Posted on May 31, 2019 by Ellen Brown

This article is excerpted from my new book Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age, available in paperback June 1.

The U.S. federal debt has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, shooting up from $9.4 trillion in mid-2008 to over $22 trillion in April 2019. The debt is never paid off. The government just keeps paying the interest on it, and interest rates are rising.

In 2018, the Fed announced plans to raise rates by 2020 to “normal” levels — a fed funds target of 3.375 percent — and to sell about $1.5 trillion in federal securities at the rate of $50 billion monthly, further growing the mountain of federal debt on the market. When the Fed holds government securities, it returns the interest to the government after deducting its costs; but the private buyers of these securities will be pocketing the interest, adding to the taxpayers’ bill.

In fact it is the interest, not the debt itself, that is the problem with a burgeoning federal debt. The principal just gets rolled over from year to year. But the interest must be paid to private bondholders annually by the taxpayers and constitutes one of the biggest items in the federal budget. Currently the Fed’s plans for “quantitative tightening” are on hold; but assuming it follows through with them, projections are that by 2027 U.S. taxpayers will owe $1 trillion annually just in interest on the federal debt. That is enough to fund President Donald Trump’s trillion-dollar infrastructure plan every year, and it is a direct transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy investors holding most of the bonds.

Where will this money come from? Crippling taxes, wholesale privatization of public assets, and elimination of social services will not be sufficient to cover the bill.

Bondholder Debt Is Unnecessary

The irony is that the United States does not need to carry a debt to bondholders at all. It has been financially sovereign ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the dollar off the gold standard domestically in 1933. This was recognized by Beardsley Ruml, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a 1945 presentation before the American Bar Association titled “Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete.”

“The necessity for government to tax in order to maintain both its independence and its solvency is true for state and local governments,” he said, “but it is not true for a national government.” The government was now at liberty to spend as needed to meet its budget, drawing on credit issued by its own central bank. It could do this until price inflation indicated a weakened purchasing power of the currency.

Then, and only then, would the government need to levy taxes — not to fund the budget but to counteract inflation by contracting the money supply. The principal purpose of taxes, said Ruml, was “the maintenance of a dollar which has stable purchasing power over the years. Sometimes this purpose is stated as ‘the avoidance of inflation.’”

The government could be funded without taxes by drawing on credit from its own central bank; and since there was no longer a need for gold to cover the loan, the central bank would not have to borrow. It could just create the money on its books. This insight is a basic tenet of Modern Monetary Theory: the government does not need to borrow or tax, at least until prices are driven up. It can just create the money it needs. The government could create money by issuing it directly; or by borrowing it directly from the central bank, which would create the money on its books; or by taking a perpetual overdraft on the Treasury’s account at the central bank, which would have the same effect.

The “Power Revolution” — Transferring the “Money Power” to the Banks

The Treasury could do that in theory, but some laws would need to be changed. Currently the federal government is not allowed to borrow directly from the Fed and is required to have the money in its account before spending it. After the dollar went off the gold standard in 1933, Congress could have had the Fed just print money and lend it to the government, cutting the banks out. But Wall Street lobbied for an amendment to the Federal Reserve Act, forbidding the Fed to buy bonds directly from the Treasury as it had done in the past.

The Treasury can borrow from itself by transferring money from “intragovernmental accounts” — Social Security and other trust funds that are under the auspices of the Treasury and have a surplus – but these funds do not include the Federal Reserve, which can lend to the government only by buying federal securities from bond dealers. The Fed is considered independent of the government. Its website states, “The Federal Reserve’s holdings of Treasury securities are categorized as ‘held by the public,’ because they are not in government accounts.”

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Noteworthy gains were made by Europe’s nationalist-populist, eurosceptic parties in this weekend’s European Parliament elections as support for centrist parties which had previously dominated the European Union for decades drastically fell.

The enormous success enjoyed by Italy’s League party, France’s National Rally, and the UK’s five-week-old Brexit party are glaring signs that Europe is indeed undergoing significant changes.

Signs like these mark the beginning of a “new European Renaissance,” declared Matteo Salvini, Italy’s populist Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and leader of the League at party headquarters in Milan.

