Fighting back tears, Theresa May said on Friday she would quit, setting up a contest that will bring a new British Prime Minister to power who could pursue a cleaner break with the European Union.

May’s departure will deepen the Brexit crisis as a new leader is likely to want a more decisive split, raising the chances of a confrontation with the EU and a potentially unpredictable snap parliamentary election. Her voice cracking with emotion, May, who endured crises and humiliation in her failed effort to find a compromise Brexit deal that parliament could ratify, said she would resign as Conservative Party leader on June 7 with a leadership contest beginning the following week.

“I will shortly leave the job that has been the honour of my life to hold,” May said outside her Downing Street official residence.  “I do so with no ill will but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love,” she added, with her husband, Philip, looking on.

May, once a reluctant supporter of EU membership, who won the top job in the turmoil that followed the 2016 Brexit referendum, steps down with her central pledge — to lead the UK  out of the bloc and heal its divisions — unfulfilled.

“It is, and will always remain, a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit,” May said, adding that her successor would have to find a consensus to honour the 2016 referendum result.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the new Prime Minister must hold a parliamentary election to “let the people decide our country’s future”.

Johnson, the favourite

Boris Johnson, the face of the official Brexit campaign in 2016, is the favourite to succeed May and he thanked her for her “stoical service”. Betting markets put a 40 per cent  implied probability on Johnson winning the top job.

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