Theresa May has told Tory MPs she will not stay on as prime minister to oversee future trade talks with the EU, in a last throw of the dice intended to persuade Eurosceptics to back her Brexit deal.
Mrs May made the dramatic offer to step down in the next few months in a meeting of backbench Conservative MPs at Westminster, after senior Tories said that setting a timetable for her departure was a pre-requisite of winning support for her deal.
“I know some people are worried that if you vote for the withdrawal agreement, I will take that as a mandate to rush on into phase two without the debate we need to have. I won’t — I hear what you are saying”, Mrs May told MPs.