU, said it was "time for Mrs May to resign".
- Seeking concessions -
The British leader toured European capitals on Tuesday in an attempt to salvage her Brexit arrangements, after MPs savaged its provisions on the issue of the Irish border.
May said she wanted "assurances" from EU leaders that if Britain ever entered the so-called "backstop" customs arrangement for the border, this would only be "temporary".
AFP / Aris OikonomouPresident Jean-Claude Juncker said ahead of talks with May there was "no room whatsoever for renegotiation"
She received sympathy from EU partners but firm rejections of any attempt to reopen the agreement, which was approved by EU leaders last month after nearly two years of tortuous talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting May that there was "no way to change" the deal.
May cancelled a trip to Dublin on Wednesday for talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, but is expected to attend an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
"I doubt if she really knows what she's going to achieve," said Pippa Catterall, professor of history and policy at the University of Westminster.
- Down to the wire -
May said the parliamentary vote on Brexit will be held by January 21, giving her time to show Britons that she is trying to wrest every possible concession from EU leaders.
AFP / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASSome in Britain are calling for a second referendum on Brexit
Catterall said that May could be trying "to take it down to the wire... so in the end parliament is faced with the choice: my deal or no deal".
Even if May survives Wednesday's vote and potential leadership challenge, she could face a further no-confidence motion from opposition parties.
The main opposition Labour Party has said the government is in "disarray" but is so far holding off from attempting to topple May.
The Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats, which are both anti-Brexit, have urged Labour to do so and are hoping this could lead to a second referendum.
AFP / Iris ROYER DE VERICOURTTheresa May has steered Britain's Brexit process since becoming prime minister in July 2016
A lot will hinge on what the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 MPs prop up the government, will do.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said on Wednesday she was not "surprised" by the no-confidence motion, adding that her focus was on "the fact that the backstop needs to be taken out of that withdrawal agreement."
Spain to raise minimum wage by 22% in 2019: PM
AFP/File / Fethi BELAID"A rich country can't have poor workers," said Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez, who is widely expected to call an early general election next year
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday his cabinet would approve next week a 22 percent increase in the monthly minimum wage to 1,050 euros ($1,192) in 2019.
The increase, "the biggest since 1977", will be submitted to a cabinet meeting in Barcelona on December 21, he told parliament.
"A rich country can't have poor workers," said Sanchez, who is widely expected to call an early general election next year.
The measure was part of his minority Socialist government's draft 2019 budget unveiled in October but which he is struggling to pass in parliament so it will now be approved by decree.
The announcement comes after French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled Monday a 100-euro ($113) per month increase in the minimum wage from next year in a major concession to "yellow vest" protests which have roiled the country.
After years of austerity policies imposed to cope with the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, governments are under increasing pressure to ease the purse strings, especially for the lower paid.
Sanchez's Socialists control just 84 seats in the 350-seat parliament, the smallest number for a government since the country returned to democracy following dictator Francisco Franco's death in 1975.
He negotiated the draft 2019 budget with far-left party Podemos, which controls 67 seats, but would still need the support of Catalan separatist parties to pass the spending plan and they have steadfastly refused.
The government estimated the minimum wage hike will cost the state 340 million euros per year.
Employers groups and the conservative opposition parties, the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos, oppose the wage hike, saying it will hurt job creation.
PP leader Pablo Casado has said the 2019 budget, which also includes tax hikes, is "economically suicidal".
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