UK May's lawmakers might have numbers to trigger confidence vote-BBC political editor

LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) - Members of Theresa May's Conservative Party might have secured the backing of enough members to trigger a confidence vote in the prime minister, the BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said on Monday, after two of her most senior ministers quit.

"Whispers Tory MPs have reached the magic number of the 48 letters required to force a confidence vote - no way of knowing yet if true - meeting at 1730," Kuenssberg said on Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) .

A leadership challenge can be triggered if 15 percent of members of parliament in May's Conservative Party write a letter to the chairman of the party's so-called "1922 committee".

The Conservatives currently have 316 members of parliament (MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) ) so 48 of them would need to write such letters to challenge May. The 1922 committee is due to meet later on Monday. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; writing by Kate Holton; editing by Michael Holden)