“A new Europe is born. I am proud that the League is participating in this new European renaissance,” Salvini asserted.

Salvini continued, saying, “Significantly, as the ‘League’ became the dominant party in Italy, Marine Le Pen swept into a leading position in France, and Nigel Farage in the UK… This is a sign that Europe is changing, Europe is tired of being a slave to the elites, corporations and the powers-that-be.”

Surprisingly, the League’s populist coalition partner, the Five Star Movement (MS5), was outdone by the center-left Democratic Party (PD) which came in second.

The League, which campaigned on a platform that attacked the globalist, pro-mass migration policies of the European Union, made sweeping gains, outdoing it’s governing coalition partner and rival, the 5-Star Movement.

Salvini assured reporters in Milan that the European election results wouldn’t ignite any “settling of accounts” within Italy’s internal political landscape, adding that, “nothing changes at the national level.”

Salvini reiterated that globalist left-wing forces that have incompetently governed Italy and Europe for years now remain as his chief adversaries, while his populist allies in government were partners and friends with whom he would immediately resume cooperation and joint work.

Just five years ago, in Europe’s last parliamentary elections, the League barely managed to overcome the 6 percent barrier.

Since then eurosceptic, populist, and ethnonationalist parties have made significant gains across Europe in EU parliamentary elections, as the political center – which has dominated for the past 40 years – has been hollowed out substantially.

By ARTHUR LYONS, Voice of Europe, 29 May 2019

Hundreds Of “Black Vest” Migrants Seize Paris Airport Terminal: “France Does Not Belong To The French!”

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
#Breaking: Just in - Reports that undocumented immigrants are protesting in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris right now and won’t let people board their flights until they meet and talk with with the prime minister Édouard Philippe of #France, Riot CRS police on the scene.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19#Update: Just in - The undocumented immigrants are only occupying the terminal 2 of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris, and these flights have now been delayed until further notice. Reports that CRS riot police is going to take action some outlets says.

11:19 PM - May 19, 2019

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19 #Update: Just in - All of these undocumented immigrants are from African decent, and are demanding that prime minister Édouard Philippe, will give all of them permanent legal status and papers to stay in #France. And saying we will not leave Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
#Breaking: Just in - The situation around the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris has ended, when 400 illegal African immigrants stormed the terminal and demanded from prime minister Édouard Philippe, will give all of them permanent legal status to stay in #France.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19#Update: Just in - Reports that around up to 400 undocumented immigrants from Africa are occupying terminal 2, of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris. and demand prime minister Édouard Philippe, will give all of them permanent legal status and papers to stay in #France.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19#Update: Just in - This situation is still ongoing and the 400 undocumented immigrants from Africa are still occupying the terminal 2, of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris.  And are refusing to leave until they speak to prime minister Édouard Philippe. #France

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19#Update: Just in - Video of the moment these 400 African illegal immigrants stormed in the terminal of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris. #France

       

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19#Update: And here are they screaming give us all the papers we need and stop the deportation of our friends, at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris. and demand prime minister Édouard Philippe, will give all of them permanent legal status to stay in #France.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis@sotiridi
May 19 #Breaking: Just in - The situation around the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris has ended, when 400 illegal African immigrants stormed the terminal and demanded from prime minister Édouard Philippe, will give all of them permanent legal status to stay in #France.

This means that you can go into a foreign country and make demands and people will actually listen. People will actually capitulate to your demands in a place where you are by the grace of the local government. If there was any doubt that there’d be more of these types of sieges, I think we can lay that to rest right now. We have not seen the end of the Black Vests. I’m not against people migrating to other countries. I’ve done it myself and I’ve brought my children back to my own country. But there are processes. This is not one of those processes. Currently, reports say the siege has ended. There are no reports of arrests.

France does not belong to the French, indeed.  - Zero Hedge.

By ARTHUR LYONS, Voice of Europe, 28 May 2019:

    “It becomes a referendum for or against Macron: if he loses this election, then he will have to leave.”

National populist leader Marine Le Pen along with her Rassemblement National (National Rally) has prevailed over France’s sitting president Emmanuel Macron in the European Parliament elections and wants him to resign.

