Theresa May

Theresa May (born October 1, 1956, Eastbourne, Sussex, England) is a British politician who became the second woman prime minister of the United Kingdom in British history in July 2016 after replacing David Cameron as the leader of the Conservative Party.

Early life and start in politics

The only child of an Anglican minister, Theresa Brasier grew up in rural Oxfordshire. She attended both state-run and private schools before matriculating at the University of Oxford, where she studied geography. At a dance at Oxford, another student, Benazir Bhutto, the future prime minister of Pakistan, introduced Brasier to Philip May, whom she married in 1980. Both she and her husband undertook careers in banking. She worked for the Bank of England before moving on to the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), where she served as head of the European Affairs Unit and senior adviser on international affairs.

May began her political career in 1986 as councillor in the London borough of Merton, a position she held until 1994. After failing as a Conservative candidate for the House of Commons twice, May was elected to represent Maidenhead in 1997. She moved quickly from the back to the front bench, becoming shadow secretary of state for education and employment (1999–2001), shadow secretary of state for transport, local government, and the regions (2001–02), shadow secretary of state for the family (2004–05), shadow secretary of state for culture, media, and sport (2005), and shadow leader of the House of Commons (2005–09). In 2002 May became the first woman to chair the Conservative Party, and in that capacity she strove to increase the number of female Tory MPs and to modernize the party, famously saying it had come to be viewed as the “nasty party.” Even as she earned a reputation as a moralistic no-nonsense legislator and tough negotiator, May also gained attention for her stylish footwear.

Ascent to power

When Cameron became prime minister in 2010, May was named secretary of state for the home department. As the longest-serving home secretary in over a century, May advocated limiting immigration and was critical of the police. In 2016 she stood with Cameron in opposing “Brexit” (British withdrawal from the European Union). When Cameron announced his imminent resignation after voters chose to depart the EU in the national referendum in June, it appeared likely that the “Leave” campaign’s chief spokesman, Boris Johnson, would become the new Conservative leader. After the loss of some key supporters, however, Johnson pulled out of the race. May entered a pool of four other candidates and survived winnowing votes by parliamentary Conservatives to emerge with Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom as the final candidates, to be voted upon by general party members by September 9. Almost before that process could begin, Leadsom withdrew her candidacy in response to a controversy surrounding comments she had made about motherhood as a qualification for leadership (May had no children). All of this set the stage for May to quickly become the new Conservative leader, and she became prime minister on July 13, 2016.

Prime ministership

Triggering Article 50

Having pledged to see Brexit through to completion, May went about that task with cautious precision. Her efforts ran into a roadblock in November 2016, however, when the High Court ruled that she could not invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, thus initiating negotiations on Britain’s separation from the EU, without first having gained approval to do so from Parliament. Her government’s appeal of that ruling was rejected by the Supreme Court in January 2017. In February a bill granting her that approval was passed by the House of Commons, but, when it returned to the Commons from the House of Lords in March, it was laden with an amendment calling for a larger role for Parliament in the negotiations with the EU and with another guaranteeing EU citizens residing in the U.K. that they could remain. May opposed the latter measure unless it was to be accompanied by a parallel guarantee for British citizens living in other EU countries.

After the House of Commons rejected both of those amendments, on March 29, May formally submitted a six-page letter to European Council Pres. Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and opening a two-year window for negotiations between the United Kingdom and the EU over the details of separation. In the letter, May pledged to enter the discussions “constructively and respectfully, in a spirit of sincere cooperation.” She hoped that a “bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement” would result from the negotiations.