Former British Conservative Party MP Heidi Allen speaks at a news conference in London, Britain February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

LONDON (Reuters) - A British lawmaker who quit Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives said on Sunday she would not seek to force a national election if there was a confidence vote in her former leader.

May survived a confidence vote in January, after her Brexit deal was roundly rejected by lawmakers.

Heidi Allen, one of three Conservative lawmakers who left the party last week to join eight former opposition Labour lawmakers in a new Independent Group, was asked how she would vote if there were another confidence motion.

“I would do nothing at all that would facilitate a general election or give any more instability,” she told BBC TV.

Asked if that meant she would back May, whose Conservatives do not have a majority in parliament, Allen said: “If that (election and instability) were the alternative, then yes.”