Ms. Le Pen’s party had won 23,6 percent of the vote, edging out Macron’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) who garnered about 22,4 percent of the vote, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.

Voter turnout across the continent was estimated at 51%, the highest in 20 years, indicating that over 200 million citizens across the 28-nation bloc showed up.

During her victory speech, the National Rally leader said, “The French have placed the National Rally at the top of the European elections. I see the people’s victory, who with pride and dignity have retaken power this evening.

Le Pen, who lost out to Macron in the 2017 national elections, went on to call for the head of state to dissolve the French Parliament “as a minimum”, saying “it is up to the president of the Republic to draw conclusions, he who put his presidential credit on the line in this vote in making it a referendum on his policies and even his personality.”

Earlier in the month, during the run-up to the election, Le Pen had referred to the European Parliament elections as a referendum on the presidency of Macron, calling on him to step down from office in the case that his party did not win.

“So it becomes a referendum for or against Emmanuel Macron, this European election. I accept that, but in these conditions, he must do as General De Gaulle: if he loses this election, then he will have to leave,” she said at the beginning of this month. Ms. Le Pen"s sentiments were echoed by 23-year-old Jordan Bardella, the lead candidate for the National Rally.

“The president will not be able to govern against the interests of the French during the second half of his quinquennium, which is why we are asking him to dissolve the National Assembly,” Bardella declared.

“The French people have clearly punished the president tonight, and taught him a lesson in humility.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, left, reacts as results are announced at the counting center for the European Elections for South East England region, in Southampton, England, Sunday, May 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Yahoo/Associated Press News, 27 May 2019:

LONDON (AP): Britain’s governing Conservative Party was all but wiped out in European Parliament election as voters sick of the country’s stalled European Union exit flocked to uncompromisingly pro-Brexit or pro-EU parties.

The main opposition Labour Party also faced a drubbing in a vote that upended the traditional order of British politics and plunged the country into even more Brexit uncertainty. The big winners were the newly founded Brexit Party led by veteran anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage and the strongly pro-European Liberal Democrats.

With results announced early Monday for all of England and Wales, the Brexit Party had won 28 of the 73 British EU seats up for grabs and almost a third of the votes. The Liberal Democrats took about 20% of the vote and 15 seats — up from only one at the last EU election in 2014.

Labour came third with 10 seats, followed by the Greens with seven. The ruling Conservatives were in fifth place with just three EU seats and under 10% of the vote.

Scotland and Northern Ireland are due to announce their results later.

Farage’s Brexit Party was one of several nationalist and populist parties making gains across the continent in an election that saw erosion of support for the traditionally dominant political parties.

Conservative Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was a “painful result” and warned there was an “existential risk to our party unless we now come together and get Brexit done.”

The results reflect an electorate deeply divided over Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the EU, but united in anger at the two long-dominant parties, the Conservatives and Labour, who have brought the Brexit process to deadlock.

Britain is participating in the EU election because it is still a member of the bloc, but the lawmakers it elects will only sit in the European Parliament until the country leaves the EU, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 31.

Farage’s Brexit Party was officially launched in April and has only one policy: for Britain to leave the EU as soon as possible, even without a divorce agreement in place.

Farage said his party’s performance was “a massive message” for the Conservatives and Labour, and he said it should be given a role in future negotiations with the EU.

“If we don’t leave on Oct. 31, then the scores you have seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election — and we are getting ready for it,” said Farage.

But the election leaves Britain’s EU exit ever more uncertain, with both Brexiteers and pro-EU “remainers” able to claim strong support. Labour and the Conservatives, who in different ways each sought a compromise Brexit, were hammered. The result raises the likelihood of a chaotic “no deal” exit from the EU — but also of a new referendum that could reverse the decision to leave.

The Conservatives were punished for failing to take the country out of the EU on March 29 as promised, a failure that led Prime Minister Theresa May to announce Friday that she is stepping down from leading the party on June 7. Britain’s new prime minister will be whoever wins the Conservative party leadership race to replace her.

The favorites, including ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, have vowed to leave the EU on Oct. 31 even if there is no deal in place.

Most businesses and economists think that would cause economic turmoil and plunge Britain into recession. But many Conservatives think embracing a no-deal Brexit may be the only way to win back voters from Farage’s party.

