She made the statement after a meeting with Graham Brady, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, which unites rank-and-file Tory MPs and oversees the election of party leaders.

"I am announcing that I will resign as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on Friday, the 7th of June so that a successor can be chosen," May said at Downing Street, 10.

LONDON, May 24. /TASS/.Theresa May has declared she has made up her mind to step down as the leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party and, respectively, leave the post of prime minister.

"I have agreed with the Party Chairman and with the Chairman of the 1922 Committee that the process for electing a new leader should begin in the following week. I have kept Her Majesty the Queen fully informed of my intentions, and I will continue to serve as her Prime Minister until the process has concluded," May said.

According to the British media the election of a new leader may take about six weeks.

One of the reasons why May took such a decision was her failure to persuade parliament to approve the agreement on the terms of Brexit with the European Union. The prime minister encountered firm resistance from her own Cabinet of Ministers to her latest Brexit proposals made with the aim to secure parliament’s consent to the deal.

The UK was due to withdraw from the EU on March 29. But May’s inability to get the divorce deal she negotiated in Brussels approved in Britain’s deadlocked Parliament has forced her to delay exit day until October.