May wins the vote, waiting on the vote tally
No surprise that she won.
200-117 is a decent margin of victory but it's not going to be enough to put to bed any questions, especially since she promised MPs today that there would be a better Brexit deal and that she wouldn't lead Conservatives into the next election.
There had been chatter of something like 231-86, which would have been a number that might have strengthened her hand.
The spin is starting already with calls for her to step down by the people who triggered and lost the vote but she wouldn't have pushed it this far if she didn't intend on hanging around. With this vote, she can't be challenged again for 12 months.
Cable isn't thrilled, dropping to 1.2610 from 1.2640 after a brief jump to 1.2670.
The problem is we're right back to where we were on Sunday with Theresa May needing to craft a Brexit deal that can get through parliament. With 117 MPs in her own party against her, it doesn't bode well.
The next big question is whether Labour will try to trigger an election with the help of the DUP and perhaps some of those dissenting Conservative votes.
A UK government has to leave office if it loses a vote of confidence
in the House of Commons. Previously the convention was that the Prime
Minister resigned and called an immediate general election as happened
in 1979. The updated 2011 rules now provides for a period of 14 days to allow the
possibility of a new government to be formed and only then would a
general election be called.