Labour was punished for a fence-sitting Brexit policy that saw the party dither over whether to support a new referendum that could halt Brexit. Labour foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry said the party needed to adopt a clearer pro-EU stance.

“There should be a (new Brexit) referendum and we should campaign to remain,” she said.

___

For more news from The Associated Press on the European Parliament elections go to https://www.apnews.com/EuropeanParliament

___

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

Or is it rather unite and conquer?

......unite right wing reactionaries against “the left” (don’t be so “divisive” as to “punch right”) and conquer (erstwhile White/ethnonational social systemic homeostasis)?

With Majorityrights having recently been taken off of the WN/news aggregate site formerly known as “the White Right Hub” and now the “Goebbels Report” after MR had the nerve to question the wisdom of their promoting “The Greatest Story Never Told” in the name of White morale and unity? as it features wholesale lies from Goebbels - e.g., that Poles killed 58,000 German civilians interwar - in order to “justify” invasion of Poland…the question comes into relief again:

What part is Regnery playing in promoting the socially disorganizing right wing identity among Whites in their reaction to affliction? and is a Germanic/Jewish element among Regnery using this to promote divide and conquer among Whites?

What begs these questions?

Following MR having called-out the White Right Hub for featuring this highly inaccurate and destructive propaganda, they did replace the feature (“Greatest Story Never Told”), with a headline of a Polish woman who had a child with a black, who then, typically, abandoned her.

A comment appeared on MR - “LOL, you (DanielS) were being trolled and didn’t even realize it.”

This is quite Jewy. I cannot imagine mocking Germans for their mudsharks. And it casts suspicion on this spirit of unity that these right wingers claim to be promoting and how I am the one supposedly sowing discord.

Not long after, none other than Regnery’s pet, Richard Spencer, was being featured atop The Goebbels Report…

...tagging along on this occasion was a new luminary in the Regnery right wing tentosphere, Josh Neal, who, in turn, is apparently being encouraged to bring along other nubies on the WN scene, like Richard Houck, to play the same old Regnery German/Jewish game of pandering to the White American demographic in their reaction.

Regnery is apparently sponsoring much of the dubious right wing White identity - such as Richard Spencer’s NPI and Mike Enoch’s TRS.

Norvin tells me that a character going by the nom de plume of “Privada” is acting as a producer (gate-keeper) for those going on (what I’m guessing is) the Rengery approved circuit.

Related at Majorityrights:

On The Regnery Circus Big-Tent-O-Sphere, Featuring Richard Spencer as its Ring-Master

Regnery and Spencer, central umbrellas in the Regnery Tentosphere. Richard Thpenther thays, “If you’re not right on “the PQ” (Polish question), we’re going to purge you from thith movement” - (((Alternative Right))).

Regnery Publishing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regnery Publishing is a conservative book publisher based in Washington, D.C. An imprint of Salem Media Group, it is led by president Marji Ross. The company was founded by Henry Regnery in 1947.[3][4][5]

Regnery has published books by authors such as former Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, columnist Michelle Malkin, Robert Spencer, pundit David Horowitz, Vice President Mike Pence and his family and Barbara Olson.

Again, Regnery is known to sponsor many right wing projects, including those that “White Nationalists” are involved in, apparently sponsoring TRS (see here, here and here as to why that’s particularly dubious) in addition to Spencer’s NPI (among the manifold dubiousness of that outfit, for example, here).

Below are samples from the most recent tweet to tweets not far down the line (even though some of the dates are old) from Regnery president, Marj Ross, indicating a kosher aesthetic.

Marji Ross on Twitter:

Marji Ross Retweeted

Dave Sussman, Whiskey Politics
‏
@DavidSussman
20 Dec 2018

.@Regnery inspires new authors! Learn how to get published, catch up on 2018’s best books & what’s upcoming in 2019 as Marji Ross joins me at #WhiskeyPolitics.
Produced by Praemonitus Communications @6foot2inhiheels.
@SebGorka @VP @AnnCoulter @YouTube

Ep. 156 - Marji Ross with Regnery Press
Regnery’s gift to budding authors: How to get published. Marji Ross, President and Publisher at Regnery Press shares with Dave Sussman her favorite books of ...

