Theresa May promised to build a
"better Britain" and to make the UK's EU exit a "success" after she was
announced as the new Tory leader and soon-to-be PM.
Speaking
outside Parliament, Theresa May said she was "honoured and humbled" to
succeed David Cameron, after her only rival in the race withdrew on
Monday July 11,2016
Born in Sussex but raised largely in Oxfordshire, Mrs May - both of
whose grandmothers are reported to have been in domestic service -
attended a state primary, an independent convent school and then a
grammar school in the village of Wheatley, which became the Wheatley
Park Comprehensive School during her time there.
The young
Theresa Brazier, as she was then, threw herself into village life,
taking part in a pantomime that was produced by her father and working
in the bakery on Saturdays to earn pocket money.
Friends recall a
tall, fashion-conscious young woman who from an early age spoke of her
ambition to be the first woman prime minister.
Like Margaret Thatcher, she went to Oxford University to study and,
like so many others of her generation, found that her personal and
political lives soon became closely intertwined.
In 1976, in her
third year, she met her husband Philip, who was president of the Oxford
Union, a well-known breeding ground for future political leaders.
After graduating with a degree in Geography, May went to work in the
City, initially starting work at the Bank of England and later rising to
become head of the European Affairs Unit of the Association for Payment
Clearing Services.
But it was already clear that she saw her
future in politics. She was elected as a local councillor in Merton,
south London, and served her ward for a decade, rising to become deputy
leader. However, she was soon setting her sights even higher.
Theresa May, who has become a confidante as well as role model for aspiring
female MPs - told prospective candidates before the 2015 election that
"there is always a seat out there with your name on it".
In her case - like that of Margaret Thatcher - it took a bit of time
for her to find hers. She first dipped her toe in the water in 1992,
where she stood in the safe Labour seat of North West Durham, coming a
distant second to Hilary Armstrong, who went on to become Labour's chief
whip in the Blair government. Her fellow candidates in that contest
also included a very youthful Tim Farron, who is now Lib Dem leader.
Two
years later, she stood in Barking, east London, in a by-election where -
with the Conservative government at the height of its unpopularity -
she got fewer than 2,000 votes and saw her vote share dip more than 20%.
But her luck was about to change.
The Conservatives' electoral
fortunes may have hit a nadir in 1997, when Tony Blair came to power in a
Labour landslide, but there was a silver lining for the party and for
the aspiring politician when she won the seat of Maidenhead in
Berkshire. It's a seat she has held ever since.
An early advocate of Conservative "modernisation" in the wilderness
years that followed, Mrs May quickly joined the shadow cabinet in 1999
under William Hague as shadow education secretary and in 2002 she became
the party's first female chairman under Iain Duncan Smith.
She
then held a range of senior posts under Michael Howard but was
conspicuously not part of the "Notting Hill set" which grabbed control
of the party after its third successive defeat in 2005 and laid David
Cameron and George Osborne's path to power.
This was perhaps
reflected in the fact that she was initially given the rather
underwhelming job of shadow leader of the House of Commons. But she
gradually raised her standing and by 2009 had become shadow work and
pensions secretary.
Nevertheless, her promotion to the job of home
secretary when the Conservatives joined with the Lib Dems to form the
first coalition government in 70 years was still something of a surprise
- given that Chris Grayling had been shadowing the brief in opposition.
While
the Home Office turned out to be the political graveyard of many a
secretary of state in previous decades, Mrs May refused to let this
happen - mastering her brief with what was said to be a microscopic
attention to detail and no little willingness to enter into battles with
fellow ministers when she thought it necessary.
Even before entering Downing Street, she made history by becoming the
second longest serving home secretary in the past 100 years - home secretary since 2010
The
daughter of a Church of England vicar, Hubert, who died from injuries
sustained in a car crash when she was only 25, Theresa May's middle
class background has more in keeping with the last female occupant of
Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher, than her immediate predecessor.
Where she stands on Brexit: Theresa May has insisted
"Brexit means Brexit" and there will be no second referendum on the
issue. She says official talks on leaving, which will begin when the UK
triggers the so-called Article 50, won't begin until the end of 2016 at
earliest. She has insisted the status of EU nationals in the UK won't
change until a new "legal agreement" is reached but has yet to give a
guarantee on their status. She says the best deal is needed to trade
with the EU in goods and services but more control is needed to lower
immigration.
Other policies: Theresa May has
pledged a shake-up of boardroom ethics as part of which workers will be
guaranteed representation on company boards while shareholders votes on
executive pay deals will be made binding every year.
What happens next?
- he 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs,
which is overseeing the leadership contest, has declared Mrs May the
new party leader "with immediate effect".
- David Cameron says he will take Prime
Minister's Questions on Wednesday and then head to Buckingham Palace and
officially tender his resignation to the Queen and recommend she sends
for Theresa May as his replacement
- Mrs May will then go to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen and receive her invitation to form a government
- Theresa May should then be in place as
UK prime minister by Wednesday evening - it is not yet clear when the
Cameron family will move out of No 10
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