Theresa May's resignation adds to insurers' Brexit uncertainty

The Prime Minister of the UK, Theresa May, has announced that she will resign her position as leader of the Conservative Party in June and then step down as PM after her replacement is found.

In a statement in Downing street, she admitted that her departure was down to her failure to get her Brexit deal, the withdrawal agreement bill, through Parliament and that it was up to her successor to deliver a solution.

A leadership race for the new head of the Conservative Party could take some weeks, depending on the number of candidates, and the new PM might not be appointed until early July.

May’s minority government has been attempting to get her withdrawal bill through Parliament throughout the first months of this year, only to see them voted down because of a wide variety of objections to various elements within it.

Her position was further weakened by substantial Tory losses in the UK local elections at the start of May.

The UK is currently set to leave the European Union (EU) on October 31 2019. If an agreement is not reached with the EU before that date then the UK will crash out in what has been described as a ‘hard brexit’, with no agreements on trade or customs having been made and with great uncertainty as to what will happen to the Northern Irish border.

The insurance industry has called for clarity about just what will happen about Brexit on a regular basis, with the Association of British Insurers especially warning of the dangers of a no-deal Brexit.

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