.....

Sebastian Gorka DrG
‏
Verified account

@SebGorka
2 Oct 2018
More
The Great One has spoken.

Thank you @marklevinshow!

        One week today:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Fight-Recovering-Americas/dp/162157640X …

 

https://twitter.com/SebGorka/status/1047169524175437825

.....

Marji Ross
‏
@MRossRegnery
30 Aug 2016

As many of you know, in my spare time, I’m a football nut. If you love #NFL, check it out https://www.amazon.com/Are-Ready-Some-Football-2016/dp/1535150858/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472579189&sr=8-1&keywords=are+you+ready+for+some+football+book ….

.....

Shellie Blum
‏

@shellieblum
9 Jun 2016
More
Replying to @MRossRegnery
@Regnery @oreillyfactor You did a great job! It’s nice 2 hear someone in the traditional Publishing World be authentic! #books

0 replies 2 retweets 1 like
Reply   Retweet 2   Like 1   Direct message

....

Marji Ross
‏

@MRossRegnery
26 Apr 2016
More
Meeting with the incredibly talented and beautiful #Stacey Dash to plan the launch of her upcoming Regnery book!

Alexandra Levine talks with Dave Sussman:

Alexandra Levine with ‘Jews for Trump’ discusses Trump, Israel & being a Conservative Jew

(((Alexandra Levine and Dave Sussman))) an act featured by the The Regnery Circus

..................................................

Paul Gottfried, Gilad Atzmon and David Cole Stein are three ready examples of Jews who are taking the kind of right wing and philo-Germanic perspective that is characteristic of the Regnery circus (even if Stein and Atzmon are not published by Regnery, they are common as “the good Jews” among Regnery discourse-promotional circuits).

Buchanan, Gottfried and Spencer. Along with President Reagan, Buchanan is a descendant of (((Frank Meyers))) “fusionism” (Judeo-Christianity + Enlightenment objectivism), so too Paul Gottfried; and Gottfried, a German Jew, tends to see “the bad Jews as Slavic”; of high relevance, Gottfried’s fear of intersectionality against “The Left” had him call for damage control misdirection against a White Left ethnonational response to Jews in their ascendance to unprecedented hegemony circa 2008, calling for a Paleoconservatism 2.0, an Alternative Right, which Richard Spencer took up - a tentosphere of right wing reactionaries now usually being called “the dissident right” after Spencer and his Alt-Right brand name were predictably steered into destruction.

   
David Cole-Stein, adversary of “The Left”, supported early holocaust revisionist efforts, a proud German-Jew who detests Slavic Jews.

   
Atzmon, philo-Germanic, anti-Zionist
...offering some insider critique of Jewish power and influence
(probably as semi conscious damage control)
but otherwise basically a liberal.

Related at Majorityrights:

Kristol>NeoCon>Meyer>Paleocon> Gottfried>Francis>NPI> Gottfried>AltRight/lite> Paleocon>Bannon>Trump

Richard Thpenther’s (((Altright tentosphere))): “PQ” (Polish question), Goldstein’s false opposition

On The Regnery Circus Big-Tent-O-Sphere, Featuring Richard Spencer as its Ring-Master

From whence comes the eclecticism of the alternative right big tent concept.

The Alternative-Right’s big tent, would additionally include the Jews for some unknown reason.

The alternative right’s big tent, already too inclusive - includes Jews as well

Big Tent quartermasters faced with fresh spate of pro-Jewish pandering from Donald Trump.

Unite the Right Charlottesville: successful neocon/liberal operation forces wedge against paleo-Cohn

Defend Europa, 25 May 2019:

700 years is a long time, many centuries, many generations, many people who saw how Seville flourish thanks to the commerce of the Spanish Empire, becoming the centre of Southern Spain.

Seville is truly a city with an interesting history, with important and curious events. Today’s event has gone unnoticed by the majority of Spaniards and Sevillians, as well as most of the media. Perhaps in the eyes of Sevillians, this event is only considered part of the “innocent” game called multiculturalism.

