Tory MPs urge David Cameron to stay on as prime minister

(Image credit: WPA Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 24 June 2016

More than 80 Conservative MPs critical of the European Union, including every member of Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet who voted Leave in the historic Brexit referendum, signed a letter to Cameron telling him he has a "mandate and duty" to remain in his position regardless of the result.

The letter was delivered to Cameron when the polls closed at 10 p.m. Thursday, the UK's Telegraph reports. Before the BBC projected early Friday that the votes are in for Britain to leave the European Union, Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, said Cameron should resign "immediately" if Brexit won.

The letter states that "whatever the British people decide you have both the mandate and duty to continue leading the nation implementing our 2015 manifesto," and thanked Cameron for "giving the British people a choice of their destiny on 23 June." Cameron has not commented since the Brexit projection was made, but his former communications chief, Andy Coulson, told ITV he believes Cameron is "pondering his future."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.