The title doesn’t lie, Seville, a city with a deeply Catholic tradition, will have its first mosque in 700 years, after the Reconquista. Many people will ask “what’s wrong? It’s just a simple mosque.” And to be honest, putting myself in their place, I would also ask myself, “What’s wrong with a mosque?”

Nine years ago, there was an attempt to put a mosque in the Sevillian neighbourhood of San Jerónimo. The response of the neighbours was blunt: NO!

As you can see in the video, the reaction was clear. Of course, this protest was labelled as islamophobe, xenophobe, and others “phobes” from the list the regressive left uses to attack patriotism.

But now, it’s different.

The new mosque

In the scene of this political theatre, enters a man called Kanoute, a former player of the football team Sevilla FC, which is raising 300,000 euros for the construction of the mosque.

       
        “I do it to save the Islamic worship of the city,” he declared.

In a country like Spain, which the Muslim population has reached 4% and continues to grow under this Socialist government, the opening of this seemingly unimportant mosque will open the appetite for the construction of many more. The same trend has been seen in Barcelona for example.

With the capitulation of another city in Spain, its European roots begin to tremble. Attacks on Spanish culture can be seen daily. Me your writer, a simple Spaniard and Sevillian, cannot but help remembering the words of Ferdinand III of Castile, who reconquered the city:

       

“I did not rid this city of the Mohammedan power so that hundreds of Moors stay here to practice their infidel rites.”

       

        The Spaniards do not forget, the spirit of the Reconquista is still alive.

As a Remain voter to begin with, Theresa May’s Prime Ministership looked more and more like a grand filibuster to obstruct Brexit indefinitely. And, as Allister Heath said over at the Daily Telegraph, 22 May 2019:

Theresa May at the top nearly 3 years

As prime minister, following David Cameron

6 years before that, as home secretary

Failed to win 2017 general election outright, but stayed PM

Remainvoter in the 2016 EU referendum

Brexit dominated her time at 10 Downing Street. (PA)

There may be a chance of a Tory-Brexit Party pact as some point, but zero chance the supporters of Mrs May’s deal or her allies will be spared the full force of Nigel Farage’s Party.

The reality is that nobody who believes in Brexit can possibly vote for Mrs. May’s deal. There is no longer any excuse, no longer any room for doubt. Mrs. May’s latest version is an admission that the established parties will never allow us to leave the E.U.

It is an attempt to entrench the status-quo, the symbol of a broken West Minster stuck on a doom-loop.

In its denial of democracy and its decision to put process above substance, it is also a provocation.

It tells Brexiteers that they will only get change if they elect new MP’s from new parties; many will oblige, keen to usher-in fresh, more responsive politics

UK set for new PM as Theresa May quits

BBC, 24 May 2019:

Mrs May became emotional as she concluded her announcement.

Theresa May has said she will quit as Conservative leader on 7 June, paving the way for a contest to decide a new prime minister. In an emotional statement, she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of “deep regret” that she had been unable to do so.

Mrs May said she would continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest takes place.

The party said it hoped a new leader could be in place by the end of July. It means Mrs May will still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK at the start of June.

Mrs May announced she would step down as Tory leader on 7 June and had agreed with the chairman of Tory backbenchers that a leadership contest should begin the following week.

On Friday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt became the latest MP to say that he would run for the party leadership, joining Boris Johnson, Esther McVey and Rory Stewart, who had already confirmed their intentions. More than a dozen others are believed to be seriously considering entering the contest.

The prime minister has faced a backlash from her MPs against her latest Brexit plan, which included concessions aimed at attracting cross-party support.

Andrea Leadsom quit as Commons leader on Wednesday saying she no longer believed the government’s approach would “deliver on the referendum result”.

Mrs May met Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt at Downing Street on Thursday where they are understood to have expressed their concerns about her proposed withdrawal bill.

In her statement on Friday, she said she had done “everything I can” to convince MPs to support the withdrawal deal she had negotiated with the European Union but it was now in the “best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead that effort”. She added that, in order to deliver Brexit, her successor would have to build agreement in Parliament.

“Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise,” she said.

Mrs May’s voice shook as she ended her speech saying: “I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold. The second female prime minister, but certainly not the last.”

“I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”